I am posting this activity AFTER we both already did the activity.
The activity was: Spend time in nature... about half an hour... and just reflect. Both of us are super busy right now... and at times, quite stressed... but nature has this quality to soothe. It has the ability to automatically put life in perspective and realize that there is a bigger picture.
So the task was... find a spot where you are in natural surroundings... and then just write about how it was, how you felt, what thoughts went through your head...
Raj:
(It's really hard to write this like THREE weeks after I did the activity.)
First... I find it really sad that we have to GO to nature... instead of just being immersed in it and living with it... interdependently.
That being said.... I went to a beach in Alameda called Crab's Cove. Alameda isn't that far from my school... basically, it's right over a bridge. Alameda is an interesting little island in the SF Bay... right next to Oakland. While Oakland is mostly low income and minorities... Alameda is higher income and significantly whiter. Anyways.. not sure why I'm going into that background.... because that doesn't really have anything to do with my nature time.
So, I had heard my students say that they've been to the beach in Alameda... so, that was something I wanted to check out. It only took me about 15 minutes to get there... I went after school one day. First, I took a bunch of pictures
Astha:
I agree in it being hard to actually type these things out. We do it, talk about it and then its like crap we still have to write.
It truly is amazing how well nature can soothe. I don't know if its a combination of actually making the conscious decision to stop and literally smell the roses vs nature's natural beauty, but I clearly remember how refreshed I felt after I did this activity. If you don't know, I have been going through my intern year (i can't remember if that was mentioned before) and life has been a little hellish. I pride myself in being fairly balanced and am just amazed at how imbalanced my life has become. I had been delaying the activity but I finally decided that I needed to when I was post-call. Post-call means I had finished a 28-30 some hour shift with no sleep. I slept a few hours during the day and then woke up to a beautiful day and put on the running shoes to step out into the world. Mind you, it had been 2 months (kind of ridiculous) since I had used those running shoes.
Out I went and hello world.I chose to run to a spot in Van Cortland Park. Though so out of shape, the running was a beautiful thing. To be moving again...felt so good. And then the act of just running past life...when surrounded by sickness all the time...it made me happy and gave me hope again. The spot that I was at basically looked like this picture except fall leaves. I ran through some of the park before getting to the spot and to find such greenery and abundance of nature when almost half a mile before I was in the heart of the Bronx, it amazed me. I still heard the cars in the background and know the city wasn't too far away but still a nice getaway. And then I found a perfect spot (remember Raj I do that really well :)) and just sat and took it all in. I noticed the big things, I noticed the little things. I saw the ripple effect the tiniest movement had on the water, I saw the reflection of the amazing colors in the water and how the colors blended together in the reflection. I noticed the birds, our ducks that seem to always be around, and a white swan off in the distance. People fishing around the lake. Little bugs defying normal physics and walking on water. I could go on but it was great.
All in all, so glad I did this. Gave me a much needed piece of mind and got me motivated to run again. Sad that it still takes such effort to stop and notice the beauty around us but that is a different battle.
And raj I still finished before you. Just had to throw that in :) hehe. And after I am done being mean to you I want to thank you raj for pushing me to do this even though I fought you on it and made many excuses. It was so good for the soul.
