Daily Cascade

The Fine Art of Observation

Prompt:
"Your first observations can be done simply by learning to drift gently through a wood, a naturalist in hurry never learns anything of value." -- Gerald Durrell
Write about this quote in your Blog entry today

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I had to stop for a few seconds and think about this one. After all, you never know what a naturalist or an environmentalist is hinting at.

What this quote states is simple but deceptive. I took it as if Gerald Durrell is talking not about just nature-watching but life itself. So I imagined myself walking along a trail, eyes forward, thinking about my destination. Then, what if I might have lost my way, instead? What if I was moving through the trees in imagined fears and with no place to go? On the other hand, what he has mentioned is learning to drift gently.

This 'drifting gently', in fact, would be something like an unhurried presence. A naturalist, who knows what he is doing but he has little time, might check the species he encounters a snaps photos, especially because he is in a rush. Yet, has he stopped and watched a spider weaving its web or did he listen to how the calls of birds changed when a hawk loitered nearby? No, he didn't have the time for details and he missed the real story of the woods.

Like this naturalist and the woods, our real understanding of life comes from our careful observation of it by taking time with things, especially relationships of all kinds. So, "Drift gently" in the quote may not only refer to anyone's walking speed but their movements inspired by their curiosity and wonder and not their agenda.

We now live speedy lives in a speed-obsessed world because we have convinced ourselves that speed is better, Surely, I am the first one to admit to this fault. Even as I am now writing about this quote, the things waiting for me to be done during the rest of the day are urging me on from the back of my mind. Surely, too much slowness can be equated with sloth, but what about receiving gently and thoughtfully what the world offers us?

This is why I think Gerald Durrell is scolding us, however charitably, with his kind words for letting ourselves melt in this culture of immediacy and torrent of speed. What he says is a reminder that before we can analyze, categorize, or study something, we must--first--simply be with it, letting it reveal itself to us through its own time and ways.