Owl Eyes

So I am going through this Naturalist training program that is put out by Wilderness Awareness School. I chose to use our week of vacation (camping) as the final week of study. My thought was that I would have access to new and varied surroundings in a much larger sense than I was accustomed to. That I did, it turned out to be a fabulous time of relaxation and study.

The thing that kind of "got me" was that the whole week was spent on awareness training. Awareness of your surroundings such as direction, wind, water, etc. Jon Young who developed the program provided the wonderful idea of a "trigger" that would bring you back to thinking of things whenever that "trigger" went off. Richard Cleveland told us the same thing in another way. He told us that throughout the day, to just stop and ask yourself "What am I missing?". Wonderful and sage advice from both men, both of whom were students and/or assistants to Tom Brown Jr. of the Tracker School.

As I was saying, the thing that got me through this awareness training was to have "owl eyes", I believe Richard would call this wide angle vision, in martial arts I might call this soft eyes. The premise is the same; to not concentrate on any one thing and to take in the whole picture, even into your periphery. Well, I did this all week. Even going so far in one exercise where it was suggested we find a perch and look down on activity, something like getting into a chair. Me being the geek that I am, I climbed a beech tree and found a good resting spot, and then "became the owl" as best I could. I saw alot, alot of things that I know I would have missed otherwise.

The whole week was spent like this, trying to have these "owl eyes". On our final day, as we were preparing our stuff to come home, a deluge of rain appeared. I was packing the camper, truck etc. in the rain, which is always a bit of a downer. A downer because not only are we leaving the woods and heading home, but heck it was in the rain. I took a break from packing and went out into the woods and had a good sit in the rain, to go over in my mind the things that I had learned, and putting through my mind how those things could make me a better person, back in the real world. How could I be a better father, son, teacher, naturalist, child of God, etc. etc. This is a typical response of mine when I have spent alot of time in quiet solitude. As I was doing this, I was meditating, in some way praying to God to help me do these things....to take these "learnings" to help others in some way. As I was doing so, and practicing my "owl eyes" I noticed soft, small movement just in front of me. As I left my "owl eyes" and had a bit more concentration, I found what you see in the picture looking back at me.

I would say that was a good finish to the week.....