2014, Nature

There are worse things I could be collecting, is what I tell myself in looking at the layout of pods, leaves, shells, rocks, hair, nuts and other natural accouterments.

Collectively, the items weigh a couple of ounces.

Laid out, they take over about 2 square feet of space.

I could all fit in an empty milk jug.

This is not a mug or T-shirt collection, mind you.

And everything was free.

While short-term memory cells are dipping, I still largely remember where everything was from and 2014 in general was a year with a lot of walking, not much time at the ocean and some painful memories.

Most of the leaves and pods are from within a few blocks of my house. I found my first duck feather this year and I haven't been able to stop looking at it. It was the biggest reminder of how little I really see. One day, I just sat at the pond for a hour and watched the ducks and yes, their feathers are stunningly intricate. Ducks aren't really brown; their feathers are all sizes, colors and patterns. Our brains only pick up "brownish" if we aren't actually watching and thinking and seeing.

I have a feeling that we are supposed to be seeing more in nature, learning more, that it isn't supposed to be zooming by like it does.

The most delicate and intricate items were a tiny bird's egg from a lake in the Kokanee Provincial Park (proving if you want to get something delicate home in a backpack, you can) and a tiny bee's nest.  Finding two like this in a year reminded me of what animals construct as their homes and to us, how unstable they are, too thin, not enough substance.

The day after the active shooter incident at my daughters' university, I stumbled around the campus in a daze. All I could really do was walk, pick up leaves and sit in the middle of campus and let the kids come by and pet our dog. Her hair flew off her back and floated into the wind as the dozens of kids came by, just sat down, petted her, smiled, thanked us then left. The cottonwood trees down by the canal, just 50 feet from the building of the shooting, the white cottonwood fluff was all there, just blowing around on the ground, just like the day of the shooting, and the day before that, and the years before that. Soft and free, I couldn't collect enough.

The most surprising would be the blue moss on twigs from Canada; it has the sweetest, lightest smell. I gather quite a bit so when I'm home, I can crush it and just smell it.

The most sneaky would be the three tiny rocks I "borrowed" from a zen garden I visited in a Japanese Garden, in an unnamed park in the PNW.  When I need to, I can justify a wide range of suspect behaviors.

A shadowbox for the year may be in the future. For now, here they are.