The downside of writing a blog for class is that once the class ends, so does the blog. While I've enjoyed this first tentative endeavor into the limitless realm known as the blogosphere, I'm not 100% positive when I'll be jumping back into the action with a new blog. I hope to run a blog during my time in Japan next winter/spring (working title: Henna Gaijin: An Iowa Girl in Japan), but I'm not certain whether I'll have the time or opportunity to do so. And if there's one thing I've learned about blogging, it's that keeping a regular schedule is a lot harder to do than you'd think. Maybe I should have thought ahead and set up posts to go live automatically at certain times so that I could write several in a day (as I did several times) and have them post on something at least somewhat resembling an actual schedule. As it is, I'm proud of every post on this blog for one aspect or another, and I'm really glad I finally undertook blogging for the first time (even if it was technically for a grade). I've had fun with the process, even if there were several times I found myself staring at a blank post and wondering "What the heck am I going to write about this time?"
But this blog doesn't exist just to be a blog--it's supposed to be a reminder to me about nature and the place I occupy within nature. Recently, the place I've occupied within nature is being a stressed-out student who really needs more sleep and fewer homework assignments to grapple with, admittedly, but I've enjoyed the constant extra push to be more naturally observant of the world around me. I've found myself (the last few weeks aside) spending more time looking at trees and animals. I've found myself joyfully noticing the first greens poking through the ground, promising eventual daffodils and tulips (even if it ends up taking until June for them to actually bloom). I've been a lot more conscious of my place as a citizen of the natural world, rather than just a distant, sometimes admirer of it.
I'll be honest--I'm a dreamer more than anything. I'm never going to be some hardened, tough naturalist who goes trailblazing through the wilderness for kicks and finds purpose in spending long stretches of time off the grid (two bad knees have basically cancelled all such prospects for me, at the ripe old age of 20). But I'll always find joy in the simple things--the stars, the fireflies, the bunnies, the birds, the tree pigs, the moon, the flowers, the many varieties of weather (warm and cold), the cherry blossoms, the trees, and even the imaginary denizens of the natural world (dragons for life). I'll do what I can to protect those precious things and preserve them for the kids I'll hopefully get to go chasing "earth stars" with on summer evenings here in a few years, and the generations that will come after them.
I have one final challenge for you, dear readers and fellow observers: Stay naturally observant. Take the time to look at the sky, listen to the rain, smell the flowers, giggle at the tree pigs, sing with the birds, and get lost in the starry sky. Don't take the abundant, free beauty around you for granted or let it fade into the background. See it. Love it. Observe it. Treasure it.
One stage of the journey has come to an end.
Endless possibilities for the next leg are right ahead, waiting to be discovered.
And with that, I'm signing off. Goodbye, fellow observers. Blessings to you and yours, and may you never lack natural beauty to surround you.
-Elizabeth
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