Longest Day's Journey into Night

 

Elderberry flowers

    During the hours before a walk, I start craving the mental detox, the unknotting of threads that tangle my thoughts throughout the day. Sharing the experience of whatever happens along the path and at the water feels wonderful. Framed as art, we come together, each of us finding an opening to the sounds, smells, tastes, feel, light, and colors of this forest. 

  The evening of June 21st was breezy and clear. After the walk, we shared some chocolate and fruit, and participants wrote a few words for this blog if they chose. These follow with photographs and videos from the Silent Walk photographer, Thom Munterich. 

Many thanks to everyone who participated!

Click photo to enlarge.

One word to describe tonight-gratitude

pale beauty moth

Silence on the hike=all the senses kicking into high gear. 

A thousand shades of green, the smells and songs of the woods

wineberries in sepals

changing light-always wonderful

The diversity of the people matches the diversity of the leaves, the bark, the ground's texture beneath our feet. Our movements become one with the wholeness of nature, the complexity of our interdependence.

knapweed

I feel large and small. I feel calm and connected.

I want to follow the trails off the larger path.

Hearing the forest birds is lovely, different than other places--veery, wood thrush, phoebe, and a tanager. A meditative treat to listen to them talk instead of us.

remarkable

that heavenly cool breeze over the reservoir

sunset peeking through the trees--brilliant orange

the dry spillway looking like an ancient civilization

Beautiful tangerine sunset! I focused on a single dead tree, one flowering bush on the other side of the reservoir, and one lone bullfrog.

Day lingers into night

short video of Aleck Meadow June Solstice Silent Walk

I noticed I missed taking pictures more than talking...

...the wind noise, the tree leaves, birds chasing bugs across the water, straight trees, 

all the water captured by man

pink sky

crescent moon

the silence was just awesome

Nobody swam naked!

Note: Just before we started, we learned that June 21 is National Hike Naked Day.

dead ring-necked snake

The woods are full of life and death.

***

Sincere thanks to the staff at Black Rock Forest, 

especially Brienne Cliadakis, Susanne Vondrak, Aaron Culotta, and Matt Brady.  

This nearly 4000 acre forest is a living laboratory for field-based research and education that advances a scientific understanding of the natural world.  

Become a Friend of the Forest to support their great work!

The next BRF Silent Walk will be in December. Please join us!

May Fever

As a bookend to the R2R Silent Walk last December, Unison Arts and I planned this spring walk during my exhibition run. Just a few of us this time made for a relaxing stretch of legs and thoughts.

The sensory characteristics of open farm land on a warm May evening were soft and insistent. We smelled, heard, saw, felt, breathed the season.

The following are photographs and a short video to suggest the experience. With them are shared reflections by participants. You can click on photographs to enlarge.

What subtlety in this green.

Sun Dog

Bird Song

Fresh Hay

Sweet Breeze

Sublime kept coming to mind.

Sweet grass fragrance filled the air as redwing blackbirds and bobolinks flew all around us. 

We watched the sun descend behind Skytop, the Shawangunk Ridge a silhouette against a painted backdrop. 

Thoughts come and go like the playful growl of dogs along the path.

Listening to bobolinks and redwing blackbirds, darting and calling in the grass, I suddenly walked through a pocket of cool air. 

A line created by recent heavy rains

Thank you to the Silent Walk participants! These photographs and words help describe what it was like, but nothing compares to actually going on the walk. 

Thanks to Unison Arts for supporting the December and May Silent Walk at the River to Ridge Trail. Special thanks to Faheem, Emilie, and Ally. Unison is a non-profit arts organization that brings arts to the center of community life through artist-forward initiatives, arts advocacy, and socially engaged programs. Please support the good work they do here.

Thanks also to the Open Space Institute for preserving lands such as the River to Ridge Trail. Your support helps protect land for people, for wildlife, forever. 

Lastly, deepest gratitude to the Silent Walk's (nearly) unseen photographer, Thom Munterich. 

All images are his.