10/11/19 Journal

          This morning is my first day of break, since I don’t have Friday classes. I woke up today to find a sense of peace. I think this is mostly because my roommates have gone to Vegas along with the rest of the senior class. I think that since I am an only child that having the house to myself with no distractions is a good thing once in a while. Although I would like to go to Vegas, I just can’t justify it at the moment. I want to go to Vegas when I have enough money to enjoy it, and that’s not the case at this point in time. I have decided to stay back, catch up on some work, stay on my training schedule, and maybe do some fly fishing if the weather permits. I went to bed last night with the storm hitting

and I woke up this morning to find that it is still raining outside. I decided to get a closer look and stepped outside only to be met by a bitter, wet morning. It was 44 degrees. It hit me that this was the coldest I have been since about February of this year. I felt a sort of energy come into my body by the mild temperatures. Most people in Texas find it unpleasant, but for me the temperature holds much more meaning. Cold weather means duck hunting and fly fishing season is upon us. Fly fishing season is the opposite for those further north, but since Texas and Oklahoma are so warm the trout get quite lethargic in the summer. The colder weather means that I owe myself a trip to Beaver’s Bend, Oklahoma, to try my hand at some finicky trout in the Lower Mountain Fork River. The trout there are not all wild, but it is the closest thing I can get to the West and is only about a three and a half hour drive from DFW.

            Thinking of fly fishing this morning made me think of my favorite life and outdoor film, A River Runs Through It. One of my favorite quotes from the book turned film is, “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.” I have always been able to relate to this quote because of how I was raised. I have always called myself a Christian, however, I was not raised going to church every Sunday. My dad and I often spent the weekends outdoors, fishing or hunting in East Texas among the tall pine trees. Although it wasn’t church, it was beautiful country. I think this exposure is what led me to find God in nature and not to only to acknowledge his worship inside a church. Perhaps the most known quote from the movie is, “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” I love to relate this quote to life. I think we can all get caught up in certain areas of our life and overlook the fact that everything we do and feel is interrelated. I like to think that the river is life, and all the things we do converge to make a path for our life.

10/10/19 Journal

           

After a run on Trinity Trails this evening, I looked up to notice storms in the distance, slowly approaching Fort Worth. I wasn’t aware that we were supposed to get rain tonight. I went to dinner with my parents and got home just as it began to sprinkle outside. I watched as the storms rolled in, thunder roaring in the sky after each lightning strike. This storm is supposed to bring the mild temperature of fall in the days to come. After watching the storm come in, I decided to get some sleep because it has been a relatively hectic week. As I lay in bed, I was kept up by the rolling thunder of the storm outside. The thunder was so powerful it seemed to shake the house.

            After watching the storm roll in I decided to see if Edward Abbey ever had any quotes about lightning. His descriptive, passionate, writing seemed to be the perfect fit to such a phenomenon. After a little research I quickly found a good quote by Abbey. The quote is, “Lightning streaks like gunfire through the air, volleys of thunder shake the air.” In my opinion, Abbey was dead on with this quote. I keep thinking back to my observations of the lightning as it came through Fort Worth. I could not think of a better way to describe other than gunfire now. Each lightning strike seems so precise, followed by the next strike that again strikes a specific spot. I believe Edward Abbey also make a good observation about thunder, saying “volleys of thunder shake the air.” I imagine he was in a more secluded place when he wrote this, and maybe didn’t have a house for the thunder to shake. This makes me want to observe a storm in a secluded location, to see and feel how it contrast to that of the experience in my Fort Worth house. I believe my perception of the thunder of “shaking the house” would be rather perceived as Abbey’s “shaking the air.”

            Exploring quotes by Edward Abbey eventually led me to see if Thoreau had any famous quotes regarding storms. I found this quote from one of his journals and fell in love with its unique view of nature. The quote is, “Nature makes no noise. The howling storm, the rustling leaf, the pattering rain are no disturbance, there is an essential and unexplored harmony in them.” I think that people today can view storms as not only disturbances, but inconveniences. When I think it’s going to rain, it only means that I need to grab a jacket or an umbrella, or maybe even drive to where I need to go instead of walking. I need to make a more conscious effort to appreciate the rain and storms for what they are. These processes have evolved over millions of years to bring life back into the plants and animals that inhabit the earth. So next time it rains, I will think of this quote.

Evening Walk

          This evening in Fort Worth was absolutely gorgeous, so I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood, just South of campus near Bluebonnet Circle. I put in a podcast and began my walk. It finally feels somewhat like fall, even though they project that the temperatures will climb back up within the next few days. This short glimpse of cooler temperatures is what encouraged me to get outside more in the past few days. Every year I can always tell when fall starts. There is a certain tint in the sky that screams it. It’s not that the sky is a different shade of blue, but rather it seems to be more “crisp.” If that makes any sense. The sun doesn’t beat down so hard on the creatures below. It seems that fall in Texas consists of only a few days like this, then we are bombarded with our form of “winter.” Every year I feel like I miss these few glorious days of mild, comfortable temperatures because of some obligation that I consider “important” at the time. This year I have decided I will take a few grade points less if need be and enjoy this brief period. This is the first round of milder temperatures we have had since spring, so the trees haven’t quite caught on to the coming changes. Their leaves still shine bright green. I’m hopeful for the one day out of the year that I will walk to class and notice the fall foliage, but that day may not come. It almost seems that every year we get one cold burst and the leaves fall off the trees overnight. I continued on my walk for about an hour and found myself at my front porch, relaxed and actually ready to tackle some homework that is due. As I mature as a student I find that you are ultimately more effective and efficient if you take these breaks to destress and not think about your studies once in a while.

            After my walk I was inspired to look up Thoreau quotes about autumn. I found one that relates shockingly well to my observations of the sky during my walk. Thoreau in Autumn wrote, “I am struck by the simplicity of light in the atmosphere in the autumn, as if the earth absorbed none, and out of this profusion of dazzling light came the autumnal tints.” I think Thoreau was making the same observation as me, but put it into his own words that read better. Afterall, that is why he is the famous writer. I look forward to journaling more, and then going back to reflect on writings that pertain to my observations. I find it extremely relaxing to read environmental literature about seasons, places, and things that I myself have witnessed in nature.