Experiencing the magic of favorite places
“The touch of an infinite mystery passes over the trivial and the familiar, making it break out into ineffable music… The trees, the stars, and the blue hills ache with a meaning which can never be uttered in words.” – Rabindranath Tagore
Wakulla River – Photo by Siadhal
Our favorite places call us to simply be in them without expectation. It took me a long time to realize this, to forget schedules, to forget trying too hard to see a certain bird or tree or animal, to forget taking notes and thousands of pictures to help me remember everything later.
I have been to Wakulla Springs, south of Tallahassee, Florida, dozens of times. As a writer, I must admit, though, that as Tagore says, the true beauty and meaning of the springs and the river heading south toward the Gulf of Mexico cannot be easily captured in words.
When I’m at Wakulla, I notice the trees, vines, alligators, Anhingas, Limpkins and the colors of the sky and water, but when I recall these later while trying to describe the place in a short story, I words often fall far short of what it was like to be there.
It’s taken me a long time to realize that making lists of what I saw or what I did, gets in the way of my experience. Rather than planning to write about it, it’s better to simply enjoy it, to take what happens as what happens and, with luck, to feel the magic at the heart of the place.
In fact, I can more easily write about a place later if, while I’m there, I make no plans to write about it later!
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I’m spending more time just being, feeling the connection to the world, breathing the air, feeling the ground beneath my feet. For a while, after the death of my life mate, I could only view the world through the lens of the camera (for some reason, I needed that distance) but now I’ve stopped carrying a camera unless I am travelling and even then I don’t take many photos. As you say, it’s more important to feel the magic of the place.
You have written posts about so many walks in the desert, I wondered if you would begin to get to know that setting very well. Nice to leave the camera at home and get closer to the land itself rather than seeing it only through a lens.
Malcolm
I love Wakulla, though it has been a while. It is one of the many beautiful places hidden in Florida.
It’s been a while since I’ve been there, too.
Looks like a great place! I love a good swamp. If it has alligators well even better.
Alligators ramp up the excitement.