Prompt Entry Eight

Through this course my time at the lake caused me to put my talk to the walk in a way. The lake has been near me for ten years, but I had been neglecting it. I am grateful for the hands-on approach to nature writing in this course. Blog writing helped solidify and confirm ideas about the natural world that I formed in my first semester. More importantly, going to the lake each week caused me to interact with my writing subjects. In my writings that focus on cultivating home and sense of place, I knew that awareness and interaction with the natural local environment is a first step. A sense of community which can root one to a place should include the natural environment. Much like how setting and place can become a character in a book, this is true to communities. I was attracted to the lake when I first came to Saint Leo by fishing with a friend or studying. Then I passed it by for years without giving it a thought. Now, if I am not at the lake for a few days, I feel the pull.

Time at the lake also caused me to reflect on bodies of water near former homes in my life and how I utilized them or didn’t. This caused me to become more aware of how fortunate I am in Florida to have lakes, rivers, springs, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. My son and I plan to camp near water at least once this summer. As I became more aware of water and its effects on me, which was calming and meditative, I recalled how many water sources are within a short distance.

The lake also caused me to reflect on activities with my own children. If I believe in incorporating natural environment as community and home, how have I shown this to my own children? I quickly realized that I didn’t, and so took my son fishing on the dock and went kayaking with my daughter. Winter at the lake was a perfect season also because it’s a time of reflection and preparation for spring and change. Once temperatures rose and azaleas were blooming, I thought of all the natural places to be in. Observing and experiencing has become a crucial part of my writing process that I did not have last semester, my first semester. How can a writer describe the sounds, sights, smells, and feelings without time in these environments? Especially time that is not really measured which is how I feel around water.