End of May through the Senses
Sounds of the season, extravagant brevity, and taking a moment (or two or three) to taste the season
Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, and the official start of summer is on its way.
Yet we still have a few weeks of spring and some of us (raises hand) are in the thick of that mad dash energy that the end of the season brings (hello to fellow parents out there who still have kids in school).
Engaging our senses is a great way to find grounding when life is throwing us punches. Here are three ways to “get sensory” right now.
1. A morning sound check in (~5 minutes or less)
We’ve reached the season where the morning air is pleasant outside on most days. So why not take advantage of it?
After waking up and getting the essentials out of the way, pour yourself your morning drink and either step out the door or open your window.
Close your eyes, and listen to the sounds right beyond your door.
If it’s raining, really listen to the rain. If it’s not, are there birds? Squirrels? Distant traffic? Wind? Other human or non-human sounds?
If you are hearing birds, you might want to give the free app I’ve shared many times before — Merlin Bird ID — a try during your 5 minute listen.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, all you have to do is open it and hit record.
Often, the Merlin Bird ID app will record sounds just out of range of our hearing or sort through a din of competing sounds - and perhaps help you hone your own listening skills in the process.
2. Take a walk with an eye for the ephemerality of late spring (~20 minutes)
Spring is a season of glorious ephemeral beauty, as flower after flower arrives with the verve of a confident drag queen, only to exit stage right just as soon as we notice its loveliness.
Peonies — flouncy and frilly as their are, and too weighty to stay aloft on their flexible stems — are perhaps the most dramatic of them all.
Poet
, in a “Werk in Progress” essay from a couple years ago, captures the transience and wonder of this flowers and what they represent succinctly:Peonies are my favorite flower. Since moving to Ohio a few years ago, I’ve come to look forward to this time of year—a brief window of a few weeks, actually—when I can find the lush heads of peony flowers bowing in gardens and yards all over the city. It’s a gloriously short-lived season. The flowers always seem to be exhausted by their own opulence, ready to leave us right as they arrive.
I worship their extravagant brevity.
This week, take a cue from Saeed’s words, and step out the door over your lunch time or after work and take short walk to explore extravagant brevity around you.
And if you need to, mourn how brief the most glorious of spring flowers bloom.
It won’t be like this a week from now, let alone a month. So say to yourself, these are the colors, textures, smells, essence of this moment in this year.
3. Visit a market, farm, or store and taste the season (~1 hour or more if you bake or cook with your discoveries)
Spring harvest season has begun!
It’s a great time to taste the local or regional foods that are in season with a trip to the a market, farm stand, or just to the produce section in your grocery store.
Radishes, greens, herbs, spring onions, and peas are all in season, as is rhubarb and strawberries in certain regions.
It’s also pretty nice time of the year to break out of the standards and try something new-to-you.
Farmers markets can be a great go-to for finding something new.