Twitterive Reflection
Nature has never been a place I could call “home.” I’ve never been an “outdoorsy” girl. I never liked hiking. I never took an interest in planting. I hated swimming in lakes and I hated camping even more. I never understood why people referred to it as “the great outdoors” and I never went through a “playing in the dirt” stage as a child. I even chose to pursue a sport that was indoors because of my dislike for the outdoors. Regardless of how much I hate being surrounded by swarming bugs, itchy grass, and stale air, I find pleasure in reading about nature. Reading about nature allows me to feel the air without being outside. It allows me to smell the crackling fire without being near the smoke. It allows me to feel the brush of an oak tree against the back of my arms and it allows me to hear the crunch of leaves without stepping in them. For me, nature is brought to life through the words of my favorite writers such as Thoreau’s, Walden and “Once by the Ocean” by Frost.
Wanting to discover something new about myself as a writer, I made the conscious decision to embody my Twitterive assignment with my natural surroundings. Even though I was apprehensive about recording observations in my backyard, I knew this was a sure way to challenge myself as a writer. After all, isn’t that what writing is all about? Challenging. Discovering. Self-awareness.
My first experience of walking into “the great outdoors” was significant, not only for my personal growth, but also for the expansion of my Twitterive. It acted as the catalyst to my newfound appreciation for nature. It is clear that my transformation was not possible without the Twitterive assignment. Had I not been asked to tweet my observations “in a place,” I would have never grown to accept the purity and nostalgia that it has to offer. So when I am asked, “Did tweeting and the Twitterive assignment make you more mindful and connected to “your place,” my answer is yes. I say yes for a very particular reason. I was greatly moved by Wendell Berry’s fixation on the idea of adapting oneself to land. In a previous blog post I referenced my motivation to do the same stating, “My hope is that I will create my own path with the everyday passing in my yard as I tweet observations and “…allow [my] eyes to become dependent on [my] feet.” The result of my Twitterive has allowed my hope to become a reality. In my everyday travels around the perimeter of my yard and in the instantaneous tweeting of nature, I have created my own path, which is a path that only I walked and only I created. It is a path of transformation, growth, and recognition of myself and of nature. Now, when I am outside I feel a closeness with nature in a way that allows me to see the intricacies of the outdoors as a writer. In essence, I am seeing the world with new eyes.