Sure – a brisk walk may be more advantageous than a leisurely one for physical health, but sometimes a leisurely walk is better for mental health. You might even learn things – or at least find something to wonder about.

During a recent trip to Nashville [ask about our new grandbaby!], I often took advantage of a nearby walking trail, part of the Smyrna Greenway System.

One sunny Sunday afternoon five of us decided to hit the trail, which lent itself to what I would call a conversation walk.

I love conversation walks. You’re not just sitting and talking; you feel like you’re accomplishing something. You’re going somewhere, even if when you get there you turn around and come back. It takes little physical energy and even less mental energy.

Walking in a group also give us a chance to wonder out loud.

About Horse Apples, for instance…

“What are those big green round bumpy things?”

“I think they’re called horse apples.”

“Why do they call them horse apples? Is it because horses eat them?”

“Are they edible? Why do we see them on the ground all over the place, but rarely in the trees above?”

…Disc Golf…

As we strolled into the more open spaces of the trail, we noticed a strange-looking metal pole about five feet tall. Metal chains hanging from the top gathered above an open iron basket.

Signs along the way indicated this was an area designated for disc golf. Sure enough, we saw some golfers flinging Frisbees not only into the open spaces but through narrow forest corridors.

More questions.

I understood the baskets – they catch the Frisbees. But what are the chains for? If you throw the Frisbee into the chains, do you get more points? How big is the course?

Is it like throwing horseshoes? The closest one to the target wins? Or do you have to keep trying until you get it into the basket, just like “regular” golf?

…and a Red Caterpillar

We also came across a fat hairy reddish caterpillar crawling across the path. I don’t remember seeing a red caterpillar before – is that a color stage they all go through? [Duh. No.] Do certain types of butterflies come from different colors of caterpillars? [Yes, unless they’re moths.] Are they like squirrels – different colors in different parts of the country? [It’s an insect. My eyes start crossing when I get into too much bug research.]

The Cure for Temporary Ignorance

These questions may indicate that up until now, I haven’t been curious enough.

You know what, though? That’s okay!  Because “at my age,” I’m beyond caring that I may sound ignorant. How will you know if you don’t ask – or at least Google it?

So this is my suggestion to you. Sure – walk for exercise. But even if you walk the same route every day, walk also for the discoveries you make along the way. Look up to see if you can find horse apples on the trees or – better yet – to find the source of a bird’s song. Look into the distance to catch a fleeting sunset – or to watch out for flying Frisbees.

Go ahead and look down, too. You may spot a caterpillar, just trying to survive until it morphs into a butterfly – or a moth – and can fly into the sky.

Answers?

No room here for the answers to my questions, except to tell you that horse apples are AKA hedge apples and osage oranges.

For more about disc golf, check out the Professional Disc Golf Association.

And caterpillars? Too many varieties for a simple answer, but I did find some pictures of some very colorful specimens: The Top 10 Most Beautiful Caterpillars.

Talk to me. What discoveries have you made on recent walks? When was the last time you engaged in a significant walk conversation?

If the first hailstorm hasn’t ruined a farmer’s corn crop in southwest Nebraska this summer, the second, third, or fourth one has. At the end of June, an evening of golf-ball sized hail was followed the next day by winds reported to be blowing at more than ninety miles an hour. Needless to say, our little town is sporting a lot of new roofs.

On the 17^th of July, at 12:04 p.m., I captured some of the severity of one of those storms with my little digital camera.  A mere 20 minutes later, noticing how distinct the shadows were on the ground, I pointed the camera toward the sky – and saw nothing but blue and cotton white.

July 17, 12:04 p.m. from Cheryl Bryan on Vimeo.

July 17, 12:24:58 p.m.

For all the severity of the wind and noise and huddles of hailstones it left behind, once the storm had passed, the crispness of the air and clarity of the shadows gave me an odd exhilaration, caused a little, I suspect, by relief that the storm was over.

Though the storm passed quickly, it left permanent damage: branches and leaves torn from the trees, tomato plants that will never produce, a dented car hood that will test our willingness to pay an insurance deductible for body work.

We picked up the debris, thankful that the trees still standing will produce new growth. We mourned the damage to the garden, hoping summer will be long enough for it to recover.

And so it is with life’s little squalls – the sudden fast-moving storms of commotion or confusion that pass through our ordered lives. They may not destroy us, as a larger storm might. Nonetheless they leave their marks, maybe in physical weakness, damaged ego, or blighted friendship.

So we must take the time to clean up the mess they leave behind: Repair what we can and adapt to the rest.

And when we see the next squall approaching, we can face it with confidence, because we know eventually the clouds will clear, revealing the blue sky and the sun, the source of light that, though concealed, was there all along.

We’ll know the clarity and new wisdom that come only on the other side of the storm.

Last Sunday’s Nature program on our PBS station interested me for two reasons:

1. It was entitled Sharkland and was going to expand my recent inexplicable fascination with basking sharks; and
2. It was filmed in the oceans around the tip of South Africa, which still occupies a good portion of my heart. (We lived in Cape Town for 18 months, Johannesburg for 10 years).

With 400 species of sharks in the world (who knew?), the basking shark received only honorable mention on the program. My guess is he’s too tame – toothless and a harmless predator, unless you happen to be plankton.

Food Chain of the Sea

The program wasn’t limited to sharks. It also filmed Cape gannets eating so many fish they couldn’t fly, which allowed them to be swallowed by fur seals, some of whom have learned that the bird comes garnished with a stomach full of fish. The seals are then hunted down by the great white shark, the top of that particular food chain.

Surprising Predator

You’ve heard of the sting-y Portuguese man-of-war, right?  It looks like a jelly fish, but even washed dead upon the beach, its long tentacles can deliver poison that can cause your skin to sting, burn and turn red at the very least, and for those susceptible to it, cause difficulty with breathing and even cardiac arrest.

But do you know who can crawl right up to this man-of-war and devour it without hesitation?

A snail! That’s right – a snail!

Sometimes it’s called a plough snail, because

1. It burrows into the sand to avoid being either washed out to sea or stranded on higher ground and
2. It lives in Southern Africa and that’s the way they spell plow.

They also call it a “surfing snail” because it uses its large fleshy foot to surf up the beach to find its prey stranded or washed up on the shore. I did find this “Vodpod” (filmed in Knysna, South Africa) that shows the little suckers in action. BE WARNED: Although they’re cute at first, watching them dine is not for the squeamish.

NOTE to Professional Bloggers:

I know, I know. This is not exactly in my “niche,” but I am making it so. That’s why my web address includes not only the word aging but also wonder, as in discovery, as in being in awe of the world and of the people in it. We live on an amazing planet.

I do not praise evolution for our planet’s wondrous existence. The theory of evolution is just too serious for this level of humor.

I WONDER…

Are sharks still basking in the waters of the Aran Islands?

I only ask because basking sharks featured in a 1934 black-and-white British documentary entitled Man of Aran, which we rented a couple of weeks ago.

In the film the men of Aran (a group of islands on the west coast of Ireland) risked their lives, rowing tiny boats into treacherous waters to capture these enormous fish to use for liver oil.

And it made me wonder about basking sharks.

Credit: Derek Pitman

Contrary to the picture you might get from my initial question, a basking shark doesn’t lie on a sunny beach, donning huge sunglasses, fins crossed behind his neck. He’s called a “basking shark” because he feeds very close to the surface of the water, filtering about 2000 tons of water a day to get his fill of plankton. He and his basking friends are also called sunfish, monsters with sails and in Irish, ”liabhán chor gréine” – the great fish of the sun.

And they are great – as long and heavy as a London city bus – growing as large as 40 feet and weighing as much as 10 tons. According to www.baskingsharks.org (only one of several websites dedicated to their study and preservation), they are the second largest living shark, next to the whale shark.

They’ve even been in the news lately. Did you miss it?

Last month, according to an Aran Isles blog, an Irish Times Marine Correspondent reported that northwest Ireland waters were “teeming” with basking sharks. On July 5, 2009, the Florida Museum of Natural History reported 900 sightings of the basking shark off British shores since the beginning of June, compared to about 11 this time last year.

So the answer to my question is “Yes,” they are alive and well and still swimming in the North Atlantic and sometimes even south of the Equator.

Other discoveries I made along the way:

1. In 1972, basking sharks were featured in a 30-minute cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Studios.
2. Almost 105,000 have viewed this You-Tube video of basking sharks, set to orchestra music. (Anyone know the name and composer of this piece?)
3. Basking sharks are a protected species in the UK, New Zealand, and the US Gulf and Atlantic Waters.
4. These days, visitors (1,000 per day) to the largest Aran Island outnumber the residents (800). (Rick Steves’ Europe).
5. Reading about the Aran Islands gives me one more reason I’d like to visit Ireland someday – not necessarily to see the sharks, but to meet the people who continue to live in a place I would probably consider uninhabitable.

Anything you’ve wondered about lately? Let me know. I’d love to research it for you and feature it here. We do indeed live in a world filled with wonder.

You know the usual advice for attaining physical fitness: “Eat nutritious food, and exercise.” It also includes a caution to avoid junk food, which is not only low in nutrition but high in calories, fat, salt, sugar and other potentially deadly ingredients.

Yet, like junk food for the mind, negative attitudes are readily available. They can also be palatable, easy to swallow, even fashionable.

But they slowly poison our systems. If we ingest them when we’re young, they have a long time to fester in our brains. They become addictive. We don’t see the effects on our personalities, on our physical health or on our families. We may notice that some friends and family members lose their affection for us or seem to avoid us, which tends to intensify the effects of the poison.

On the other hand, we don’t develop good attitudes by accident or osmosis. Much like going out of our way to shop for and store fresh vegetables, we must actively develop a good mental health regimen until positive attitudes become part of our character. Even then, because negative attitudes are so contagious, we have to consciously guard against them.

Here are some of the mindset junk foods I try to avoid. Your list may be different from mine. In this case, I suppose, you can pick your own poisons – to avoid.

• Fearfulness – comes from reading and listening very carefully and taking to heart all the warnings out there of war, polluted water, starvation, disease, etc., etc., etc. Fear can only immobilize you, preventing you from doing what you can do in your sphere of influence.
• Resentment – born of jealousy and regret, which serve only to eat away at your soul. Write about it, examine it, examine yourself, and uncover the source. Put your resentments in a cardboard box and toss it far, far away. The same thing can be said for worry.
• Complaining – usually a bad habit that you’ve caught from someone else. Listen to yourself, and in the middle of your complaint, bite your tongue – or less painful – press your lips together – tight! It gets easier with practice.
• Guilt – a close cousin of regret, the depth of which may be proportionate to the consequences of your actions. Feeling guilty about missing an appointment would not compare to being responsible for a loss of life. But even minor feelings of guilt can ruin your sense of worth. Listen to those who love you; see and accept your value to them and to God, if not to yourself.

Just as nutritional food just makes you feel better all around, so will these four nutrient-dense, non-fattening, low-fat, sugar- and salt-free attitudes. I am trying to keep them on hand at all times, ingest as much as I can any time of the day.

• Persistent Hope. American journalist Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) defined hope as “the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent.” Hope brings us to the other side before we get there and thereby gives us not only comfort but encouragement.
• Generosity of Spirit. How I hate the spirit of meanness I see in myself at times, and how I admire those who always have their hands open – not to receive, but to give.
• A Desire to Understand. While we all seek to be understood, wouldn’t it be better if we sought rather to understand? Then in understanding we would become a little less self-centered.
• A Sense of Wonder. Consider what the world looks like through the eyes of a small child, who notices both the tiny ant and the giant oak, who asks questions without fear of sounding ignorant.

Attitudes of hope, generosity, understanding and wonder can be even more contagious than fear, resentment, complaint and guilt. They strengthen and invigorate us, giving us the energy to overcome not only our own negativity but to help others who are suffering its consequences.

Talk to me. What about you? What junk food attitudes do you notice that are destroying people around you? What nutritional attitudes are you developing to hold on to your own mental health?

]]> http://aginginwonder.com/2009/06/12/junk-food-attitudes/feed/ 4 http://aginginwonder.com/2009/05/19/welcome/ http://aginginwonder.com/2009/05/19/welcome/#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 22:43:55 +0000 Cheryl http://aginginwonder.com/?p=3

Okay, I’ll admit it – I’m in my 60′s.

But that’s okay!

Really!

In fact, it’s great!

Because I believe you’re never too old for discovery, for looking at the world with wonder. In fact, I’m convinced that’s what keeps you young in mind and body.

Once you decide you want everything to remain as it is – or (perish the thought) as it always has been – you can declare yourself old, even if you’re only 28.

So this is my place to share my discoveries on many topics, from many sources – my family (especially my children!), my friends, books, magazines and yes, the internet. I hope you’ll join me as we discover and re-discover the joys of life at all ages.