Delayed Inspiration

Over the past few weeks, I have been feeling in a bit of a slump. My morning walks have mostly been in darkness. Even on weekends when I head out after sunrise, the ubiquitous brown between autumn leaves and snow has seemed drab and monotonous. My creature companions are laying low for the season. Song birds are quiet, insects have disappeared, and even squirrels are few and far between. Moments have been hard to come by. The dreariness had seeped into the rest of my life as well. I have felt restless and unfocused, not my usual energetic and productive self. ​

Then, at the tail end of the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, a miracle occurred and I had a couple of hours to myself, without kids in tow. Craving some time outdoors to refresh, and with the added encouragement of sun and relative warmth (for Minnesota at the end of November), I decided to find a good spot for a ramble. I've been meaning to explore Roseville's Central Park for a while. I have a few memories of visiting as a kid with a friend who lived nearby, but hadn't been there since moving back to the Twin Cities. I did some scouting on Google maps, and discovered that it's actually a string of several parks. I wanted something more on the natural woods end of the spectrum than the manicured park end, so I settled on the Harriet Alexander Nature Center, at the eastern end of the string.

​Upon arriving, I wandered into the woods, first along a paved path. It turned out that the path ran along the edge of the Nature Center, and eventually out of it entirely. I doubled back and found a more rustic dirt trail, which wound past a small section signed as a "prairie restoration area," a wildflower garden without much to show this time of year, and back into the wetlands that cover most of the Center. It was a nice walk, and I got some decent pictures of the sun on fluffed out cattail heads, bubbles in ice just beginning to form, and curly flower remnants against the dark water.

---

​But I ultimately headed out of the Center feeling somewhat dissatisfied. My creative mind still felt restless and unsettled. I hadn't found anything that struck me as singularly interesting. During my next stop at the library, I tried, with only marginal success to weave some satisfying words around the play of morning light I'd noticed a couple mornings earlier. When my window of freedom was up, I headed home more frustrated than I would have liked, feeling that I had not made the most of the opportunity.

And yet, though it wasn't clear at the time, that walk in the woods does seem to have had the desired effect. When I got home, I took the dog out in our backyard to do his business for the afternoon. I looked up at the sunset, and the tone and texture of light on the clouds instantly brought to mind make-up brushes dusted with blush. Within minutes, I had mentally composed a moment. The next morning rising sun reflecting off the Minneapolis skyline on my way to work inspired another moment. Wednesday morning, a brief glimpse of sleeping ducks as I pedaled past a pond was all I needed. With moments coming faster than I can frame and post them, I have definitely broken out of my writing slump. I have felt more productive at work, too, and more energetic overall. Florence Williams and Richard Louv have it right - a little bit of a Nature Fix/Vitamin N goes a long way!

---