Inquiry into causes
Adapting questioning
Physical discourses
A hike through wetland habitats, surrounded by a hardwood forest interspersed with pines, adds experiential material for a probing consciousness. Awareness is locally implemented.
“Aristotle did not, however, presuppose that the first causes in question had to be something higher than the causes he had already discovered in the order of nature or of human experience.” – Oliva Blanchette
Storm clouds
Skillful pilots
Ride the waves
Spreading from the east, the northern horizon darkens as the wind picks up. The atmosphere fills with energy and anticipation.
“There are some things you can only learn in a storm.” – Joel Osteen
Aesthetic response
Necessary interaction
Positive significance
Intuition, coupled with a cursory visual survey of existence in general and earth ecology in particular, suggests that better awareness integration yields more substantial aesthetic progress.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.” – George Bernard Shaw
Wild mystery
Vastly universal
Heart of sea
Walking the ruggedly idyllic juncture where the land meets the sea, everyday is uniquely presented. The coastline produces distinctive appearances with varying resistance to energy discharge.
“The Ocean has its silent caves, Deep, quiet, and alone; Though there be fury on the waves, Beneath them there is none.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Natural forces
Wind influence
Manipulating matter
Trying to coax nature into behaving in ways that strain the limits imposed by environmental physics inadvertently creates aesthetic opportunity.
“Everything in our world is connected by the delicate strands of the web of life, which is balanced between forces of destruction and the magic forces of creation.” – Magi Lune
At the edge
Sound side
Tree perimeter
A large expanse of open water starts to appear through the tall trees.
“And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul.” – John Muir
At a given instant
Momentary positions
Greater panorama
With grace pelicans glide across the horizon within an immense universal backdrop. Things only become visible when they either exhibit contrast or undergo change.
“We ought to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its antecedent state and as the cause of the state that is to follow.” – Pierre Simon de Laplace
Emphasize significance
Embodied experience
Rather abstract
Repeated walks across the same geography develops deeper understanding. A natural, wild and varied landscape is sincere even if enclosed and bounded by civilization.
“I have two doctors, my left leg and my right.” – G.M. Trevelyan
Lapping shores
Shimmering sand
Whispering ripples
With an intimate sense of cooperation and imperturbability, the rolling sea is constantly convolutional, reconfiguring the abutting land edge.
“When relaxing or reflecting, movement can enable or mediate the thoughts and feelings of the walker; the environment walked in is also likely to be part of this thinking and feeling process.” – Christopher Tilley
Occupy space
Twisted limbs
Spreading expansion
On a stroll through the Currituck Banks Reserve, an excellent encounter with an iconic live oak specimen transpires.
“Without any companion it grew there, glistening out with joyous leaves of dark green.” – Walt Whitman