If you’ve been following prominent birding bloggers such as Bill of the Birds or Bird O’ The Morning as of late, you have undoubtedly noticed that October 11th was this year’s Big Sit. However not being as much interested in listing as I once was, I decided to sit this Sit out and spend the day (my birthday, by the way) catching up on some reading and listening to a few of my favorite podcasts. Ironically, in the course of enjoying one of the latter, an idea occurred to me for a variation of the Big Sit itself.
In Krista Tippett’s superb Speaking of Faith: Evolution and Wonder interview with James Moore, co-author of Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist, the point was made that Darwin could sit in any wild area for hours at a time completely lost in contemplating the world of nature surrounding him. Fortunately for us, he recorded some of his observations and thoughts in his journals, letters, and books. However it is quite likely that much more of what he experienced during these times of quiet contemplation he kept to himself as inspiration for much of the work he would go on to do in the field as well as the writings he would publish over the course of his lifetime.
As anyone who has read Darwin’s works can easily comprehend, the effect of these long sessions spent sitting quietly out in the English countryside, in the jungles of Brazil, or any of a hundred other places in between provided him with the acquired skill of a keen observation of the subtleties of the natural world. It also allowed him the time and mental space in which to contemplate “the big picture” – not only in regard to what he was able to observe but (and this may come as a shock to those mistakenly understanding Darwin as an enemy of religion) of the “things unseen” as well.
Therefor in an effort to promote both the opportunity for an unstructured time in which to experience nature to be borrowed from the calendars of as many as whom choose to do so, as well as the chance to find a bit of spiritual renewal in these all-too-tempestuous times, I propose the Charles Darwin Memorial Sit to be regularly held each February 12th (his birthday). The rules are simple. Find a place outdoors that looks like a comfortable place to sit and do so. Don’t talk. Don’t write. Don’t think about that night’s dinner – just allow yourself to take in all that you see, hear, smell, and feel around you. Stay for five minutes or five hours – the decision is up to you.
When you’re done, you’re not required to report what you experienced to anyone, not even yourself if you don’t feel like it. If you want to write it in a journal – go ahead. Feel like painting a picture, recording a song, doing a dance for the neighbors – fine. The point is simply to have spent a little time doing as little as possible outdoors and allowing nature to move you in the way that you and Nature find most agreeable. What you learn from the experience, as Darwin himself discovered, is not something that may be readily apparent to you. If you are lucky, it may very well change your life.
