Attention Walk

Sarah Begnoche

04 – 04 – 11

Experience Response

Sitting under the large pine trees in the park, it was really hard not to let my mind wander. I was in the shade, which made the ground feel cold under my legs. The wind was also whipping, which went right through the knit of my jacket. It was a strange sensation, feeling something sitting against my skin, but also feeling the strong blasts of air make my skin crawl.

I found the sounds of the area to be the most noticeable sensation I experienced after the cold wind. The steady beeping of a UPS truck that had parked across the way cut into the muted chatter of adults and kids in the park, their voices mostly lost in the wind. The beeps matched the blinking of the lights on the back of the truck. I had a hard time not thinking about how annoying the beeping sound was – the repeating, shrill noise that happened every two seconds or so. Granted, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to try and tune the noise out, either. If you are just supposed to sit and experience an area, are you supposed to listen to the annoying sounds too?

I ended up tuning out the noise, because I felt like it was more distracting from the other things going on around me and detrimental to my experience. I was pretty happy I did, because after a while I started to hear some birds shuffling around behind me. Looking back, I saw that there were some woodpeckers crawling over the bark of the pine trees behind me. They were busy chasing after some small, unseen bugs. Their claws made a clambering noise as they moved around the bark, but the movements of the birds were controlled and skilled. Watching them was oddly relaxing and fulfilling, though I couldn’t say why.