The human sport of hang-gliding off a mountain side or out of an airplane, or behind a motorboat is a poor substitute for the fun those seagulls were having last week in the wind over Ft. Walton Beach. The balcony of the 7th and top story condo we rented was the perfect place to watch the gulls, close range. The wind off the ocean swept up and over the top of our building in such a way that the gulls came again and again to hang and play in it. From our gull-high vantage point on the balcony, not ten feet from where they played, we could see their black legs hanging vertically from relaxed white bellies, wings spread taught, eyes alert. They dipped and soared and often hung completely still, leaning into the wind, doubling back to catch it again, without ever flapping their wings.
I singled a bird out of the crowd to watch for as long as I could focus on just one. In the minutes of my watch I didn't see a single wingflap, and I forgot I was there. It was as if I had become a gull, thrilling in the wind. Looking back on the experience, I think it was what Annie Dillard calls "self-forgetfulness" or loss of "self-consciousness" that comes with slow, focused observation. And it was "tremendously invigorating" just as she promised. dkm
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3 comments:
wonderful. I feel as if I were there with you. thanks for the mini-vacation!
Ellen! Thank you. I'm as thrilled by your comment as I was by the experience. dkm
slow, focused observation definitely leads to self-forgetfulness! we should all try to forget about ourselves at least once a day... would do us some good.
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