March 2024 Backyard Bulletin

View the full edition at this link.

I was listening to a pop album the other day while driving, the music coming in and out of my consciousness between unrelated thoughts, when a particular verse really struck me. The narrator was standing in their kitchen having a small existential crisis, searching their mind for meaning. Then they deliver the line: "So I went to an art exhibit / There wasn't any art / All that there was, was a sink and some dishes / And a sign saying, 'Be where you are.'"

There are a million variations on this theme: the idea that all we really have is the present, and that perhaps we can extract the most meaning from our day by leaning into that truth. This time of year, sunlight shines beautifully through a big window right next to my kitchen sink. I don't love doing dishes, but I'm surrounded by a handful of fun houseplants on the windowsill, and just outside it's common to see magpies fluttering back and forth, the occasional flicker perched in a crab apple tree, or a downy woodpecker dancing up and down some cottonwoods visible to the west. Perhaps the view from your sink isn't as good as mine, but if you're lucky enough to live in the Methow Valley, the opportunities to settle into the present and extract beauty from the mundane are plentiful. Maybe it's watching the river rise and fall on your daily commute. Maybe it's the view from your office or your jobsite. Wherever you are, consider this your reminder to really be there!

- Bridger Layton, Education Programs Coordinator

Photo: Janet Bauer