Heather Lees - Noland Trail

Unfortunately I was unable to make it to the class on the Noland Trail, so instead I decided to try and have my own class with two friends of mine. When the weather is nice outside, I spend a lot of my spare time alone with my guitar on the Noland Trail. Upon explaining the purpose for having a class on the Noland Trail, the three of us ended up walking much further than any of us had ever expected. Often times, we would realize that we were mostly walking in silence unless expressing our thoughts with the rest of the group. All of us came to one agreement, which was that none of us had ever taken into consideration the multiple possibilities to be able to converse with nature around us. Even something as simple as the seasons changing became a way for nature to communicate with mankind, but only if they are willing to listen. An example of this would be leaves falling from the trees, or the grass gradually getting greener, or the leaves changing colors. One thing that really stuck with me for some reason was when a friend of mine said "have you ever noticed that the birds sing louder when the weather is nice outside?". The sad thing was that my answer was no, I haven't.. but why? Why do people live their lives from day to day so closed minded. Something as simple as birds chirping becomes background noise that is forgotten about. It is sad that something so beautiful has been replaced by things like technology.