A WALK IN THE PARK | Learning what I didn't know about nature

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Even after a few Google searches, I cannot determine who gets credit for first saying, “The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.” But I imagine the statement - or some version of it - was first spoken by a wise person a very long time ago.

I can relate to the idea since I took it upon myself a few months back to learn more about a couple of basic areas of nature.

Now that I have started, I have become extremely aware of how limited my knowledge is and even feel a little embarrassed that I have lived for so many years without being more observant and more dedicated to learning about things that have been at my fingertips all this time.

Living in ignorant bliss is no longer an option now that I realize that I owe it to myself, at least to some extent, to buckle down and expand my knowledge of things going on around me.

I have always enjoyed looking at pretty flowers - who doesn’t? - but it wasn’t until my interest in photographing flowers developed a few years ago that I began to observe them more closely, realizing that there is usually something else going on around them.

Many of the macro shots revealed insects of one kind or another on or near the blossoms. With this awareness, my ambition then became to capture close-up images of flowers with butterflies, moths, bees or other winged insects.

If I happened to get a shot I liked, I might file it under a non-descript caption something like. “Brown moth on yellow wildflower,” and feel content with that. That wasuntil late spring when I bought a couple of books and began the quest to learn the names of local wildflowers, moths and butterflies, and do away with my excuse for not giving my jpeg files proper names.

This has been an eyeopening experience as I realized how many things I have seen hundreds of times over the years but yet could not name without flipping through the pages of my new books. I have gained a little knowledge but, as the expression goes, have become very aware of how far I have left to go.

In addition to learning to identify a few more flowers, moths and butterflies, I have been reminded of something that is probablyultimately more important: To simply be more observant of all the neat things going on around me. If I had started this sooner, I surely would have learned more by now. But since that is not an option, I am adopting the “betterlate-than-never” attitude and trying to make up for lost time.

God has seen to it that nature has innumerable gifts in store for us, waiting to be discovered if we just slow down long enough to be a little more observant.

We don’t have to know the names of things to appreciate their beauty, but I am finding that it adds to the enjoyment. So, as I hurry along the path of life, I am not only stopping more often to smell the wildflowers, but I’m trying to remember to do it with eyes wide open.

Sometimes I get lucky - translate “blessed” - and see something really beautiful like a zebra swallowtail or a great spangled fritillary. And, oh the joy if my camera happens to be handy!

My book purchases earlier this year include Arkansas Butterflies and Moths, an identification guide written by Lori A.

Spencer; and Ozark Wildflowers, a field guide to common Ozark wildflowers written by Don Kurz.

Annette Rowe is a freelance writer and a speech/language pathologist at Siloam Springs High School.

She may be reached by email at awalkinthepark50 @ yahoo.com.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 09/15/2010