I am surrounded by nature everyday, but I am always in such a rush, letting it pass me by.  Why don’t I pay more attention to all the beauty it has to offer?

Sitting on my front steps, I open my mind and heart to everything around me. I realize that this loud and hectic world is really quite peaceful when you sit down and focus with your senses.  

Surprisingly, the stress I am holding onto begins to fade away.  I take a deep breath, letting the crisp October air fill my lungs to capacity.  As I slowly release it, I am overwhelmed by the serenity of my front yard.

Has this been here all along?  Why was I not looking at it as I did when I was a little girl, wide eyed and innocent before the pull of technology.

Nature awakens my senses. The sounds of the birds’ peeps and chirps flood my ears, only to be interrupted by the rustling of the leaves falling off the trees.

A delicate red and orange leaf floats gently before me landing right next to my feet.  I carefully pick it up and flip it over to inspect its decorative network of veins. Its life is is over now, and soon it will be a lonely, crumpled leaf, disintegrating back into the earth.

A tiny, black ant crawls onto my sock.  Normally, I would shake it off and possibly march right over it, leaving it clinging to life on the concrete with the shriveled leaf.  But in this moment, I decide to watch it scale my ankle and let it tip-toe over my sock where it gives way to my skin. Confused, it spins around and moves back onto the fabric, descending down as it finds its way back onto the paved bricks.

The sharp bark of a dog in the distance breaks my concentration.  I become distracted and think about my phone, upstairs on my bed, buzzing with texts and alerts.  I push the thought out of my head and look around the yard one last time before I slip back into reality.