Sour Sensations

As I sit in my favorite class of my life, (English) I calmly sit and try to take in everything the professor is saying. I vigorously take notes and try to understand everything that is being said. When all the sudden my sweet an sour sensations start to sizzle. As my classmate next to opens up a Starbrust melon blast. I sit and all the sudden my taste buds go crazy. My mouth begins to water, my tongue begins to turn,I begin licking my lips, the sweet and sour taste of all the starburst I have ever tasted marinate in the back of my tongue. If I can concentrate hard enough I can taste every starbrust ever tasted. If I close my eyes and concentrate even harder, I can make myself think that I'm even chewing on a starbrust of any of my favorite flavors. From my favorite straberry, to the random and crazy other flavors that starbrust makes. Then I start to have my taste buds disappear as if they are not getting the satisfaction that they desire so much. Thinking about the starbrust is not good enough anymore. So I kindly ask my classmate, "can I have a starbrust." (Hoping she'll kindly say yes, because of how rare a commodity they are). And then come the answer, I so dearly hope for. "Yeah sure." As I reach over, and see that it is a famed strawberry, my mouth again begins to tingle and water. It is as if, yet again I'm tasting the starbrust without tasting it. The sensation is incredible. Then I unwrap the wrapper, as if I can't get it out soon enough. I don't want the climax to end. NO! my mouth is losing the taste again. Then, "yes!"I finally got it into my mouth. As I chew on the starbrust I begin to think about the different ways I can taste the starbrust. As if I need to find new ways to taste every different bit of the candy. I suck here, chew there, but still can't come up with a different taste than before. I know how it tastes, I can feel how it tastes without tasting it itself. I'm loving this moment in time. Then I think, will I ever get over that sour taste. when I see a starbrust and I must have it, it is as if it's a drug. I'm fine if it's no where near me, however, when I see it, and taste it, and even smell it I will need more. It's like a addiction, only thing is that it's only the sweet and sour taste of starbrust.

Natures Beauty

Anne Frank once wrote,
“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”

As I walked through Pioneer Park, I began to see the true beauty of nature. At the entrance there stands a life size bison statue, along with an elk. Neither motions at anything specific, but instead stands in the spot as if it is looking ahead. The statue at first seems to be just like any other, but it is only when one walks closely up to the life like statue and looks at the complete detail that the statue was made in, you begin to appreciate the intricacy of the artist. If one has a sense of imagination you could really sit and wonder how many of these beautiful, magnificent creatures grazed the American plains just not too long ago. As I continue on my journey of the 1,100 acre park I walked by streams, forests, wetlands and see animals at their true beauty. I walked through the west entrance where I entered, and on the trail I started to notice all the beautiful and intricate details of nature. There is a stream where I walked in, and the trail and stream weave in and out with each other as if they are chasing on another. If you stop for a second and wait for it to be quiet form the bikers riding along and hikers you can truly sit and listen to the sound of the stream moving along. It’s an indescribable sound; water that is, you cannot really describe the sounds it makes when it weaves around rocks, when it comes crashing down, when it moves in total serenity. At one point in the stream I walked up to it, looked down and saw my reflection in a part of the calm, clear water.


I continue my journey through the forest. I come to other small tributaries, ponds, trees of all sorts. Birds of every color flying and singing all with their own beautiful tune fly around me with no fear, no anxiety and no distrust in this human who walks below them. As I walked on what seems to be endlessly I come up a building Chet Ager Building, all around there is amazing beauty. I walked up to the beautiful garden with beautiful flowers that transcend all over the park. A fountain stands close to the center and like all fountains it seems is that in the center there is a statue of a woman who is standing in what seems to be, utter silence. Obviously, see is because she is a statue, but with the simple expression she gives off, it is as if everything around her is also still, stuck in time so-ta speak. As it was beginning to be late, I started to see people scurry out of the building that I had not yet ventured within. It was disappointing to hear that it was closing for the day, so I began my long walk back. And it started to occur to me, how many people truly enjoy nature. When was the last time that someone simply sat quietly in a park or some other sanctuary and just let go of all thoughts, worries and cares. The problem with this idea is that you can no. In today’s society no one, it seems cares about nature. No one cares about the silence and comfort that only nature can bring. This world today it seems, is so caught up with technology, and industrialization that no one sits and truly enjoys nature’ bene. Its beauty, its healing power, the silence, and the comforts it brings. Less and less people flock to Pioneer’s Park each and every year, said Brady Clark (Park Ranger). It truly is a message that it seems, no one cares about nature for what it really is. Everyone in the world today has been raised with the ideal that nature isn’t important, that nature cannot truly do anything and before my last two visits her to Pioneer Park, I realized that I was thinking what others also seemed to be. The first time I went to Pioneers Park I walked around the enormous, gigantic sanctuary and sat and observed all the details that I could; all the different sites and sounds, everything that I could take in. However, I wasn’t “focused” I was only observing all the details I could, taking notes endlessly, but then it occurred to me, I wasn’t doing something and that was, appreciating all of it, really taking in all the beauty. I decided that the only thing to do was to go back for another visit.


Upon my return, instead of walking endlessly through the parkand its entire splendor, I sat in a chair about a half a mile into where the trail begins on the west entrance. As I sat in this chair, I feel asleep. I woke up not to the sounds of cars, not to the sound of the water running down the hall, or to people talking, or a loud rut-cause. I woke up to nothing. To utter silence, and there I sat longer listening to the wind blow, to the grass swaying in the distance, to the beautiful birds flying, the little squirrels that scurry around collecting food for the winter to come. There was no one around me, just as I remember in my adolescent years growing up in Colorado going with my families
To the mountains on our famous “Sunday trips.” And on these Sunday trips, my father would go off and paint, my mother start cooking food, and me and my brother would go a far and just sit in silence somewhere that was “comforting” to us. But it has been long since my “Sunday” trips to the mountains. It has been long since I have heard true “silence”. So I long cannot truly remember the feeling of it. But here I sat at Pioneer Park, watching the sunset in the beautiful most pleasant vi-bra of colors that I have seen in quiet some time. Orange, Red, Yellow millions of colors all together all so bright and all complementing each other with such beauty, the words are almost indescribable, it is as if somewhere in the distance there is fire, that is so beautiful. What beauty one feels.
I have read on several occasions about some Muslims, and Buddha’s primarily who will go somewhere silent and “mediate.” The magazine article described it as if the people let go of all thoughts, frustrations, worries, and all and any emotions. This is, easier said than done. The first time I tried, I fell asleep, but when I woke up and sat and pondered what tremendous power, it must give people who practice this. How much wiser they all must be from me. What are the different emotions that they all feel from me? And my final thought was, how much more peace of mind they also probably have from me. As fate would have it, I had a life changing experience talking to Anthony Ditullio, a deacon at a Catholic church (here in Lincoln). We sort of stumbled upon each other, and as I woke up it wasn’t more than a few minutes before he came around the trail. He came and the elderly man that stumbles along with his cane said to me in his higher pitched voice,
“You look like you’re in deep thought.”
I looked up and stated that I was wondering about nature, and how sitting in silence one can truly appreciate it, and be intoned with all it’s beauty. Before I knew it, he sat down next to me and we began to discuss nature and the true healing power of it. He talked about nature as being only a catalyst for “mediation”. I than obviously asked if he practice this,
“Only to become more in tune with God. It gives you a spiritual healing, that nothing else can accomplish. It is putting away all distractions and letting go of all worries, cares, emotions and thoughts.”

I still didn’t quiet grasp all the thought of everything that I have seen and observed. I sat in silence in my dorm room and tried this meditation; however, I failed miserably. There were just too many thoughts and it especially didn’t help that it was in my dorm room. I realized something greater in that instance than before, I realized that I felt as if I had no worries only when I was in Pioneer Park. When I was with nature and not my I-pod, it has occurred to me that only nature can make one feel at home, make one feel secure, and safe. Only nature takes you beyond you’re worries, the only problem is that note everybody visits nature anymore.