One of the areas that Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst discusses in his works is what he calls the perceiving function of sensation. This covers the awareness and use of our five senses – seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting. Often as I discuss with clients being present in the ‘here and now’.
 
In today’s world it is not unusual to come across someone plugged into their auditory world with a set of headphones excluding the noise of the world beyond their chosen selection. Likewise, some are so focussed on the small expanse of ‘real estate’ that the small screen in their hand occupies, barely aware of what else is happening around them.
 
When I go for a walk, I deliberately aim to enjoy the surroundings – I would add I am not always successful as my mind may well be occupied with the ‘stuff’ of life, or something I am working on. The chance to be outside walking often helps with the processing of what I may be working through.
 
I was out for an early morning walk, enjoying the freshness of a chill morning, yet the brightness of a clear sky and a sun eager to light our day, when the path I was walking on had some wood chippings scattered across it, almost providing a golden carpet for a short distance. It seemed unnoticed by a few other people but I was intrigued.
 
I guess my senses has been nudged into action, so I picked up some of the chippings and felt the texture – surprisingly soft, indicating that the wood was perhaps a little rotten, yet on smelling the chippings, the smell was very much that of fresh wood. On looking up I could now see more chippings being thrown into the air. Interesting…so I stepped a distance from the tree and looked up to see a busy woodpecker discarding the unneeded residue of their work in the creation of a suitable nest inside the tree. After a short time, the woodpecker stopped the clearing and disappeared inside the tree; a few seconds later the sound of more boring was to be heard. Such a delight to be present when the bird was busy creating a home for their anticipated offspring.
 
After a while, someone else stopped and asked what was going on and what had caught my attention. Following a pleasant exchange on the wonders of nature and the start of a busy season for the birds, we went on our ways.
 
This event reminded me that, when possible, it is amazing what one can experience in the ‘here and now’ when one makes the time to slow, or even stop. Yet how often does this happen? I know for me it is not a frequent as it could be. I may blame a tight schedule, a biting wind, not noticing – all excuses really, for I know that when I pay attention and aim to make sense of something, it is always repaid. Even if I only engage with a few of my senses. On this occasion I used most, the experience and the memory so much stronger.
 
My best wishes,
 
Peter