Savoring Autumn in the Small Things at Grafton Lakes State Park (Part II of II)

The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

                                           -W.B. Yeats

So....how did you enjoy your trip through Grafton Lakes State Park?  Beautiful place isn't it?  We love it there and although we never use the beach...or the paid entrance...we get so much solace from driving through the winter entrance at every season.

In case you happened here today without seeing Part I of this post, Savoring Autumn in the Big Things at Grafton Lakes State Park, the point of these two posts is to illustrate how easy it is to see the big things in life, all the while missing some pretty amazing small things.  How does that happen?  I think we live in a pretty fast paced world, overbooked, overworked, overspent, overstimulated.  I think we've stopped living in the moment and instead we live in a hurry to get to our destination.  That destination might be our job, our kid's activity of the day, the grocery store, etc....  Most of us rarely live in the moment just to enjoy life, and if we do, it's often in a hurried and distracted way when we're not really 'in the moment' but concentrating on the next thing on the list, the chores waiting for us, the project at work, the bills waiting to be paid, etc.  We end up experiencing life as if we were on a diet...eating the cupcake but omitting the frosting. Sure, the cupcake is great by itself, but if we went through life always leaving off the frosting we'd be missing out on some of the best parts.  Same goes for breezing through life checking off our to-do list without ever stopping to just stand still.  If we slow down and take time to savor our surroundings, really listen to those around us, taste the flavor of that food we're wolfing down....life could be pretty spectacular.  Take another look at the same drive though Grafton State Park and this time see what I saw....without even getting out of the car! Remember the quote at the beginning of Part I of this post:

The way we choose to see the world creates the world we see.

   -Barry Neil Kaufman

Look at the sunlight dancing off these leaves!

Notice the teeny tiny mushroom growing in the hollow of this tree!  It's no more than an inch tall!  Imagine how easy it would have been to miss it!

In life it's good to look back and see where you came from!

From our very first visit to Grafton a few years ago, this has been a favorite tree of mine.  On this trip John decided to explore from another angle....and in doing so, stepped in some sort of animal poop.  LOL

Look at how the roots of this tree are wrapped around the rock on the right.

 

People see God everyday; 
they just don't recognize him.

-Pearl Bailey

Notice how this gravestone has been repaired....

I thought these looked like little shoes stuck to the side of a tree ;)

There's a small cemetery within the park; only a few stones are left standing. 

Are you surprised by all you missed?  Remember, except for a few of these, I saw and captured these photos from the front seat of the car.  Seeing beauty is about opening our eyes and engaging our brain....on something outside of ourselves.  It's about turning off the highway, turning off the phone, and turning off our racing minds to focus on the moment and the beautiful things that surround us.  This didn't require a hike in the woods, it didn't cost any money and it wasn't far from home.  We don't need to get on a plane to find incredible things ..... they are right in our own corner of the world waiting to be discovered.  People die every day.  Henry David Thoreau said it best, 'When it comes time to die, let us not discover we have never lived.'  This post isn't about dying, but it is about living - living life to the fullest.  No matter how old we get, we can always choose to see the world with new eyes.  I hope this post shows you the beauty that is waiting to be discovered if you choose to see the world with new eyes.  Please share this with someone you know that might be missing the small stuff!

For more posts about Grafton Lakes State Park, you can check out my Directory under Destination-NY.  Directory Link