Daily Nourishment for October 30, 2024: Invitations to Observe and Write from Eliza Brightwen with Guidance from Lauren Winner
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 55 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
A Note from Lauren: This week’s offerings will be calendar-themed, as we move toward All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints’ Day.
Today is the birthday of English naturalist Eliza Brightwen. (She was born in 1830.) (Isn’t that a wonderful last name, especially for a naturalist?) She wrote essays about beetles, gerbils, elm trees—“simple and sympathetic accounts of animal and vegetable life as studied and enjoyed in her own garden and park,” as a 1905 reviewer put it.
Pause.
At the beginning of one of her books, Brightwen wrote:
“Precluded as I am, by the measure of my health and strength, from travelling widely and from visiting fresh scenes, I am yet indisposed to regret my limitation. It is to this, perhaps, that I owe the ceaseless enjoyment which I gain from being obliged to look to my own surroundings for those sources of interest in animal, bird, and insect life, which an English country is ready to supply, in an inexhaustible degree, to the patient and willing observer.”
Wherever one is, of course, where the English country or elsewhere, one can practice patient and willing observation to a good end.
Pause and consider: what in your “own surroundings” is a source of interest?
Prompt.
Brightwen uses relaxed, relational metaphors to describe her essays and the ways she hopes readers encounter her essays: the essays are “quiet talks” Brightwen has with her readers; they are “stroll[s]” she takes with her readers.
What metaphors describe the experience you hope readers have of your writing?
From Wild Nature Won By Kindness: “There is all the difference between taking a walk simply for exercise, for some special errand, or to enjoy conversation with one's friends, and the sort of quiet observant stroll I am going to ask my kind readers to take with me to-day.”
Think of three strolls on which you’d like to invite a reader. If you wish, write one such stroll.
Practice.
In “Early Morning Nature-Study,” Brightwen writes:
“In my garden there is a little dell embowered by trees, where I often spend an hour or two before breakfast for the special purpose of enjoying the company of my pet wild creatures. On one side are five arches, formed possibly some hundreds of years ago, since the great stones are grey with age and picturesquely moss-grown and ivy-clad. Young trees, too, are growing here and there out of the crevices into which the wind has wafted their seeds….Under one of the arches the birds always find an abundance of food, which I strew for them several times in the day. There I see young blackbirds, chaffinches, hedge-sparrows, wrens, and titmice feasting and flitting about, quite regardless of my presence…The quietness and peace of this secluded spot is in marked contrast to the scenes I witness near the house. There sparrows reign supreme. They come down in flocks to gorge themselves and their offspring upon the sopped bread, rudely driving away many other kinds of birds that I would fain encourage.”
Brainstorm three pairs of locations in your home or neighborhood (a secluded grey stone arch/a spot closer to the house)— each pair should include a “marked contrast” (calm flitting blackbirds/rude, aggressive sparrows). Then write a scene that showcases one of the contrasts.
Want More?
Read “Why Do We Feed Wild Animals” in The New York Times
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Workshops, Gatherings, & Resources
—New Resource: A Solo Writing Retreat for Election Season and Beyond
—New Resource: Parenting with Art® Lectio Divina Cards Information about ordering these cards can be found in my Books + Spiritual Direction + Retreats & Gatherings email newsletter . To stay in the loop on all of my work, writing, book recs, and more, subscribe to that weekly newsletter at charlottedonlon.com/subscribe.
—October Co-Writing is live. All SDW Members get free co-writing through November. If you aren’t a member and would like to join us, please contact me at charlotte@charlottedonlon.com and I’ll hook you up.
—The Great Belonging Project is live here and The Great Belonging Project October Refresh will take place Oct 1-Oct 31.
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Lauren Winner. Lauren Winner is a writer, professor, Episcopal Priest, & spiritual director.
Read Lauren’s full bio here.
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