I just completed my last official "nature walk;" and I have to say, a lot has changed. In five weeks, the beach has experienced a remarkable face-life. The lake was frozen and there was snow on the ground, when I started my biomimicry course. Now, the lake is open and the leaves are starting to bud:
As nature is blossoming, so too are my skills in exercising the principles of this emerging discipline. Biomimicry is fascinating. It's a field where one must balance big picture thinking with a microscopic attention to detail. It opens your eyes to the incredible amount of innovation that has occurred and is occurring all around us.
On my first "nature walk" my attention went to the largest object in the area - the lake. It was an interesting experience to use my senses to take it all in... or what I thought was all in. The lake was just one of an infinite number of biological happenings that my attention is just learning to experience.
An example - on my second "nature walk" I noticed these:
The big Cottonwood trees that surround Hidden Beach.
Now, I notice things like this:
It's a piece of bark from a decaying Cottonwood tree. The bark is covered with bugs who are using the bark for food and shelter. Cool, huh?
I wouldn't have noticed this piece on my first or second walk, because I found this bark 20 feet off of the worn path. And I wouldn't have noticed these bugs because I wouldn't have bothered to turn the bark over.
Studying Biomimicry changes how you engage with nature - it takes you off the path, it gets you dirty and it sets your mind a blaze with endless design inspiration. It's frustrating because you start to wonder how we ever got so distant form natural forms of innovation, but it also provides hope for a future abundant with product and process innovation inspired by nature.
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