I’m lying on my back beneath a pine tree alongside one of my students. It’s Field Day at my school, and we’re enjoying a break together. We’re staring into the branches and at the sky above. I’m talking to him about the benefits of spending time in forests and staring into trees.
To his credit, he’s listening intently.
Spending time looking into trees, I tell him, lowers blood pressure, reduces stress, improves your mood, increases your ability to focus, increases energy levels, and makes you happier.
There’s lots and lots of science behind this. I write about it in my upcoming book “Someday Is Today.”
In the midst of explaining all of these benefits to my student, a red-tailed hawk lands on the branch just above us.
“Wow!” my student says. “Look at that!”
A second later, smaller birds swoop in and begin harassing the hawk. I start to explain that smaller birds will chase, harass, and even attack hawks and larger birds as a means of protecting their babies.
“No kidding,” my student says. “Look.”
I shift my head a bit to see where he’s pointing. As if do, I bring the hawk into clearer view and see that it’s clutching a blue jay in its talons. A second later, it begins to tear into the blue jay with it’s beak, devouring the bird as smaller birds continue to fly between the branches and attack.
It’s a bloody scene. So bloody, in fact, that I ask a group of girls who are sitting directly beneath the hawk move themselves and their blankets in fear that viscera might drop down upon their heads. Just as they clear the space, the innards of the blue jay begin dropping to the ground. A large group of students gather and watch the carnage, alternating between shouts of excitement and groans of disgust.
Needless to say my lesson on improving brain chemistry was over.
Later, my student says to me, “Kind of weird that you were telling me how looking into trees can make me feel better, then a hawk lands and murders a blue jay right in front of us. Huh?”
Yes, it was.
Sometimes the universe makes it really hard to be a teacher.
