Quarantine and Heightened Senses

Over the course of the semester, I feel like this class really enlightened and showed me a side of religion and ceremony I haven’t ever thought of. Every class I enjoyed listening to everyone’s inputs and their insights on the senses of religion.

During the course of the semester, before we were all sent home, I didn’t pay much attention to my senses. I think that during quarantine, I started to appreciate the little things much more. Every morning I go on runs and whenever I step outside and get a breath of air I get a small moment of blissfulness. I just started to appreciate nature much more. Everything that I didn’t pay particular attention to before the pandemic, really started to stand out a little more in my life. I thought I would just list off a couple of things that sort of relates to all of our six senses.

My appreciation of my taste sense was elevated. I've heard stories that grocery stores have a line before people can enter. The lines are up to 1 hour long. Whenever I eat, I think about how long it took to enter the store and how fortunate I am to have food amidst a pandemic, where there are places around the world that food might be almost inaccessible.

My sight, sixth sense, hearing, and smell all seemed to have heightened during quarantine as well. Like I mentioned earlier, I try to go on a run every morning. And each time I take a different route. I tended to usually just ignore what was around me and try to get my running in. Now, I'm learning to appreciate the beauty and simple yet complex nature the resides outside of our homes that modern industrialized civilizations ignore. I enjoy looking at the creeks, and grassy fields I run by, I enjoy listening to woodpeckers and the sound of the whistle of the wind going past my ear. That first breath of fresh air when I step outside really is what starts my day for the past few weeks. There's just something different that I can't explain that made me appreciate life, the relationships with people I have made, and the little conversations I have with family members and friends. 

I thought I'd close out with a quote from David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous that I thought was very well said:

“Only when we slip beneath the exclusively human logic continually imposed upon the earth do we catch sight of this other, older logic at work in the world. Only as we come close to our senses, and begin to trust, once again, the nuanced intelligence of our sensing bodies, do we begin to notice and respond to the subtle logos of the land.”