Journal entry filed at MTNOPS.com

I woke up this morning energized. After making chocolate griddle cakes with chocolate egg nog sauce, I was ready to read a little on the couch before shuffling over the hill. I happened onto an essay by John Burroughs. With this fresh in my mind, I set forth on my day's riding.

John Burroughs - The Art of Seeing Things

The secret is, no doubt, love of the sport. Love sharpens the eye, the ear, the touch; it quickens the feet, steadies the hand, it arms against the wet and the cold. What we love to, that we do well. To know is not all; it is only half. To love is the other half.

There is nothing in which people differ more than in their powers of observation. Some are only half alive to what is going on around them.

Others, again, are keenly alive : their intelligence, their powers of recognition, are in full force in eye and ear at all times. They see and hear everything, whether it directly concerns them or not. They never pass unseen a familiar face on the street; they are never oblivious of any interesting feature or sound or object in the earth or sky about them. Their power of attention is always on the alert, not by conscious effort, but by natural habit and disposition.

Their perceptive faculties may be said to be always on duty. They turn to the outward world a more highly sensitized mind than other people. The things that pass before them are caught and individualized instantly. If they visit new countries, they see the characteristic features of the people and scenery at once. The impression is never blurred or confused.

Their powers of observation suggest the sight and scent of wild animals; only, whereas it is fear that sharpens the one, it is love and curiosity that sharpens the other.