On Sunday morning, when I was stretching in Baylands Park, an elderly naturalist stopped by and asked me, "Do you want to know what lies around you?" An interesting question :) He was carrying a telescope mounted on a large tripod. I said, "Yes." He told me that he was a docent who helped people appreciate nature.

For the next twenty minutes, the elderly naturalist showed me a variety of birds everywhere around me. He did all the talking. I was smiling but hardly said a word. His face was radiant (with "noor" as we call it in Urdu). He would repeatedly focus on a bird in a distance and ask me to look through his telescope. With great love, he explained to me what these birds do, how they interact with each other and how they are different from others nearby. He had spent many years studying birds and knew everything about them :)

We didn't ask each other our names and we went our ways.

Today, I don't remember anything about what he shared with me. I just remember seeing some gorgeous birds magnified through his telescope. And I remember him telling me that a pair of birds were cooing in synchrony, which meant that they were in love. He could make out what each bird was busy with.

This experience reminded me of hundreds of hikes and walks I did with younger people where I did the same: talk, talk and talk with enthusiasm about whatever I've learnt over the last few years :)