The garden is a path to enlightenment - and the washing line.

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Dear Monty,




The first egg of the morning

The first grapes eaten by the chickens as a reward

The first red admiral

The first robin with his autumnal song.

The first motorbike off-roading on the coal tip

The first argument in the street

The first barking of dogs

The first vacuum cleaning of the day.

Champions -

Where are they ?

Are they at they at the NATO summit ?

Are politicians really the deciders of our fate ?

What is the beauty of the morning ?

Who is the bright and morning star ?

Lift up your heads o you gates.





I sit under my pagoda on my throne - surrounded by a drifting ethereal snow of willow herb seeds.
I look up at mackerel clouds drifting towards Obama and the heads of state.




John Kingdon once commented that the coal tip garden looks like a haven of peace. Yet unsilenced trial bikes fill the air with loud farts, and neighbours fire up electronic gardening tools and petrol driven mowers.
The dog breeders chiwawa's snap, gargle and foam in their cages and my hens loudly cluck.

So peaceful ? No not in sound, much like the chattering politicians and their blustering threats - their moral high ground.

What exactly do we stand on ?

Perhaps the high ground is already undermined and about to collapse.

Living on a mound undermined by coal mines I find that my garden becomes a useful metaphor.

It is peaceful.



The peace is in the robin and the clouds

In the peacock butterfly and the beauty of its wings

In the change of the season

The colours and scents.

The motor of the earth runs quietly on

While we continue to fume and splutter.



Paul.

Comments

  1. JohnK31 August 2014 at 18:38

    Ah, Paul, you have discovered the difference between peace and quiet. Rarely do both come together. But the noise helps to emphasise the peace. Just as when (as Charles puts it) you flagellate your garden or get all melancholic, creating that inside noise, the peace that is your faith will, if you let it, convince you that things are not that bad after all and you can cheer up a bit!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul Steer31 August 2014 at 21:14

      Me cheer up ? You are right of course - and thank you.

      Delete
  2. Anne Wareham31 August 2014 at 19:23

    Yes. Xxxx

    ReplyDelete

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