Forest Coal Pit, God and Garden

Dear Monty,

From Waun Fawr

Longmeadow looked lovely last night - edited and framed as it was by low angles.

I have not tuned in to the new radio series of 'Shared Planet' yet, but understand the concerns that are highlighted and which drive us to find solutions.

On a walk with Charles Hawes from Forest Coal Pit to Waun Fawr on the Black Mountains we contemplated the fate of our species and this planet we think we dominate - our conclusion was the inexorable drive towards human catastrophe! Cheering thought. It in no way phased us that we seemed to agree that we can do little - and we continue to piss into the gale - even though it splashes back in our faces. We laughed but not in an arrogant and ignorant way - we laughed because of the recognition of the fact that the universe and this planet will continue and change - we are but a destructive blip in the vastness of time.

Charles

Mountains and vistas

Monks and mysteries

Culture and ethnicity

We walk the forest in dread darkness

The golden sunlight filtered out

Breaking out 

We pant and gasp up steep contours 

To rise above valley and bare reservoir

In the streamer ed sky of linear clouds -

Ghosts of airliners heading west -

We see ravens and raptors

Ponies on the ridge ponder human intent

And move as though definite

Along their intended path

Only to halt

To wait for some token of our love

Some scrap of food perhaps

To fuel them on this bright day

A sudden bray and snort

And the relationship is strained then ended

We strain as we climb again

To the ridge end

The gliders silent at eye level

To a trig point now redundant

Save as a destination

For us to pause

Refuelling

For the task of another climb

We mounted Waun Fawr without knowing it

And rested on a lower peak

Then down

Knee shatteringly down

Tumbling down the slope

Edged by a fossil forest

A scar of grey stumps

Following a stream as clear as crystal

At the conclusion

We returned to the familiar

And the ugly

The litter left by humanity

---------

National Botanic Garden of Wales

The coal tip garden

God and Garden

I thank God for the garden

The clatter of drying leaves

Interspersed with robin and chaffinch song and the shadow of a red kite above

There is no vista here 

Except for the garden and the trees beyond

Which on most days smother the sound of cars

Except on an east wind

Oh but it is a haven!

Why thank God for it ?

Most of our ideas  of God come from others ideas and from what we think we know

We shrink back from God these days equating the name with hatred - rage

Why believe in a God that seems - according to some of his followers - to enforce worship and obedience upon us - and if it is worship - can that come from violence and intimidation - is it true worship ?

I don't see God like that

I just see vastness and intricacy beyond my knowledge

Subtlety and mystery

I saw all that in the back-lit wings of a tortoiseshell butterfly warming itself

I could be rational - I could read up on the research about its need for pattern and colour

All I know is it lifts my inner being to a place beyond human 'wisdom'

The indomitable intention of God is to continually bring into being a never ending creation - one beyond our control

And this is what I see in my garden below the coal tip

In leaves 

In sounds

In insects

In the changing seasons

In light

How rich I am

How blessed I am

'How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news'

We so need good news.

The hills of the Upper Swansea Valley

Paul

ps My feet aren't that beautiful !