Thunder

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Dear reader,

It has been a very long time since I last wrote to you. There has to be something to say before I can say it. Sometimes I say too much about too little.

I suppose I have to brood, to allow what seems right at this point in time to build up before it can break - like the thunder storm now breaking in the warm dense air hanging over the garden. I watch a buzzard circle high into the purple tinged clouds - and notice a pair of swifts - the first I've seen. As I watch them my heart lifts with them in the silent air, before the first crack of thunder and heavy raindrops send me indoors.

Being in close proximity to the garden for a more prolonged period - allows us the privilage of seeing growth in much more detail. I have been able to make more adjustments this year and it has given me a great deal of satisfaction. I really do appreciate having this space and feel for those who don't have access to a garden.




 



The thunder and its gradual build up is like a metaphor for our times. I have been reading about ecological and biological disasters many of which have come about as a result of our continual hunger for an easier life. So many of us have realized that there have to be limits - that we have to learn to live with less - which is actually more. Being close to nature - working with her and watching her is a nourishing experience despite the vagaries of viruses and other 'plagues' of both human and plant world.






A garden has always been a place of spirit for me. Somewhere where the mind slows down, and the heart opens up. A connecting place to the great mystery. I hope as a species - if we are to survive - we will not continue to believe we are the masters of everything.

I had a simple thought today - a revelation of the bigger picture - I realised that every plant growing here has a different leaf shape - there must be millions if not billions of different leaf forms in the world. Every cultivated garden plant, every 'weed' all have various shapes and textures. It is just wonderful to know that there exists such immense variety - each having their place and function. Monocultures of one plant cannot be what the earth needs - otherwise that is what the earth would give us.  A monoculture cannot be good for either the soul or the soil.

I read this today : 'desacralisation of the natural world brought with it the idea that humans could control nature and gave rise to a loss of respect to the earth, a deep misapprehension that continues to plague us to this day.' Sue Stuart- Smith - The Well Gardened Mind  2020.

Connection - learning from nature - is our way out of the storm.



Paul


Comments

  1. Anne Wareham10 May 2020 at 14:41

    I'd like that thunderstorm please... Not sure about learning from nature when nature seems to be fighting back here. Blight blight and yet another (natural) blight.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marigold Jam10 May 2020 at 18:52

    Lovely post and one many of us will agree with. It has been and hopeully will continue to be magical to see Nature so closely and without the usual rush of life. I do hope some good will emege from all this when we eventually come out from it all not back to the life we knew but to a different and new way of living.

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