a bower of joy
Pondering through the little episodes of my life helps me to realise that many things exist in life that we don’t really see, hear or even understand. It bespeaks life’s involvement with nature and the wonderful gift that comes free to us all. Through mindfulness we become aware that real life is measured by the breaths we do not take, those breath-taking moments of wonder.
When all is quiet and the ghosts of pilgrims are felt in the stillness of the air and the woods imbued with calm, I would sit among the trees besides a stream and listen to the slow moving current wound and coiled like a serpent. All of a sudden a water vole swims towards me, startling me out of my thoughts. He quickly disappears into a hole in the side of the bank, he waits a while then peeps out, but having moved as quiet as a whisper I moved to a distance away. I watched this little fellow as he moved flakes of earth extending his shafts and galleries watched by a grey wagtail chasing the many flies riding on ripples and splashes; he then skipped airily over the many boulders before leaving the tracks of his fragile feet in the sandy alluvium soil.
With a few bumps, twists and turns the clear water tumbles over its first cascade and casts its bubbles, leaving the domes of froth to become lost in the breeze, it then gathers together and flows smoothly and serenely like life itself. It will always take the easiest path on its life’s journey. Once again it tumbles and falls over a waterfall helping to aerate the stream thus making it a much healthier place to live. If however, it should become blocked or dammed, the little stream will sadly die. As humans we have a lot to learn. Our lives too need to flow smoothly just like the stream. Therefore, by having a forgiving heart and not allowing anyone to block our life’s ‘flow’ our physical and mental wellbeing would become vastly improved.
Just then a blackbird came and dashed a ripple as it sipped and sped away. While walking through the many ferns in the woods I noticed the brackens unfolding their curves and scrolls like those of a bishop’s crosier and the joy of seeing translucent wisps of gossamer from the spider’s webs. Having seen a flicker of something move, I caught a glimpse of a tawny owl driven into wavy flight across the fields searching for field voles, the red mice of the meadow, this being a special place where the spotted orchids grow in abundance adorned by the bees. I would then close my eyes and listen to the bees humming their sleepy lullabies. As the water sparked amber in the sunbeams, our woodland robins bathed in the stream, and then returning to their young nestlings beat their wings to shower them with clear droplets of water.
As dusk falls, a skein of geese arrives etched against a dark inky sky. With their calls eventually dying away, becoming more like a memory than a sound. In the evening the swift’s whistling screams could not be heard, but when the golden sun was rising they would descend down to the funnels of the lower air and commence their familiar sounds once again, the sound being so beautiful, I nudge myself to listen. I would love the intimacy of these crepuscular encounters, but what about the hidden life, the crypto biotic life we don’t see the micro-organisms, the nematodes, water bears and the majority of plant seeds waiting for environmental conditions to change or improve. Like the golden fields of waving grain which were sprinkled with the bright red of wild poppies, their seeds waiting in the darkness. The resurrection and the reversal of a metabolic state of living, with the re-animation of life from so little as a drop of rain and where subtle ploys are played out where no eyes can follow.
In such places we are not wasting time listening to birds and bees or even admiring a beautiful view. We should be mindful that from such moments can come hope, inspiration and enlightenment, helping us to realise that we don’t need to be rich to abundantly enjoy the world and this life. It would seem however, that we have become obsessed with materialism, preoccupied by a culture that values consumption more than tangible benefits. The joy of experiencing the natural world needs to be shared. Those values and principles need to be applied to enable us to bequeath to future generations the hopes and aspirations which I believe are fundamental to highlighting the relationship between man and earth. But after the kindling of so many memories I felt I needed to leave behind a record of something done for others, to open doors to vitas hitherto or even partially known, helping to create a pathway to a nobler life.
a bower of joy is also featured on the short stories page
