The core of things

Who were you two hundred years ago?

Who will you be two hundred years from now?

I eat my apple quietly enjoying the colours of the sky, the deepening evening silence

I toss the core to the ants that circle beneath the tree

After all they need to eat too

They circle it greedily, and begin to carve off chunks with their tiny tiny teeth

With fresh perspective

I return to the things that truly matter

Thinking, seeing, being

The sky is a watercolour painting,

I for this moment, am also part of the frame

One day I will fade away

But the sun will set on every single day hereafter

And it won’t mind at all that I’m no longer part of this landscape

There are plenty of others to take my place

But for this moment, we share this space

And I’m grateful to be in the picture

*Eve, Adam, apples and the garden of Eden, banishment, cast adrift, serpents, the stories of where we began, where we are going, and so many in between that we tell ourselves, things that have nothing to do with religion. The thoughts which never end but begin from the moment we open our eyes until we close them again and then haunt our dreams.

It’s why I love the natural spaces, cliffs, mountains, the ocean, old trees, the sky. They change and yet they lack the impermanence that we suffer from. Deep down we all have that uneasy sense of how tenuous our tenure here really is. A sun warmed rock on a cold day is a beautiful thing to lean into. Solid, real, lasting. The only thing which is unchanging is change itself – we cannot fight it, why not enjoy the parade while we’re part of it, and the rock will always be there when we need a place to breathe.

12 thoughts on “The core of things

  1. Nature is timeless I guess and people perceive age as something which is very important. I do find it incredible how ancient fossils and rocks can be 🙂

    • I love my gardening too Rosaliene – well, parts of it. Sometimes when the caterpillars eat all my broccoli and munch holes in my kale it becomes annoying but then I think, well, they have to eat too. And I bet they are very pleased I planted such a handy supermarket for them, and then the caterpillars feed the birds and they have to eat too. And nothing is currently eating my tomatoes, which look like a bumper crop in the making so we learn to give and take. Gardening has so many teachings, I guess that why I like talking to gardeners, they tend to be rather pragmatic people.

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