I Live In Heaven 2

Let me take you on another fascinating journey:  An Appreciation of the Real.

No not using TV with it’s high volume, fast moving images and flashes of colour.

Let me take you to a heavenly corner of my little garden.

A perfect corner, in-between the bins and the paint pots (I choose not to focus on those), where no one from the road can see me, and no neighbours windows can over-look me.  Complete privacy, completely beautiful, completely natural.

This spot catches the sun for the first half of every day.

At this precious corner a universe emerges, if you sit and admire it for long enough.

From this corner, this solace, this haven, this perfect spot, I can see things that most people in their fast, loud, impatient, noisy lives, cannot see.

Nature has that effect on me – the longer I sit and admire it, the more peaceful I get and the more I see. And the more beautiful it becomes.

Lets start with the colours.

First a band of green grass stretching from my feet to the roots of the trees.

Then a band of brown, the roots of the leylandii.  Brown is so real, I love it.

Then the green life of the trees, and finally, above it all, the freeing blue of the Sky.

(More on the significance of colours tomorrow).

Each gust of wind makes this view all the more breathtaking. Every stalk, every flower, every petal, every branch waves joyfully at me. Sometimes the entire tree bends and sways, reminding me that to bend temporarily with life’s pressures is better than to stay inflexible and be broken.

But the real appeal of this place, is the wildlife. The birds chatter and sing and swoosh around – it’s like a musical symphony in 3D stereo. Somebody tweets on a telegraph pole, and an answering tweet can be heard on the roof  above my head. A cooing on the right of the hedge is responded to by a cooing on the left side. A bird emerges with bedding for it’s nest. Another doesn’t care what anyone thinks of it, it just stands on the topmost branch and sings its little heart out.  Gorgeous.

As I sit there and blend in, the animals begin to accept me. Birds pick at worms just a foot away, others will fly past my head.  I watch startled as a bird dives headfirst into the hedge, and then shoots out of the top of it. Was it the same bird? Did it scare off another? I’ll never know.  Two birds will have a fight on the telegraph pole, or is it a dance? Again I will never know.  One big bird sits on a branch, and another one comes and pushes him out the way; how rude.  Somebody lands on the bin, and investigates me with one eye. I say Hi quietly.  Suddenly they are all gone, and I notice a cat appearing to my left. He stops mid-lawn, sees me and freezes.  I nod, giving him permission to pass through my property, but not to poo, so he saunters off.

Sitting here reminds me of the true Hunter, who works with nature purely to feed. When a true Hunter enters a forest/jungle etc, he will greet the trees, the animals, nature in general, with honour and respect. A mutual understanding exists. He works in harmony with nature to feed his family. He blends into the background, and waits quietly just like me, for the forest to give him an offering. When it does, he is grateful, takes his meal and leaves peacefully, with appreciation.

Once, while I was reading there, a pheasant strolled past. No idea where it was going, it eventually vanished amongst the roots. I nearly laughed at it.

Sometimes I look up, mesmerised by the clouds. I try and gauge the speed of the wind by watching the clouds race across the sky, playing with the sun, sometimes covering it up, then releasing it again.

This so much better than the telly! So relaxing, so healing, so Real.

I truly live in a Corner of Heaven.

If you just give nature a chance, you can observe so much going on. Try it, return to the simple things in life and enjoy just BEING.  I find it brings a wholeness to my soul.