Get a brolly.

I continue to wonder as I walk that more and more I recall the lessons my father taught me as we walked. I remember so clearly now and yet I might not have remembered those words a few months ago or even during the majority of my youth.

Somebody said it was an age thing, but I sure do not want to believe that.  I would love to think it was just that with age I was finding more wisdom.

Yesterday as I walked it was breezy but the sun was shining, I was able to walk with just a thin top.  Butterflies and bees were out and about and the buds on the trees are beginning to open. The sounds of birds as they get back to a life of some normality and begin to seek partners and to build nests. The woodpeckers were tapping wildly seeking a mate, trying hard to prove their worth as a father.

My father frequently said to me, ”Stop chattering and just listen and let nature give you some answers.”

As I write this I had a moment of clarity, I have said similar things to so many people down the years and never ever asked why. 

This all reminds me of the story of the old man taking his daily walk.      

With bent shoulders he set out each day to walk his few miles. On the days when it rained he carried his furled umbrella, seldom if ever bothering to unfurl it, preferring to feel the rain on his balding head. I smile because when I see somebody with an umbrella I immediately guess that they will speak with an English accent if I speak to them. This is not a racist comment merely an observation. Seldom does a Scotsman carry an umbrella when out in the country?

Back to my old man, he came to a place in the road where there were a number of rocky stairs which he climbed with determination and care. At the top of the steps, there was a carved pot with a cut bamboo pole to direct clear spring water into the pot. Here he would pause and enjoy the sweet taste of the spring.

Then he would stop for a moment, bending his ear, like an attentive student. He would listen, with joy on his face to the confluence of sounds; the pitter-patter of the rain on the leaves, the gurgle of the flowing water. There in the sounds was a sense, a precise mix of melancholy and joy that make life exquisite to live. 

“There is sadness and beauty all around. 

When you can fully understand that and hear nature sing to you, no longer will you be a boy but a man my friend.'

The sun is shining again this morning and nature beckons  I can almost hear my ankle pray for rain, but that would not keep me indoors. I could always get a brolly. 

Have a marvellous day.