It had rained a lot the day before. Toby and I went for a run in the morning. The sun was already up, bringing colour and warmth to trees and plants. The dew sparkled in silver on the grass in the field we passed.
Running through the forest we just stopped amazed by the sunlight shining through the trees.
Still in the shadow, we could see the floodlit trees before us. A blessed moment of beauty.
A garden must have apple trees to have the right atmosphere of Spring, I think. White with a tint of pink, apple flowers makes you completely surrounded by beauty, not only on the ground but also in the air.
On my way to catch the horses which had found a much better field to graze in than their winter paddock, I passed the lake. Just a simple moment of beauty, the little house, the sky and the relection of the bushes and the clouds on the surface. A lack of time to contemplate, simply to receive, be grateful and to continue… Farmlife.
We took a rest, the two of us. Suddenly Toby sensed something in the air. I just wonder what it was that he caught with his sensistive nose and what he thought. In these instances I realise that we are almost in two worlds, the world of the eye and the world of the nose. But even so,we share the joy of being there together.
Nature is shifting its appearance, winter is in the process to change into spring. Late winter and early spring are both present: The snow is still here and the nights are cold, but the sun warms the ground during the day, softening the ground and melting the snow, making it slowly give way to earth and dead straw.
This evening gave perhaps the most beautiful sign of spring. I was out walking with Toby, and as we were almost home I heard the blackbird a little hesitantly, in the forest. We stopped and listened, rejoicing in the beautiful song.
Yesterday he came much closer and there was no hesitation in his voice. I was out removing old fence net in the corner of a big field some hundred metres from the farm. The fence streched along the forest edge of the pine forest on the other side of the ditch. As I stood there with the sun shining on my left side, he began to sing in a tree very close to me. His song echoed in the forest and together with the sunshine, epitomized the reasons why I have chosen this life.
“The capacity to wonder is among man’s greatest gifts.”
This is one of my favourite quotes, because it describes humans not as mere selfish beings, but having the capacity of feeling both awe mingled with surprise and amazement of the world in front of us which keep us searching for the cause behind the beauty.