online: 30 june 2010 modified: 1 july 2010 30 june 2010 a summer evening
forest
...cooler air as south west wind brings misty cloud from the ocean and i resume walking after days when the air has been too hot and the radiation too intense with the wind from the east... but now i'm glad to be back in the forest and to be writing of whatever happens in these always surprising moments...
...all day i've been reading texts* by and about Lao Tsu?... texts which inspire for their wholeness until doubts and criticisms undo the gentle continuity of a theory that avoids naming and reasoning and divisiveness...
...i could sit here in this mild wilderness until sunset...as i look about and see the growth of blackberry bushes and other plants since i last visited the heath...
...a man and a woman approach with slow steps up a steep slope... and we murmur greetings while we are briefly close to each other in this world...
...i notice some new ivy creeping up the trunk of a youngish oak... and imagine a time when the it may reach the higher branches and when the combined weight of ivy and oak will be blown down in a storm...
...and i become aware that the wind is increasing and the leaves and smaller branches of every tree are now in motion... and i am feeling like walking a little further while it's light...
...walking further, and led by chance at forks in the path, i left the forest for nearby streets and a bus that led me to a small supermarket where I was glad to purchase rye bread and falafels and humous and feta cheese and bananas and apples and pears... all healthfoods so-called... and i indulged in marzipan chocolate made by a progressive family firm called Ritter-Sport* which is located in a small town in Germany and supports artists...
...all these things are the lineaments of our collective appearance (and our apologies for existence) are they not... the things we will be remembered for, i imagine...
*The Way of Lao Tzu, translated with introductory essays, comments, and notes, by Wing-tsit Chan, Bobs-merril, Indianapolis and New York 1963.
**www.ritter-sport.com
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