Remembering the trees lining the curve.

Here is something for me to read and try to live by . Thank you, King Solomon!

She speaks with wisdom, and her speech is governed by kindness.

Proverbs 31 : 26

The Lord Jesus is our only helper. Through His grace, we shall learn to cultivate love, to educate ourselves to speak kindly and tenderly.

E.G White

Here, look at tall Holly mixed with laurels just as tall and branches of the oak intertwined. These lined the road as it curved exactly where our front door to the cottage opened onto a small paved area. Those who knew us well came through a double arched wooden gate at the side and then through the doors into the multi-purpose dining room / playroom/ family room.

This broad fringe of trees witnessed many ‘happenings’, but here are two. One happened in an instant, and the other drew itself out through the night.

An enthusiastic friend of my eldest son undid his seat belt, shifted to the otherside of the car, and proceeded to open the door on the road side (not the house side ) with a sudden and awful sound of crunching metal the door came off. The child was safe but shocked. We were relieved that all was well for him. A nasty bend in the road and a fast driver!

On the other occasion, when those trees were part of my life was when I stood with my elbows on the windowsill, my one hand cupping my ear. During the night, a pain I had never felt before had started in my ear. I took paracetamol, but that didn’t work, so from the upstairs bedroom window, I looked across into the assorted shapes and shadows of the leaves in the street lamp light. I tried to focus on their loveliness, but the pain increased.

Yes, by morning, my ear drum had burst a small weeping hole. The deafness and pain was still there but never as bad as that night. Within six weeks with antibiotics, my hearing was as good as new. A long time, though, to be patient and a memory of a lot of pain.

Here are some thoughts about hearing and seeing:

Lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and… stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to ‘ walk about’ into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?

Wassily Kadinsky (Born 1866 in Russia and died 1944 in France.)

A writer should write with his eyes, and a painter paint with his ears.

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946 American novelists, writer and art collector.)

Then something so appreciative of who we are:

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god. (Sandy would say as God created)

Alan Watts (1915 – 1973 English writer and speaker)

Thank you for remembering with me that curve in the road and the beautiful variety of mature trees in the lamp light.

Sandy 🙂