by
Martha Beck.
‘If a problem looks difficult, relax. If it looks impossible, relax even more. Then begin encouraging small changes, putting just enough pressure on yourself to move one turtle step forward. Then rest, savor, celebrate. Then step again. You’ll find that slow is fast, gentle is powerful, and stillness moves mountains.’
Oh, there was the impressive gates and careful formal red and green planting, the ferns, the trees and more bright planting but it was 32ºC and liquid from our foreheads trickled into our eyes so inside we went. The Villa Carlotta was cool with high ceilings and a pleasant relief.
I, as is the usual me, turned the wrong way when I entered and saw the end before the beginning. An intriguing end. A sculpture where I thought the shadow was lovely. It was of a woman’s back. I then read that it was a replica but that mattered little. It’s bow and sadness made me wander. Who had made it and why? It was Biblical. The woman found in adultery brought to Jesus feet by the men who self righteously caused her sadness. The story is all there in John 8:3-11. Jesus speaks kindly and tells her to be assured of forgiveness and encourages her not to continue. The men he deals with by, we think writing their sins in the sand. Whatever He wrote made them slink away like they had never brought her there to be stoned. I unfortunately photigraphed the sculpture’s name and information badly but here she is:
Then there was this amazing painting done from shadows into light. A beautiful, clear, deep view in. Look.
It is a place with many couples visiting. I was asked to photograph a pair. I was impressed with how lovely they looked. I then took a view of the formal garden looking down because I had enjoyed looking up.
A small taste of beauty inside and outside Villa Carlotta built at the end of the 17th Century by the Marquises Clerici of Milan.
A question. How does a tree grow so well in a situation like this?
I marvelled.
The texture of the bark of a Yew made me look more closely.
It is these amazing things I looked at on a very hot day. Another time I will see the rest. As the turtle saying goes:
‘ Slow and steady wins the race.’
And
‘ Take a walk with a turtle. And behold the world in pause. ‘
Bruce Feiler
Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo on the western shore of lake Como 20 km from Como. Perfectly comfortable in its own skin and finding contentment in its own pace of life. Much like the turtles you meet just beyond its enormous gates.
Take care,
Sandy 🙂
‘And the turtles of course… all the turtles are free, as turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.’
Dr Seus
‘ If a turtle doesn’t have a shell, is it homeless or naked?’
George Carlin