Morning Noodles!
Ah, here we go again! A blue grey pink patterned sky greets me as my fingers start flexing. Isn’t nature quite beautiful? And isn’t it just performing superbly without us? On CNN last night, before Ozark ( got to end of Season 1 eventually and now definitely in love with Marty – to see those tears running down his cheeks? ) saw the deer flocking into town somewhere, the goats (where was that? Wales, Scotland? Was not really focusing) the turtles on the beach in Thailand because no one is disturbing the sand where they breed. Phenomenal. Beautiful beyond words. Caught the tail end of an interview with David Attenborough. He’s 93 for heaven’s sake? See what nature and appreciation for outdoors does for humanity?
It makes us human.
(Oh wow! I just looked up! It’s as if there is a great fire on the horizon. A luminous- orangey red. Sorry no pics today. I need to move on with my day…)
Human? What irony! What is humanity if we are all to be shut up, locked down in order to co-exist with nature? Is that how humanity should exist? Separated from nature and locked away. Humanity? How awful you are. (I couldn’t help myself. I tried to take a picture but it’s not NEARLY what I’m seeing so, sorry about that…)
7am. Now I couldn’t focus on this screen. I’m sorry about this blog being so disjointed. I took a picture for you. It’s my featured for today and below.
But it’s so hard to for me to see what I’m seeing and express the extraordinary beauty of the sky this morning. Somewhere I saw these cloud pics described as “skyporn” and I thought that so unfortunate. To take something so naturally beautiful and use it to construct a word that is half hideous. What a shame. A portmanteau in grammatical terms. We shouldn’t be allowed to view nature if we can’t see it for what it is.
So what are we going to do about ourselves then, humans? What are we going to do?
We cannot exist comfortably side by side in nature, and we cannot co-exist comfortably side by side with ourselves. What a monumental mess. Ja, that little meme right in the beginning of lockdown about feeling like God has sent us to our room to think about what we’ve done. Doesn’t even touch sides!
But how are we going to improve, is the question? Do we really think we can repent and change our ways? Or are we, by nature, greedy and manipulative, finding a way to satisfy our own desires in the face of LOCKDOWN and thereafter?
Found a comment from a friend yesterday – a cautious one, likely to offend- a suggestion about emulating nature in a way and letting it take it’s course with this Corona thing. You know? The survival of the fittest and all and letting the weak and vulnerable die to make way for the young and fit. And you know, in some ways, maybe we need to take a note from nature, but the other side of the coin is that despite our having messed up big time with so much of nature and ourselves, there’s a lot of wisdom to be found in some of the ‘old’. You know, people with real, solid value add, like David Attenborough for example. And there are many others I could think of- there’s a book on my shelf, Come of Age , Stephen Jenkinson ( Canadian, I think… I’ve never been to Canada, have you?) that I’ve been meaning to read which I know has some profound advice … but I’m running out of time today!
I need to go my special little Noodles. I actually don’t really want to, strangely enough. I love just sitting here with you and my thoughts and words and the sky around us all.
But more tomorrow I think! I have soooo much more to say. Can you feel it?
Take care of yourselves.
But in the meantime, let nature heal.
It’s the only thing we really need.
xxx
Niki Malherbe 