Time out

Seventeen years ago I was looking for a new home. I viewed my unit and I was blown away by the peace and serenity, the bird calls and the surrounding trees and knew I had to have that place.

I moved in and took every opportunity to enjoy the tranquillity. My creative gene stretched itself and woke up and invaded my being. I called my unit "Inspiration". But you know what they say – "Familiarity breeds contempt". This may be a bit strong but life happened and I seldom took the time out to sit and appreciate what my busy lifestyle was paying for – peace and serenity. Instead I looked all over for this hidden commodity that resided on my doorstep. Okay I did enjoy the peace, I did enjoy the serenity but it was only in passing. I am very fortunate to have a door leading out of my study into my garden. On good days I sit in my study working with the door open but I did not, could not, immerse myself in nature – there was work to be done.

In the last few months life has assumed a (more than usual) stressful component. On Sunday I took a short time to immerse myself in nature and felt healed but Monday, Tuesday oh boy! Life intervened again and I found myself running around chasing my tail. It is now nearly 10 am on Wednesday morning, 17^th September which in South Africa is the beginning of spring. I opened the study door and was immersed in the song of birds with the occasional squawk of the Hadedahs. I stopped, I paused, I wondered about nature – it had me in its thrall. I wanted to capture these soothing, calming sounds so that I could play them again. So out with the cell phone, silence from me so that I could record the peace and tranquillity.

Forty seconds of peace punctuated by the Hadedahs. Playback time – nothing – except of course the occasional Hadedah.  

The thought smacked me on the side of my head – "Nature has to be experienced – we cannot just summon up the peace and tranquillity at will. We need to be involved. We need to take some time out."

Stop, look and listen – your stress healing is always there – the Universe, God, Allah whatever you choose to call it has given this to you.

The sad thing is that I now know this fact (once again) and I will (once again) appreciate it for a time and (once again) life will happen and I will (once again) forget. But for these brief moments I know and appreciate serenity.

The view from my study