Nature's Place

After working on the computer all day I went out back with the camera to see what’s happening. Passing the water bucket I noticed something floating motionless on the surface. I got a big leaf and used it to throw a lifeline to the creature. It wasn’t moving when I saw it and it wasn’t doing too well getting on the leaf.

Probably it was exhausted from its struggles. The natural creatures never give up until there really is no choice, unlike people who get emotional and give up before they can’t go on. It’s amazing how far beyond the point you think you can’t go on you can go.

It struggled onto the leaf, staggering a bit, then settled down. I put it on the wooden rail to dry out and rest in the sun where it wouldn’t be bothered by anything like frogs or lizards or ants. It didn’t move when I got up close with the camera. Not often a fly does that for me.

You can see some of what may be damage to the eye cover, or it may be debris from the water. And look at the hairs on the creature, I suspect they serve at least two functions.

The ones at front would be to detect and probe something before it touches the body proper, the way we use our hands.

The others would be to deflect small objects before they hit the body, or at least provide some cushioning to striking objects.

It’s probably a hazardous environment flying around close to the ground, the air full of natural bits and pieces.

You can also see the water droplets on the back of the wings. He’ll have to recuperate enough to shake those off, then he may be strong enough to fly again.

A lovely red flower attracted me in the garden. The plant itself is stunted from ants living in the roots. But where there is enough vitality nature goes on to produce a flower, or two.

Close up I look without thinking and see the deep red and speckles and shades of pink. And the form, the shape in the space. See it?

Beauty is behind. Examine closely all the parts that didn’t at first attract. Give it your full attention. Feel the texture of the thing, so soft and cool and smooth. Does it have a smell?

This is what it is to be in sense, simple isn’t it? Just keep coming back to the sense of it and leave behind the thought of it. No thought equals no mind equals no problem.

It really is a matter of what I acknowledge I get. By giving my attention to the natural things I am no longer where problems arise, in my mind.

Further on I came to a moth resting on a synthetic surface. It’s a lovely colour and shape, elegant, with its long antennae, its cloak wings furred at the shoulder.

Looking straight down on it from above it looks to be directing its eyes up at me. It may be the outer shell of the eye contains a moving lens through which it actually sees.

And the lens can move over quite a large range since each shell is more than half a sphere. I wonder if the lens’s can move independently from one another.

It’s amazing all the things forms of life can do.

When I went to the side of the moth to take a photo I noticed the ‘eye’ or lens seemed to follow. It looks like it’s looking at me from the side as it did from the top, and without moving its head.

It could be a trick of the light and reflection but I don’t think so.

It makes sense for it to have a hard outer shell through which the eye or lens sees, less prone to damage.

Isn’t it a beautiful creature? An amazing existence?

It is to me.

All copyright reserved / Mark Berkery