Nature's Place

Ahhh! That’s the sound of the body as it exhales in relief at being in nature. The pleasure it is, no problem. It’s the sound of the world of mind leaving the body of earth. That it can be, what a wonder that is.

I found a new flower today in the coastal wetland forest Billinudgel NR is. A lovely soft yellow standing out in the greens and browns of the trailside brush. There were no visitors to them but many passersby, many different kinds of little cricket – if that’s what they are called, one big black wasp about two inches long – too quick to photograph, a lone hoverfly, restless robber flies, hunting dragons and a few fluttering yellow butterflies amongst others.

There was the rise and fall of the sound of cicada, a song of expectancy, in metamorphosis. One to the other and all around. An enveloping presence. A song of bounty. Death of the old and new life. It resounds in me still.

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I came to a creek where I know dragons dance, I have seen them, really. And they were dancing there today. But today they were not dancing for me, I’d had my special performance. Today they were just Dragons dancing. He, or her, displaying his aerial skills and dipping in the muddy waters shallow edge. She, red rising swiftly in chase as he dodged in short circuitous ways. Gossamer wings glittering in the sunshine between the shadows of the trees and reeds.

After watching a while I passed on, to another spot I know. Where I go is often a matter of the earth opening up as the tracks and trails that other creatures make, or are made by fallen tree or shade or clumped and dried out growth. I rarely go where people go.

There’s an old burnt out bridge across a wet creek where two red Dragons lay. One took away as I approached, the other waited a while then away it went. But soon enough the second was back to a different spot and I waited. To see what next. She came and sat beside me in the grass, no snakes about, who knows.

I got closer and closer till I was in comfortable shooting range, about ten inches from the camera. She sat there preening and alert for any passing food but not at all bothered by me. She flitted here and there but never far away and always back to the place comfortable for me. Then she took to the air and disappeared and reappeared on my flash diffuser. The one place I couldn’t get a photo of her. But I got a good look with my glasses on and it is a wonder to see them up close and live, I mean alive, they are not that dangerous.

A remarkable thing, not one mozzie bite today in spite of being in the shade most of the time. After a few hours I went home the way I had come and enjoyed the simple pleasure of the wind and sun and green things with the occasional bird dropping into my existence to say hello, in sense, of course.
 
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge