Monday, January 19, 2009

The Soothing Green in Nature

If only we could pause sometimes, we would be able to smell the roses. While roses may not be ubiquitous, we would definitely be able to see the trees, standing erect on the ground and looking askance at all the hustle and bustle that infiltrates our life. Then we would begin to appreciate how wonderful the world is, the symbiosis that inter-connects all lifeforms, and the synergy that ensues because of the connectivity. More important, the greenery is soothing, the leaves swaying in the breeze, the gentle caress seemingly lifting the day's gloom away. That was my state of mind while standing outside the town hall of the Regency Oaks community at Clearwater, during the intermission of the Dharma talk by Teacher Guo Gu organized by Peter and Nancy Kau last Saturday.

The subject of the Dharma talk on Zen Buddhism will be featured in a later blog. Meanwhile, enjoy the enveloping greenery as seen through my camera lens.

The lamp post and the tree trunk are joined as one, an unintentional quirk of my fortuitously chosen line of sight.

The earth path bisecting the green vista, but seemingly ending in green too.

The expanse of green, skirting the community in the garden.

The fish bone-shaped branches, giving a gapped appearance of the circular canopy.

Divergent at the top but joined at the hip, separate and yet co-joined: isn't that an apt analogy of life's connectedness?

Pattern in chaos.


Wify took this while we were crossing the W. Courtney Campbell Causeway flanked by the ubiquitous palms, being slowed down by the traffic pile up in front sufficiently for a scenic view of Tampa Bay.

2 comments:

Lee Wei Joo said...

Ah, I can see Mom's painting influence on Dad here. Definitely Dad is paying a lot more detail to life's little moments, it only really hit home to me now when reading the blog. Relax and smell the roses, and also delight in Mom's nature themed paintings as well!

c.y. lee said...

Trees, trees, trees! Love trees. Wow, good on Dad for becoming more artistic and noticing little details in the environment (which I'm sure he had before as well). In the third picture, I like the odd tree out. And in the fourth one, with the 'fish bone-shaped branches', actually it looks more like a leaf skeleton! I love looking at unusual trees--they are one of the only things in life, if not the only, that are still beautiful after death, sometimes even more so than when they were living.