i love how life works because i don't know for sure. do the birds know? might the trees? i think so.this morning i took a long walk with scout at my side, in front me, and sometimes behind me, me having to pull him away from yet another snack of who knows what! the sun was out at 8. bright. shining. warming, on this brisk morning with frequent breeze and wisp of wind.
i'm happy again. don't have any particular reason. just am. just being. just walking with scout.
looking up, admiring and shining back at the sun, i thought of michael kenna & his admiration, praise and thanksgiving for trees. particular ones in japan. particular ones he returns to, has returned to over many years, it seems he has created a friendship with certain trees on the furthest north japanese island of hokkaido.
he has befriended trees; he closes in on them and opens to them getting to know them with each visit he makes to see them, to photograph them, to be there with them. for he must travel to them since they stay in one place for a lifetime (imagine.).
are they dependent on each other, i wonder---michael kenna and the tree? does kenna expand in its presence? do they await his return? is there expectation of return when they leave each other?
at times in my life i've adopted a tree or two as my favorites. i think of it, see them in my mind's eye, a certain circle of trees welcoming visitors to my house in pass christian. the ones i loved when i lived on maplewood road here in asheville. others from the past, distantly....oaks and magnolias come to mind. they stand tall. they are rooted. they are brave. and are they seeingly more of the present moment than me....being so tall and standing above me with a view i cannot know unless i climb above the earth.
it's about an hour walk scout and i take about two times a week, we circle and loop through other neighborhoods than our own. i noticed bare tree limbs today, with sky showing through. crackly, breaking, mangled looking limbs holding on to their main source, the trunk being so powerful, spinal and erect. and the sun and shine and blue and white and sky's air shows through the brittle, baring limbs high, higher and not so high. anywhere there isn't limb on the tree, there is sky. the sky unites the limbs, and keeps them apart in space.
what does michael kenna know of trees that i do not? what does he know of life that i will learn? what do we both sense and trust forever?
bark is brittle in small parts but put together tightly and trunks hold tight to the earth. holding to the earth by root tiny, deeply ground tendrils, growing for years more than many of us here. how's that for being here now?
i love the way that life works, the small ways we connect with each other and the trees and the birds. the sky unites us, the air does, too. photographs remind us and voice shares with us. we do our best every day. and here we are. wherever we are. we are here.
it's the weekend before a big one coming. enjoy your feasts, families, and findings.
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