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All Is As It Should Be......

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by Srama, Jun 27, 2025.

  1. Srama

    Srama IL Hall of Fame

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    The sun is up and shining through the branches, the light reaching all the way into the pooja room! What a magical moment! While the heat is sweltering, I am grateful for the 5.30 am rising and 9.30 pm setting sun. The dog days of summer seem long, but they are worth every sunshiny moment.

    I am sitting in the backyard with my morning cup of coffee. It has rained and brought the temperatures down. The plants seem happier. The dogs are sitting close by, one on each side of the swing, watching what they watch, switching spots, getting distracted every minute. I look up and see my vegetable patch and find my painted cat staring back at me! He looks lovely there, watching over my plants, keeping the pesky pests away. Just yesterday, I noticed a few tomatoes!
    upload_2025-6-27_8-31-54.png

    I am reading Mary Oliver, and she is talking of snakes and slithering, having time and writing poems, and the poem that pauses the turning of the pages is "How would you live then?"

    How Would You Live Then?

    What if a hundred rose-breasted grosbeaks
    flew in circles around your head? What if
    the mockingbird came into the house with you and
    became your advisor? What if
    the bees filled your walls with honey and all
    you needed to do was ask them and they would fill
    the bowl? What if the brook slid downhill just
    past your bedroom window so you could listen
    to its slow prayers as you fell asleep? What if
    the stars began to shout their names, or to run
    this way and that way above the clouds? What if
    you painted a picture of a tree, and the leaves
    began to rustle, and a bird cheerfully sang
    from its painted branches? What if you suddenly saw
    that the silver of water was brighter than the silver
    of money? What if you finally saw
    that the sunflowers, turning toward the sun all day
    and every day – who knows how, but they do it – were
    more precious, more meaningful than gold?


    I tear up, feeling grateful for the ability to enjoy the silver and the gold of nature. I close my eyes, imagining "the stars run this way and that way" and I am sure there is a smile on my face. I hear the bird songs all around me. I open my eyes and watch a bird or two hop across the branches, picking the cherries. The tree that was sprinkled with small balls of red all over now is back to being green in all its glory in just a couple of days, and more importantly, I am aware of the silence! Ah, the silence, the sound of silence, and I wonder where all those cicadas went? The cicadas that came out after 17 years of hibernation with their largest of groups and the loudest of sounds, just like that, they have disappeared, leaving behind the sound of silence, the sounds of birds, the sound of an occasional car whirring by, the sound of an occasional plane flying by, the sound of water gently falling!

    Never mind the cicadas and their loud presence, the empty shells now on the ground, never mind the big heron that appears every year and empties my pond of all fish, never mind the stray cat that competes to get the same fish, never mind the sparrows that have made a nest in my dryer vent, never mind the cawing of that crow, the baby squirrel still at the same spot I had last seen at - all is as it should be!
    upload_2025-6-27_8-32-36.png
     
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  2. iyerviji

    iyerviji IL Hall of Fame

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    As usual.super
     
  3. Srama

    Srama IL Hall of Fame

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    I cannot thank you enough Viji aunty @iyerviji for taking the time to read and nominate as well. Have a good weekend.
     
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  4. Srama

    Srama IL Hall of Fame

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    Your nomination speaks volumes, so please don't feel bad about responses - though I would love to hear whatever is on your mind!
     
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  5. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    One of your masterpieces, Srama, so inspiring, and at the same time calming and reassuring. In this crazy world, it’s a gentle reminder that all is as it should be… or at least, that we can find things quietly following that comforting rhythm. I truly felt like I was sitting next to you in your garden. For those few moments, I was tuned in to the slow growth of plants and the subtle shifts of the season.

    As for me, I’ve long since given up any real interaction with soil, except for an annual nod to a whimsy only I notice, a quiet reminder to try and write about these little things, just like you do. The whimsy: a few years ago, tulip bulbs from my front yard were magically teleported to the backyard after our landscape guy did a full overhaul and ignored most of our instructions. Instead of hauling away the soil, he simply moved it out back and didn’t tell us. Though I did wonder at the swiftness with which the soil disappeared from the front yard and the uneven bumps in the backyard. Honestly, that guy would come in handy if one ever needed to dispose of a body!

    Months later, I was sitting at the dining table, minding my own phone, when I happened to glance out the glass window, and there they were. Broad green leaves, poking out from between the new rose bushes. It felt like a character from a completely different story had wandered onto the wrong set. I quickly put two and two together, half cursing, half amused, and said aloud to no one in particular: bloom where you're planted… or bloom where you're replanted.
    I loved this beautiful series of never minds, a quiet celebration of all the things we usually overlook or brush off. We should always strive to notice the never minds, no? There’s a kind of peace tucked into them.

    I do notice them, but I’ve never thought to name them like that. I will now. Like when I see the squirrel scampering along the top of the fence after yet another failed attempt at the peaches. It always pauses, loops back, and seems to look right at me through the glass window. :grinning: No, I haven’t started losing my marbles. I know Mr. Squirrel is just checking its surroundings and I happen to be in its line of sight. Life is often filled with lines of sight, like standing in the self-checkout line when the store person notices you and nods you over with an almost conspiratorial look, as if you’re their chosen one, excused that day from the ignominy of searching for the barcode to scan your purchases. Or finding yourself in the line of sight of the highway police officer, sitting on his motorcycle and minding his radar. Sometimes it’s just a gentle reminder to slow down.
     
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  6. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    DEAR MADAM,

    THAT WASLOVELY.ALL ARE NOT GIFTED WITH POWER TOENJOY NATURE AS IT IS.WISH YOU MANY MORE SUCH WRITE UPS

    JAYASALA 42
     
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  7. Srama

    Srama IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Ri, @Rihana,

    I don't know what to say - thank you! Your response is a snippet in itself. Thank you for such a wonderful response.

    And that's all I am trying to say, and live that in this crazy world, all is as it should be. We have to find those moments and hang on to them. I am not sure how I would have done if I didn't have this luxury of pausing, identifying those moments when they present themselves! If my writing presented a visual, what else can I ask for?

    As I hiked in the wilderness of Alaska, taking in all the views, it was always that little flower growing on top of an arid hill that made me smile - blooming where planted, offering a reason to smile. It is something I have tried to follow in life.
    What's the purpose otherwise, tell me?

    I wonder why you would give up on gardening - if you have employed someone and still enjoy the beauty of it, I understand. You know my backyard is a 'wild thing'. My neighbor right behind my house has a prim and proper yard and mine....well it has a mind of its own. What can I say? I have tried to bring some order, but the plants seem to tell me, hey stand back...we are just going to bloom ...where we want. So by August, I am mostly giving up to welcome the beauty and chaos of fall.

    You make me smile! And please do write about them. Noticing, not fretting, allows me to see what is!

    This reminds me of a snippet I had written oh! so long ago about 'nature of things' and the exact same topic as I sat waiting at a signal watching a squirrel on top of an electric line doing the same thing....run, pause, look around, run, pause, amusing me for those two minutes! So wonderful!

    These days, I often get accused of being quietly happy, but then, all of us can be too if only we notice the small things that actually matter. As I write this, I am thinking of Richard Bach working on making a cloud disappear in Illusions....we all go around carrying that cloud on our heads, which can poof...disappear the moment we see something and make an effort to ...just pause!

    Thank you, Ri! Your response adds value and makes me want to continue to write. Not sure I have it in me to stop though...I am already busy here, as you might have noticed.
     
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  8. Srama

    Srama IL Hall of Fame

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    Thank you, dear JS Ma'm @jayasala42
    A response from you has always meant a lot to me! Grateful!
     
  9. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    Beautiful, Sabitha! God is in Heaven and all is well with the world!
     
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  10. Srama

    Srama IL Hall of Fame

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    Indeed Satchi!
    What other way to see god than in the good and the beautiful things of the world?
     
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