The Near. The Far. 

Your view of the world creeps up on you unchallenged. ‘Hey’! You say. ‘Not the same! Nah! Not the same. I could see much more way back when. Damn stuff has got in the way. Clouded and impacted on my vision out there’.

We moved to Wales 27 years ago. Visitors marvelled at the views from the house. Wherever they sat. Out front? The distant sea, Aberdovey and the bay to the right, the wetland bogs before Borth to the left. Out back? The forests and fields. Forests on a massive hillside leading to Bedd Taliesin (Taliesin’s Grave). The fields full of bleating sheep and clucking hens and chickens. We see it all from the immediate surroundings of our house. High up in the back garden. Low down at the side and front of the house.

Time rolls by and Mother Nature does it’s thing……and simply grows and expands. Some considerations involving the immediate surroundings. The back garden’s two Silver Birch trees grow taller/wider. Our front garden had a massive Beech tree that grew enormously over 25 years of us living here. It has now gone. Too reactive to strong winds. Consistently in fear of it falling? When the wind really blew it really rocked and swayed to it’s rhythm. Dangerous at 30 to 40 ft height. massive spread out width wise and large and very heavy branches involved. Trunk at massive girth. We had to have it removed. Deliberated for years, but needs must. One very bad storm and fierce wind force had us trembling at it’s manic branch dance. Didn’t fall…..but!

We see other trees beyond now. A number of trees across the road are still present, albeit taller. Also. Out back in the garden? Alongside two beautifully tall Silver Birches? Damson and apple trees get more confident in producing lots of fruit. They‘re slightly larger and need careful pruning. Fruit trees, where some were probably planted in the late 1800s or early 1900s, are a wonderful focus.  

The surrounding enveloping beauty of it all? You can’t use the word claustrophobia because nature doesn’t work that way. It is there to sit and be wondered at. Alongside apples and damsons growing are trees alive with birds. Butterflies, dragonflies and honey bees, et al. hum-buzz and flap dance their tunes. We are in small garden Nirvana. Sitting amongst the development of these immediate natural elements, we wonder in awe at it’s awesome inclusions. 

But……where are those easily accessible distant views now? Hidden. Unless you move your body and seek a different position to look out at the “what once was”. What’s wrong with moving from your comfort zone? I and visitors no longer see the same views. But move out of our safe haven and seek a different perspective? Walk down the village, left up a staircase of a track, steep, relentless and loves to take the breath from your lungs, right along a forestry path, up into the shadows of trees, silent footsteps in the thick fall of leaves and evergreen brown needles, out into a glade and turn. Wow! A collective Wow! What once was, still is. But so different. Same sea, but a wider, deeper stretch in view, same wet bog lands, but a tapestry of rustic colour that presents itself like a quilt on the land. Same estuary, but full with glittering starbursts from the water, and same seaside houses in the distance, but fuller, richer and imagined life teams within their surrounding streets. We’ve reached a higher standpoint with the intentions of looking back from there to a moment in time we all want to remember. And it works. A warmth of remembrance, but seen through new perspective, steeps into the bones, psyche and social comforts. Holistic. No longer restricted by nearby purpose, harmony and development. All encompassing pure joy.

Now? The beauty of nurtured and close by growth which enhances the immediate joy of looking. Whilst those distant loved scenarios have never changed. Always there? So……stay and enjoy the immediate comfort of safe and recognised envelopment/development. And then move to a different perspective in order to seek the comfort of memories once again! You can never go home again. But you can accept that home is where the heart is.

What I’m trying to say is “Don’t destroy what is nurturing before your eyes just to get at the memories of the past. Change your way of thinking. Shift perspective and move to a place where you can still find sustenance in the past which never really changes. And look at what is growing and developing before you”.

I am not going to remove Silver Birch trees of solid beauty. Or the collective of fruit trees that produce beautiful fruits year after year. Despite attracting a plethora of wasps. Nor will I ask the neighbours to trim their hedges to see the beauty of once was. I’ll simply move myself to a different spot. The view was always there, but maybe a bit higher up the hillside. 

I feel there is nothing wrong in staying in the same contentment. Because there is always another ultimate. Embracing different viewpoints. Changing perspectives. Eyes point outwards not inwards. Upwards not downwards. An ever changing day, then nighttime, sky scene. You can always stay in the same place, look upwards and always look at the beauty of ever-changing everyday stories of cloud formations and the permanence of moon and stars.