This morning I am thinking about change. We are in the midst of the change of seasons and the leaves are starting to fall from the trees. We have been living through a dramatic change in our lives due to Covid 19 and we are witnessing a change in the climate of both the earth and the politics that impact it. Time and change work together to create the cycle of life.
As I look out at the side yard I can see where the bird bath is standing amongst tall grass and weeds like a ruin from the past. I can remember when I first moved it there and created a little circular garden that has been left unattended for several years now.
Most photographers are drawn towards photographing remnants of the past. There is usually a sense of nostalgia associated with it along with a sense of curiosity as to what happened there and why was it abandoned. I particularly enjoy the process of inventing a story about what I think had happened there. But most of these stories are not connected to the truth of existence. The truth is simply that change is inevitable, life goes on, and the earth returns to a natural state.
One of the beautiful aspects of learning to garden is to recognize that the landscape is a canvas for creation and recreation. The art of living is about evolving and changing and creating. The side yard was left alone this year in favor of moving the flower gardens out back. The fresh and colorful new landscape of the back yard was offset by the process of entropy in the side yard. I left it alone and enjoyed watching nature reclaim the space. It is like a perpetual Yin and Yang balance.
I remember seeing an art exhibit by another artist who understood this. He built wood models of barns with large gaps in the walls and roof that replicated the ruins of barns he had passed along remote highways. He said that these gaps represented the equilibrium that now existed between the wind and the barn. I wish I could remember his name but I am grateful for the memory of his interpretation of the landscape every time I drive past old farms.
In closing this post I am thinking of the bible verse that is soften quoted to describe the harmony of our existence.
Ecclesiastes 3 King James Version
3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.