I could barely stay indoors. You see? The day had started off with a mild drizzle. After what felt like months of sunshine, a little bit of moisture felt amazing. I stood outside peering up at the clouds – in itself a rarity now given how parched things get during Californian summers in the Bay Area. Even with summer flowers blooming and vegetable gardens flourishing, I yearn for the simple pleasures of marvelous sunsets, clouds, a pattering of rain, some breeze.
That is perhaps one of the things I miss most about the Nilgiris – the western ghats in South India where the rain drops and eucalytpus provided the backdrop for magic and mysticism. The rains, the clouds, the winds – how in one day you can experience so many different climes and you have to be prepared for it all, and still go about your day.
Nature is Transformative
That evening I said, “Well – come on then! “ hustling everyone out to see the glorious sunset. The clouds had scattered during the course of the day, but there were enough of them still there – enough to provide crepuscular glory with the rays of the setting sun. Some clouds looked like an artists reluctant brush stroke jostling right alongside the weightier ones. How every evening a different painting is rolled out to us continues to be a source of wonder.
Art is transformative – so is nature.
It transforms ordinary days into extraordinary ones.
It assures you that normal is numinous.
Nyctinasty flowers
That evening, I took in the deer grazing near the river banks, the rising full-moon swollen, resplendent and beautiful against the setting sun orangish-red and bright. I don’t have to be a naturalist to know that the birds felt it, the deer felt it, the frisky fox felt it, the fish in the river felt it, the flowers felt it. I stopped to admire everything – especially those that are classified as nyctinasty flowers :nyctinasty flowers like the evening primroses or gardenias close up for the night. They show you the importance of closing and resting in order to bloom and spready one’s beauty for the next day.
If ever there is an appointment to keep, it is with nature in those moments in the golden hour when all the world is settling in for a quieter pace.
Nourish-n-Cherish 