The moment when, after many years
Margaret Atwood, The Moment
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,
is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can’t breathe.
No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.
Like so many of my images, something called me to stop and press the shutter button. I pulled into the Running Deer Natural Area parking lot and took the image from there. I did not create any of the beauty in this scene, nature did and lovingly shares it with us. Our task is to accept the gift of its presence and beauty with grateful hearts! May we come to realize we belong in this world not as conquerors but as integral parts of it.
