Monday, February 22, 2010


CORNERS OF THE WORLD


Living up here you get much closer to folks than you do in the crowded city, getting to know someone takes time and there's less time in the city, each person gets a picosecond if noticed; involvement is deeper when there are fewer, as there are up here, we're sort of united by our scarcity.

What got me started on this was a recollection I just had about Mr. and Mrs. T., who lived in town where they had an old family business, but had a house up here in the mountains where they spent most of time after he retired. I often used to see them out in their sloping garden by the pond, a beautifully detailed garden in every season-- they were out there planting, trimming, raking, picking tree litter out of the moss, taking care of their place, making it elegant, keeping it neat like a clear mind, which such activity helps impart to the doer.

When we first bought this land I used to see them walking all around up here. They'd walk very slowly arm in arm, leaning on their canes because they were quite advanced in age, but a couple times a day they'd go on long walks together, often passing through our property, and I miss seeing them. They took good care of their little corner of the world, which is one of the things we should all do while we're here in this tremulous paradise...

'Taking care of my little corner of the world'... I know that's a bit naive, I know that there are problems with crowding, hunger and poverty, but the solution that is equity and peace can only be achieved by each of us honoring our little corner of the world, taking good care of it, sharing what it gives us and leaving it better than we found it...

3 comments:

Dalene Entenmann said...

Growing up we moved every two years. Not having much money, the places my parents could afford were usually ill-kept and quite humble. As soon as we moved in my mother would start cleaning and from my memory, kept our home immaculate. The entire time we lived there, she treated our home with the same reverence and esteem one might afford a palace. When it was time to move out, she put extra effort into getting the place spotless and repaired. One time I asked her, as we were leaving, why make such an effort. She told me "you always leave a person or a place better off than before you arrived." Nothing naive about you or my mother. Many of the world's problems might be solved honoring people and places in that way.

Robert Brady said...

Hear hear, Dalene-- and soul kudos to your truly generous mother.

Chancy said...

I like your prior post about the elderly couple asking permission to cross over your property.

Reverence for others is a lovely habit.