Gentleness is knocking on all of our doors, louder and louder, and I for one can’t wait to let it in and embrace it, exhausted as I am from the round the clock pandemonium that has been excavating our worst demons even when we were trying to ignore most of its grossest evilness, with just the thought of remunerative repose giving me goosebumps of joy but not yet a lasting relief, like when you suddenly notice how tired you are, the moment you lay down, but fall sleep you won’t.
My excitement over possible change to come in the world does not yet outshine the also palpable cynicism, but just taking into account the language that surrounds us creates hope. This language and how to let it do its healing work has been on my mind a lot lately, with our puppy finally coming home tomorrow and our responsibility for his education imposing, clearly demanding the very best of us when it comes to patience, kindness and understanding because there’s no other way to secure his stability of character and avoid future misbehaviors, not just his but ours too: who wants to be yelling all day? More than ever there’s an emerging need for us giants to be gentle men, nothing beyond our normal reach anyway, but an enriched consciousness won’t hurt.
So this morning the word gentle was jumping around in my head, bumping its ceiling because already filled with the election vocabulary I can’t seem to stay away from, thus gently taking a gentle walk around our gentle garden, an ordinary habit after feeding the cats, seeking a natural mirror for my thoughts, which saintedly never fails to show itself.
As an obvious choice for something pink, not to detract too much from our environment, this still flowering Red Campion (Silene Dioicia) caught my eye, an apparent color contradiction and in our garden as common as weeds, but extremely beautiful when you zoom in, which I did, only to discover that in the language of flowers red campion symbolizes gentleness. Now why doesn’t this surprise me?
There’s no other way to secure his stability of character
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