Category: beauty

Sometimes Leaves Go Up

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They ran, they ran and ran, they couldn’t stop, not to think, not to look, not to pause for thought. They were making all the wrong decisions, they went right instead of left, they tried to scramble when they should have stuck to the path. They called to each other when they needed silence. But they tried. They both knew that there was a way, they both wanted to find a way, but every decision they made ended in a clash and because of this, they stopped. They stopped trying to escape and were caught.

And here only when hope was gone, when captivity was inevitable did they see each other, they felt each others touch, the pain and friction between them melted away, they looked into each other’s eyes and their hearts beat together. Despite the desperation in their situation, they smiled and felt the warm glow of each other’s love.

They turned away from each other, away from their captors and looked out across the countryside, the landscape was wild, unkept, the terrain uneven and the fauna sharp and aggressive. But there was a peacefulness to the energy, an acceptance from the couple in their fate. They smiled together and looked up to the clouds. As they stared towards the sky the autumn leaves rose up above them swirling, spinning, drifting, bouncing like a butterfly… sometimes leaves go up.

A Little Magic

Posted in art, beauty, birds, challenge, climbing, imagination, landscape, nature, scene, story, thoughts, Why?Tagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Sometimes I have to tell myself to look around, to stop and appreciate what’s around me. But most of the time I just stare at the rock. It’s hard to look around when your focus is elsewhere. But one day I will, it will probably be too late and I will have missed the chance of a good view, but I promise myself, when I am old and can’t climb as much, I will stop to look around.

Despite promising himself the time to look around was going to be later, Matty was surprised. He was up early at the top of the cliff, he and his climbing partner James had stayed the night on the rocks and were preparing to continue their assent. Dawn was breaking and the light was blue. Matty turned to look at the pitches below him, to seek out the valley floor, but his view was interrupted by the clouds marching in below him.

The valley quickly filled and Matty nudged his mate to wake him. James opened his eyes slowly, sat up on the ledge and let his sleepy eyes dance across the bed of clouds.

‘Wow’ he announced, ‘That’s pretty fuckin cool’.

The two climbers sat in silence breathing in the air letting nature show off in front of them.

Two hours later and the boys were climbing again, making their final push to the top of the cliff, as Matty sat in his harness belaying his friend he thought back to the morning clouds and the excitement they had inspired. Taking his eyes off the rock face he looked to the sky. Above him Vultures circled flying down to his level, swooping below him and then in wide arcs returning up, out of the valley into the clear blue sky. It was a beautiful sound as they passed, huge wings beating slowly, majestically, Matty could almost feel the air they pushed in his direction. He smiled to himself. He smiled back at mother nature.

‘Safe’ James called. The signal that he was secure at the anchor of the pitch. It was his turn to climb.

Open eyes

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‘I want to show you something’ Rachel said ‘follow me.’

Rachel led her sister down the steps to the bottom of the garden. There was no clear definition between the end of the garden and the field but after a few paces the semi manicured layout of nature became more random and wild.

‘Where are we going?’ Rachel’s sister complained.

‘Nowhere’ Rachel replied, knowing the quizzical nature of her response would annoy her sister.

‘For gods sake, I don’t really care what you are going to tell me, I don’t care for another lecture, I just want some internet.’

Rachel didn’t reply, she just kept on walking enjoying the process of navigating through the countryside.

After a while the pair arrived at the crest of the hill and peered down the valley. In front of them a mash of purple, yellow and beige lit up the landscape bringing a smile to Rachel’s face. ‘Now what do you think of that little sis?’

There was a pause as Rachel’s sister looked for her words. ‘Okay I like it, it’s nice, it’s pretty, but thats it, I don’t know why you have to walk me for half an hour across the countryside to see a bunch of fields. I can see them on the internet, if I had reception.’

‘But don’t you think it’s nice to see the colours with your eyes?’

hmmmm… Rachel’s sister sighed and sucked in some air through her teeth making a hissing sound, knowing what she was about to say was going to be controversial, ‘I don’t know… I think I am okay it’s nice but I’ve got better things to do, I don’t really care.’ She turned and looked at Rachel, nervous, fearing retaliation from her sister. But Rachel just shook her head, turned back to the view and let the colours in.

Escape

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They pulled off the main road and followed the maze of circular single lanes, desperate to get to the station before the last fumes of diesel burnt off. The yellow light had been glaring at them for the last 30 minutes and the relief was palatable when they saw the red Cepsa sign.

They didn’t have long, Darren jumped out of the car, pulled his hat down to cover his eyes and shouted ‘Full’ at the attendant. Half running, half walking he entered the shop to pay. Moments later he returned to see Andy starring into the middle distance.

‘What? It’s them?’ He said, there was a moment of silence between them, Darren’s heart started to beat ten to the dozen, he followed Andy’s gaze expecting to see a line of Police cars, but he could see nothing of the kind.

‘No…’ Andy said slowly… ‘Look at that fucking sunset… Wow’

Fear will make a mockery of you

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I can’t believe I nearly died

The only way through was to swim, it didn’t look far and what could happen? You hear these stories about people dying in 2ft of water and you end up laughing. You think it could never happen to you, but this was close. I stripped off my clothes wrapped them around the bars and placed them on my head.

The idea was to take a few strokes and see if the weight was too heavy, if it was I could swim back and think of another plan. I set off.

This is fucking easy I laughed as I plunged into the gorge swimming head held high one arm holding the weight to my head one arm pulling myself through the water. But after 10 or 15 strokes I realised I was in the shit.

Moving Sound

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The beat flowed, the bodies followed, it was steady, continuous, but fluctuating. The rhythm held the dancers, kept them still for moments and then released them, allowing them to express their own interpretation of the music.

Hands united, eyes focused, pupils widened. Those that played were lost in the beat, those that danced felt the sound waves, felt the music as if it were an object hanging in the air. As they danced they moved the sounds around like a giant Rubik’s Cube, twisting and turning, spinning and falling. They played and danced till the sun had gone and returned. They smiled and laughed and the next day they thought. They sat and watched the horizon, mind stumbling to find last nights clarity.

Touch

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‘I can’t explain it’

‘Well try’

‘It’s like you and the water are united you feel the power of pachamama running through you, everything else stops, you just feel…’ Sophie turned to the mountain standing in front of them, then up to the sky. ‘… I don’t know, you feel alive.’

‘Well that sounds all well and good, but you can feel alive in lots of other ways and not have to spend years rolling around in the mud.’

Sophie turned to her sister and looked at her, frustrated, she had heard all these arguments before, you should do this, you should do that. Initially it had angered her, but she had grown to accept it. However this was her sister and she wanted her to feel, to understand what she was talking about.

‘How many times have you woken up on Monday and felt your head pounding, looked at your alarm clock and feared the week ahead?’

‘Eeeeeerrr… like every Monday.’

‘How many times have you got to Friday and felt a huge sense of relief?’

‘Comon Sophie… get to the point.’

‘Well I don’t have that… ever… Not the Monday/Friday bit, but the sense of anxiety and the huge sense of relief. It doesn’t exist in my life. I just have me and a sense of me.’

Sophie’s sister tool a moment to think.

‘But you worry about some shit. I mean you have to, money for example, you have to have money to eat and you have to eat, or does the land magically provide some spiritual nourishment that replaces the bodily need for food!’ She laughed at her sister and a little at her own joke.

‘Shut up’ Sophie replied playfully. ‘Look of course there are things that I need to survive, I am just saying that the drastic opposites are not healthy, the ups and downs. Everything I experience is much simpler. I have what I have, if I need more I work a way to get it, but I don’t fight with the world or the expectations society places upon us. It’s just nature and me and…’

She paused thinking of the times it literally had been just her and nature, times when she had been very lonely. Then continued. ‘It can be lonely, but you find joy in other living things and this reminds you that you are alive.’

Sophie’s sister smiled a comforting smile, ‘I think I like my iphone too much.’

They both laughed.

Beauty

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I just had to look and my mind wandered

‘Sometimes you forget the little things’.

‘What are you talking about’ Sarah said

‘You know sometimes you forget to look, you’re so focused on where you are going and where you should be you forget…’

‘Oh be quiet… come on we have to get there before the shops shut’

‘You know sometimes the ugly things are the most interesting’

‘I think you are ugly… now come on’

There was a pause as the girls looked at each other, a playful frown growing across Jo’s face, then they laughed.

‘Not as ugly as you’ Jo replied and with one last look at the undergrowth they set off up the hill Jo looking over her shoulder only once at the purple flower she left behind.