This morning I was driving down to the local shops and saw the aftermath of the recent bushfires. The scorched and blackened trees a dreadful reminder of the act of two teenagers with an attitude problem or too much time on their hands? Who knows? Who will ever know.
But what was extraordinary is that just over a week later there is green on the ground below those tortured and damaged trees. A soft blanket of green new growth.
When I got back to my Mother’s home, we saw a weed that had grown up through the tiles on her patio.
I looked at this brave little weed and thought “ How marvellous?! How absolutely bloody splendid! “
How did this little seed lie in the soil, covered by tiles and grout force its way up to see the sky and feel the sun?
Isn’t nature fantastic?
When I was at school, back in the 1970’s I read a poem. I cannot remember its name but I do remember that it was written by “ anonymous. “
It told the story, far more eloquently than I ever could; of a tiny seed that did what this weed had done.
It must have been written about the time of the moon landing because it talked of the rocket forcing its way up through the atmosphere, watched and applauded by millions.
Yet the little seed did the same feat of strength and no one even clapped.
I wish I still had that poem. It has stayed with me for over 50 years. But, while I do not have the poem, I have retained its message.
This morning, on a warm Queensland Spring day, I saw the magnificence of that seed, multiplied by a million or more. A soft and defiant carpet of green pushing up out of the blackened earth and felt hope: that when everything seems dark and dangerously close to destruction, there is always life and promise.
What Nature can do will always defy our capacity to comprehend. It does not take a team of thousands of highly trained people; scores of computers and millions or billions of dollars to do what Nature does, quietly and without fuss every day.
Despite our best and worst endeavours, Mother Nature does what Mother Natures does best.
Nurture and just get on with the job of Life.
Mother Nature does not need a medal, an award, a Government Grant or a day off school. She just … does.
As Alexander Pope said
Hope does Spring eternal.
And Mum had better not pull out that brave and triumphant little weed.
I will put a photo up tomorrow ... she is on warning!
