There is a humble and stunning beauty out there in the fields at the back of my house. Sometimes there are other people up there. An old man with his dog; a couple walking hand in hand. But always, there is me. Three times a day, most days, I am up there. And today I was up and round the top in my daily pilgrimage – my daily worship.
Every day I am aware of my place and of the beauty of the things that I see. I have little frustrations and things that don’t quite fit, but in the main it’s a magical experience that I have had so far.
I walked through the field, around the edge of the wheat, feeling the ears slip through my fingers as I walked; slip through my fingers the way that I felt another day slip by and the long ribbon of time laid out far behind me and indeterminate ahead.
I am genuinely elated when I am out there beneath that wedge of sky with the ground beneath my feet. It never matters what the weather; never matters how my day has been, the solution to all of it is just to be up there, outside and away from the noisy bloated machine.
I think that above it all I just am so grateful to be as free as I am. I am caught in the jaws of the machine, of course I am, I know that, but because I know it I am afforded the freedom of not being fully consumed. The price I pay is solitude, but that’s not so much of a price. It’s not so much to worry about since it gives me space to think.
Felton Black 