I look up to see the way ash leaves tremble in the slightest breeze. A wood pigeon lands on a thin branch at the top of an elder bush – then slowly slides down, bending the little branch until it can peck the berries. Most of the berries are gone now from the top of that bush. There is such a sense of falling way in this place at the edge of the woods – of slowly being pulled downhill – of slipping, sliding, tumbling – of resistance and insistence too – of reaching up – of pushing through. Even this ailing, moss covered ash keeps sending up new shoots.
There is no separation here between living, moving, reaching up, bending, crumbling, falling away – a system unself-consciously, with sensitivity, adapting to every push, pull, opportunity.
Author: MaryAb
Born in upstate New York. Moved to the UK in 1971. At home in Devon.
