MONO MONDAY - RELAXED/RELAXING

I haven’t been out for a walk for a few days, so decided to go over to “my field”  and knew that after I had done some singing, praying and walking, I would be feeling very relaxed and I have to say it did not disappoint.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the clouds were puffy and there was no-one else in the field, so I could sing to my heart’s content.

Partway round, I could see a lady with a dog, but I just carried on walking and singing, until she started to walk over towards me.  I then realised that it was Jo, a lady who used to be a Teaching Assistant at the school where I volunteered a few years ago, with her German Shorthaired Pointer, Cass - I have put in a shot of her as an extra, waiting patiently for a biscuit.  We stopped and chatted for a while as Cass happily chewed the grass and investigated various bushes but then she had to go, so I carried on round the field, singing as I went.

I took lots of photographs and it was good to see the patterns on the grass where the sunlight was filtering through the various trees, so I knew it would look good in mono.  My shot today is of my favourite willow tree and although I didn’t intend being “in” the shot, realised when I looked later that I was.  I was trying out a new selfie stick - the remote on my old one has been playing up, so I bought a more expensive one this time and it seems to be very good.  

I find walking and singing in “my field” very relaxing and in fact, when I was telling Jo that we had lived in our house for 38 years and had only just found it, she told me they were the same - they had lived on this side of the town for 20 years and only found it a couple of years ago.  I told her that I call it “My Sanctuary" and she said that she calls it “The Secret Garden” - and it’s both!

When I was looking for a quote, I came across this, which I thought was interesting and hope you do, too:

There is a Japanese term “Komorebi”, for which no simple English translation exists. Yet it is a distinct phenomenon, that anyone who spends time among trees will have enjoyed.  Komorebi roughly translates as “the scattered light that filters through when sunlight shines through trees”.  It is made up of three “Kanji” or Chinese characters: “tree” or “trees”, “leaking-through” or “escape”, and “light” or “sun”.

Komorebi is especially noticeable when the sun is low, and mist or smoke can add to the effect.  The impact of Komorebi to the observer can range from creating a pleasant ambiance for a walk through the woods, to generating feelings of awe – which in the right place at the right time – verges on the transcendental. 

“Any patch of sunlight in a wood 
     will show you something about the sun 
          which you could never get 
               from reading books on astronomy. 
These pure and spontaneous pleasures 
     are patches of Godlight 
          in the woods of our experience.”
C.S. Lewis