Sunset through Solling Oaktree

The new day seemingly had no interest in sunshine. The sky remained closed. Only after my exercise and walking down to the Little Brook and the Riverside, through a bleak spot in the grey cloudy sky something like a sun just announced itself but quickly faded away. Only to return at midday when it gave us some springtime touch.

Willemien worked in the Garden a great part of the day, while I tried to concentrate on reading about Hara and tried to put that into meditative practice. Then unexpectedly sunshine came through and a blue sky lightened up. I rushed outside to photograph this intense changing through the contours of our Gardian Oaktree. I hoped to transform it into a kind of message for this journal. I like the picture, because it makes so visible how secure you can feel under the broad branches of this great old tree.

Well secure..., first we should mind the fatigue in Willemiens body now. It, our tree leaves a burden of leaves all over that steep rocky “garden”, which has to be removed to give space for unfolding for the colourful Little Ones. But during the summer we welcome the cooling shadows that spread from under those green leaved, broad spread branches.

What I meant by “security” (“Geborgenheit” in German) cannot be summed up as the total value of benefits and burdens this unique living creature represents for us. Anybody with a personal affinity for a special tree near the home knows what is at stake here. And, we never seriously have hoped to live under the huge crown of such a beautiful old tree.

In fact we never knew we would once have this unbelievable fortune, luck, chance to live here at the sunny Weser Hillside. That is already much more than the fulfilment of an old dream. This Oaktree changes our life radically. I hope you will read more on this later on in this Journal. As for today, towards the end of the afternoon, as I was finishing this writing on The Oaktree, a sudden vision broke my text and upload into pieces: a firing red sunset at the Western horizon came smashing in from many sides. I grabbed my Lumix and outside I witnessed this stunning outburst of golden fire through the branches of an Oaktree...