Fall and Rise

It's a beautiful autumn day, you know one of those days.

And a little walk in the local churchyard the leaves falling from the trees, sun peering between the branches. Warm in the face, but appreciating the sweater in the wind.

Rustling leaves, falling sycamores. You know the stuff. The stuff of children's poems from an illustrated book.

But here's the thing.

I didn't know what the leaves were.

I didn't know what the trees were.

I didn't know the name of the plants around the church.

And I didn't know anything to call the fly that landed on me anything other than "fly".

It's not very good is it?

We learn to rub stencils of leaves in our school exercise books.

But somehow, some of us get to the stage or the age where we don't know our oak from our maple.

It's pretty poor.

Psychologists harp on about mindfulness quite a bit nowadays.

Well how about being mindful of an environment?

Once you become a little aware of it, why not then become a little inquisitive and then perhaps a little informed?

Just one interesting fact about the tree you looking at should do it. It's history, journey, geography, biology, anything...

It's like flossing. It's a nuisance but all you have to do is floss one tooth. Floss one, and you're away.

Start.

Improvised theatre speaks a lot to environment.

Once you're aware of it, you can engage with it.

So become aware.

Wonder.

And find a way to engage.

This is your world, just as much as the one you've been living in.

But this isn't a general lesson, this is a lesson for me. I know plenty of people are brilliant at knowing plants, people who know can tell their larch from their ash, their beech from their maple.

It's me that is behind the pace.

So I'm finding ways to pick their brains. In fact I started last night. I happened across a twitterer who identified plants.

I tweeted him a leaf from the churchyard. And he gave me back its name and a bit of history within a few seconds.

Finally...social media is good for something other than selling.