Tree of the week. Exeter College from Radcliffe Camera. A Horse Chestnut I think.
If you look closely there is an orange plastic bag stuck in a tree.
The Radcliffe Camera is one of the most beautiful parts of Oxford, with some impressive architecture. The trees from Exeter College garden help to frame the square.
Tree in late afternoon sunlight. (more…)
I gave meditation classes, on behalf of the Sri Chinmoy Centre at a local Friends Meeting House (Quakers) in Oxford. It is useful location, and is used by quite a few different meditation groups and spiritual paths. At the back, there is a small private car park, which, in the dark, is not so easy to park in.
Last week, I got back to the car park to find a notice on my windscreen. “Sorry I might have hit your car, if there is any problem, let us know. It included someone’s name and phone number”. I didn’t worry too much; over the years, my car has picked up quite a few scratches and dents. It has been a great car – 120,000 miles and is well loved, but these days, I’m not overly attached to perfect paintwork.
I appreciated the honesty and thought about texting the person back, but I was too busy. This week I arrived and a young women in Buddhist robes was sitting in her car, as if meditating. I parked, and meditated myself for a minute before getting the stuff out of the car. When she saw me, she got out of her car and mentioned she was worried she had hit my car the previous week. I smiled and told her not to worry! I already have enough dents, a few more won’t make any difference! She looked relieved to see a fellow person had non-attachment to their car paintwork. (more…)
Sometimes you go through life and at a certain point – you start to notice something, that had always been there, but for some reason you never paid any attention to.
There are many things all around us, that can easily pass us by – but then something subtly changes, and we start to appreciate it. There have been many things, from classical music to meditation and aspects of nature, that for a long time I didn’t recognise, but at a certain point, you develop an appreciation for, and then you wonder why you never noticed before.
Winter is always that quiet cold few months, where you impatiently wait for flowers to bloom and trees to come into leaf. Winter in the UK can be on the dismal side – grey skies, wet and windy. There is always part of you wishing the winter away.
However, there is a different kind of beauty in winter. Usually, when I’m cycling, I have my head down, training hard – trying to keep the average speed up. But, sometimes I take it easier and have the relaxation to look at the scenery. In winter it can be quite bleak, but this winter, I have become fascinated at the simple beauty of bare trees illuminated against the sky. It is not the abundance of spring or summer, but it has its own beauty of nature’s contrasts. (more…)