I know, it's been a long, long time since I've written. I want to write every week. I really do. Turns out I'm writing every few months. It's been my art show season, where I lean heavily into my photography. I am also in the midst of catching up on file after file of my images that I let go far too long as I was completing my photography website.
And time is just flying. It's summertime here and our days have been filled with many good things. Lots of outdoor play, swimming, seeing friends, going on little day or two day trips. Planning a big trip.
And then there is another side to it all too.
Lately it's all felt like a lot. Everything. This world. The changes that are taking place in so many different areas of life are sometimes to deep to bare. They are hurtful, mind boggling, devastating, confusing.
The war and the feeling it left me with was a lot to bare. To see images of young children, bloody in the face, ripped from their homes and families. To see images of young people driving tanks in, ready to destroy, to blow up, to disrupt, to completely dismantle...yet the look on their face showed another truth. This was not in their heart. This is not who these young people really are. This is what they were brought up to believe they needed to be. They were brought to a point where they felt it was what they needed to do. Basically just children, forced to fight or their own lives would be at stake. But it's clearly not who they are at heart. Children are not born fighters. The pain behind their eyes shows the truth. No child is born a fighter. That is learned by outside influence.
Those feelings weighed heavy on me and I don't even watch the news. I saw images. I saw their faces. That was enough for me. I can't imagine the weight it left for all who do watch.
And this too...it's amazing how Cronia kind of suddenly faded away. Isn't it? This feels heavy too. So many lives lost, so many friends and families torn apart. A war against humanity. A war within our own 'little tribes'. Yet now silently fading away...for the real war seemed to take over...almost as Cronia's escape route, a mysterious way to secretly and silently fade away.
I don't know, the outlook forced on Cronia seemed to change around then, didn't it? Maybe it's just me...
I get it's still out there. I feel it's just looked at so differently now.
A song played from The Passenger the other night as I held my little boy in the kitchen. The Passenger...his words get me every time.
My little boy, who is now two, held me tight, feeling the safety and warmth of my arms. It was beautiful. I could have danced with him forever. It was one of those moments I wish I could have frozen in time. Yet I held him with tears in my eyes and a strange pain in my soul for the unknown world we are entering. A moment before I picked him up, I read something random about the 'Meta verse' and how the virtual world will slowly (not really so slowly) be replacing so much of what's 'real' in life. That hurts me deep too. Way too much to bare again. Why replace what this beautiful, amazing, incredible planet has to offer with fake, virtual, cold and heartless options? Why was I even reading it? I read for all of 5 minutes...if that. It was enough. I stepped away.
Sure, there is another side to it. Sure, there could be good things coming out of it. But no matter how good, you can't replace what's real.
I want my boys to grow up with what's real. The beauty of nature, the real smells and feels and taste of earth. I want them to know real relationships. To hold and be held by the ones they love. To have real deep conversations that hold deep meaning in their heart. Real eyes to look into and real voices to be heard.
This is a challenge in a world that can be so cold. This can be challenging in a world that is leaning towards the virtual.
Yet it is not so much a challenge when you can step away from devices and step into nature. There is so much good around us in the natural world. The health benefits are endless. We can not get too much of what is real in the natural world.
There is a book...the lost words...I read this to my boys. Hang onto those words in that book because yes, they are fading from childhood. Those words will be replaced with 'virtual' words. But that's not real. And I know there are many who will argue that it 'is' real because it is the real way the world is going. That's OK, if that's the world some want to live in. And maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I don't long to go there. I long for the forest and the oceans. For the fields of wild flowers and vast open skies. Nature is amazing. All of it. Life is nothing short of phenomenal as nature's way is beyond many of us. It's real. It's not in our control and that is OK.
Because look what happens when we try to control everything. Somehow, greed comes along. Power takes over. War happens. For war happens in many more ways then one.
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