The rivers are truly the life blood of our ecology.
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Around the mountain, they form a network of life sustaining green veins snaking through the parched landscape.
As you enter their welcoming and cooling shade, just for a moment the desiccation is forgotten.
Here, it seems that a perpetual Spring resides.
Under these verdant alders, all is suffused with gentle sunlight and intense greens. The sound of the stream provides a soothing soundscape to this riparian tableau.
Sitting down, primal senses are engaged and the deep natural connections of this place become manifest.
Tree blending into stream, water evaporating into air, kingfishers slicing that air with iridescent beauty while all life inhales and exhales the encompassing atmosphere.
Leaves fall onto the rich brown earth and are incorporated within it by the teeming billions of microscopic life forms.
Along the margins, the flowers that live on in this timeless place attract the bees which in turn are food for the birds that swoop down from the canopy.
Above me, the trees are drinking sunlight and converting it into sweet sugars fuelling yet more riverine denizens.
I too draw in the pure air of this riverbank while my soul and body is nourished by the life around and within me. The greater life of which I am an inextricable part.
I can no more hurt this ecology than I could cut my own flesh and expect no consequence, pain nor sadness.
Lying back I become one with the swirling greens, golds and the sounds of life and river.
Photos: Rio Almodovar at the foot of the mountain. Courtesy of the author — with Peter Pilley.
My wife and I just spent almost a month in Europe. with all that we did, the most memorable was the time that we spent in the Dolomites. Although we weren’t “roughing” it, we spent a lot of time living a more basic life. The views were breathtaking. There was a waterfall in front of the home we were staying and it was there where I spent a lot of time.
Allowed us to simply get back to the basics, good food, good people and a lot of relaxation.