The Wild Places

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour

– William Blake

This awful coronavirus pandemic has its plus points. Everything does. It’s given us time. It has reminded us not to take anything for granted. It’s given me the wild places…

A sense of calm that has crept into our maddening rushed cities. The streets are now full of a hush that comfortingly falls and blankets us. Discordant city noise, hustle and bustle, are replaced with the rustle of trees and the soft songs of the wind. No call to sale tempting you in. For every situation, there is a positive.

What is travel? We see another place with open eyes and an open heart to experience something familiar yet unfamiliar. When we go to another city or country they have shops and squares, parks and boulevards, lanes and markets as we do; These places are transformed into the wondrous because they are at once the same while being exotically different.

If that’s travel then you can travel without moving. Sometimes the travel comes to you when the ordinary is transformed into something altogether new. All that’s required is that we have an open heart and eye to the wonder and beauty, to experience the ordinary transformed into the extraordinary.

Coronavirus has given us just that! Our once familiar streets now free of the crush of humanity are an absolutely new experience. This is a once in a generation thing. you will most likely never see this again. This is the ruby in the rubble. This is the silver lining. This is your gift.

Personally, I have loved seeing the wild places creep back again. Nature came back slowly, at first, timidly, it seemed, tentatively, she came. Nobody came to cut the grass. And so it grew. As the weeks passed into months the wild returned. Nature seemed to grow bolder. The wild returned and nobody came to cut the grass. And so she grew and blossomed. The once familiar places transformed by the return of nature.

Wild and knee high the grass grew. Waves of wind moved through it and the grass rippled like an ocean at its touch. Nature came calling in every place she could find from small islands bound by brick to vast patches like little oceans of green. The sun played patterns in the tall grass.

At last, perhaps emboldened, came the wildflowers with beautiful blossoms of purple, yellow and red. They reached to the sun and opened up joyously. Around the edges came big purple flowers. Amid the ocean of green dotted yellow flowers like small sailboats.

I’ve enjoyed so much seeing the wild places come to visit. What must they think of our concrete grey slabs and our bricks? They offer no warm soul. They are lifeless things and I cannot feel the pulse of the earth on my feet. Sometimes I walk on the grass to feel the connection again.

Dog walks are transformed into an adventure. Every day I walk a new route to see what has taken root. What wild mini jungles will I find? What a gift to see such things in an everyday setting. It’s why we love rainbows and snowfall or even the rain. They transform the ordinary into something less mundane and altogether magical. Dog walks have been magical.

Sometimes you don’t need to travel to travel. Sometimes travel comes to you. I do dream of far off exotic shores. I do want to tread again on foreign soil but this has been a gift.

Finally they came…

They came to cut the grass, cut my mini jungles, cut down the grass oceans. The wildflowers have left. Now it’s all gone. It feels like a little wonder has leaked from the world. The Gods have tweaked the colour volume of the world a little to the left. I can’t help feeling some small measure of sadness at it’s passing. But all things must pass. They always do. We only fool ourselves into thinking that anything will remain. Everything has its time.

Time is precious. Instead of sad I should feel happy that I lived to see the days when the wild places came to visit. I should feel fortunate to see the quiet streets, the mini jungles, oceans of wheat waving tall grass, and wildflowers. I think I will never see it again. Probably I should hope not! One pandemic in a lifetime is quite enough! So instead I shall be happy. I shall be glad. I will remember the days when the wild places came to call.

“The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

– Marcel Proust

I hope you enjoyed this post. Look for the wild places or the unusually usual beautiful. If you did enjoy it then please could you share this as it helps the site grow? There are a few more articles on travel without moving that you might also enjoy if you would like to go on a journey without leaving. Take a Slow TV Tour or travel by food or movies or maybe songs?

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Happy Travels.