Sublime Stillness

Still moments are revelatory moments.  Standing in the sunshine on my front veranda basking in the warmth of a mid-winter afternoon, the small movements of the world around me came into focus.

A Magpie slow-stalking prey amid the grass and fallen leaves - slight shivers of Jonquil flowers and shimmering Oak leaves as a chill breeze tries to impose winter on an afternoon too balmy to pay attention to the calendar - and a miniature ocean of waves in the bird bath.

Today the little pond was dancing as tiny waves met and became, so briefly, bigger waves.  Even when the breeze was stilled, the echoes of its passing could be seen on top of the water - a living version of what I found when I walked past it only a few very frosty mornings.  Then, the waves were even bigger, but poised, unmoving, as if time had ceased.

This afternoon, it felt like watching my own tiny ocean - that morning, the stillness gifted me my own tiny ice flow.  All it needed was a penguin or two....