Proximity

I had a thought while I was walking along a byway, after I had sat or stood, still and silent, a few times. It was this:

Into my silence, the sounds of the world come.

Into my stillness, the creatures of the world come

This is how it is in the garden.

Mrs S is brave because she is so hungry.

This is one of the two males. They often come one after the other and they will chase Mrs S away.

Out in the fields or woods, I feel the birds settle back into their normal activities after I have been silent and still for a while. Sometimes, I hear something else, a rustling in the grass, that I take to be mammal. Once recently, I heard again the shocked bark-squeak of what I think must have been a stoat or weasel suddenly coming upon the stink of human.

In the garden, Lopsy still hops about; Baldy Dunnock is no longer bald; and there's at least one dunnock with no issues at all!

The blackbird male still looks dreadful. I assume the foxes still visit and the hedgehog still roams. Great tits have been more noticeable. Goldfinches sing on the aerial but I do not see them in the garden. Jays still come. The young starlings have mostly adult plumage.

In the park, I regularly see the Driveways and often the Divines and the Unbrave Two - who are now a Two not a Three. When we see each other, the Flyings and the Playground Pair still associate me with food. All of them like me to turn around and walk away so that they can eat.

Into my absence, the world comes.