Take Five: Walking Back to Joy
by Margaret Nielsen
“What is this life, if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?” William Henry Davies penned this couplet. Until now I’d always given Wordsworth credit for it.
The quotation flashed through my mind yesterday when I was walking. No, not on the scenic route around our neighborhood, but on my walking machine.
Granted, the machine is nothing flash. I bought it secondhand. It has no speedometers (for which I’m grateful), no pullies, bells or lights. It is firm enough not to wobble when I mount or dismount and it’s under cover behind our house out of the sun and rain. The advantage is no one can see me and I don’t have to dress very respectably.
As I left, right, left, right with my ageing legs, taking deep breaths simultaneously, I gaze through the lattice work at a delightful variety of trees. On the topmost branch of a Cypress Pine tree I spied an arrogant Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita). Maybe the early morning had stilled his usually raucous screeching. Maybe it was the fun he was having seeing how near the tip of the branch he could perch without falling off. He obviously was enjoying the challenge.
In another wattle tree, still in flower, sat a Pied Currawong (Strepera graculina). Recently I heard a media report pronouncing this bird to be not the kindest of species. It apparently gobbles up little birds if it has the inclination. Not unlike some bullying humans one occasionally hears about. A Black-chinned Honeyeater (Melithreptus gularis) – commonly called a Banana Bird - visits this same wattle tree regularly checking out the larder. On this particular morning he was given quite a lesson on bullying tactics by his feathered cousin with the beautiful singing voice and no manners.
A moment later a junior Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) executed a not so smooth landing on a wet verandah railing. It tried to land, slipped, attempted a further false landing by clinging with its beak, and finally dropped unharmed, but slightly shocked, to the ground.
Do you remember your physical education teacher, or just your run-of–the-mill class teacher saying, “Now children, let’s get warm. Let’s all run on the spot”? Younger kids still enjoy that simple pleasure. Botanical species as well as birds provided welcome distraction from my grudging exercise.
Not having a gardening book within reach I shall have to use their common names - passionfruit, grapefruit, cumquat, bottlebrush, mock orange, poinciana, buddleia, palm, lantana, bougainvillea and dwarf bamboo. As it was still winter, none of these was in bloom. But the myriad different shades of green and shapes of foliage were a treat to the eye and prevented me thinking, “How much farther is it till I reach my destination on this cursed machine in perpetual motion?”
It felt a bit like “running around getting nowhere very fast” – a line from an old song, Spring Fever.
And as I walked I thought, “What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to pedal and stare?”
Margaret Nielsen is an Australian writer, former teacher, mother of five and grandmother of six. After 45 years living in bush towns, Margaret and pharmacist husband Barry retired to the small country community where they met. Margaret is passionate about music, theater and people. E-mail pollyanna@brizcomm.com.au
©2001 Margaret Nielsen
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