A Natural Relationship

One morning I arrived very early at our little allotment to find Nosher sitting outside his shed on his old deckchair.
The sun had barely peeped through the weeping willows as I approached to find Nosher apparently asleep, his hands tucked behind his head.
I crept past him hoping not to disturb his lie-in. It was five to six.
'If you creep around like that you're likely to get a fork pushed up your behind!' Nosher was not asleep after all.
'Morning Nosh. Get up too early?'
'No, just in time, as it happens' he replied. 'I've been sitting here watching a heron feeding in the stream. It caught a couple of tiddlers, then flew off a minute or two before you arrived. You might have enjoyed it if you'd got up a little earlier.'
Much later, around lunchtime, we returned to our deckchairs outside Nosher's shed, after a morning's gardening. I accepted his offer of a glass of parsnip wine, and we settled comfortably for our usual imbibement and conversation.
'You know, it occurs to me' Nosher began 'that we are very fortunate.'
The pause was presumably for effect. Then he continued:
'We can sit here and look around at all our plants growing, the effort we expend nurturing them is rewarded by the harvest we take from them, and all the time we are in touch with nature, our hands tilling the soil, surrounded by the plants and wildlife. Seeing that heron this morning reminded me just how wonderful nature is.'
'Is this leading to some deep spiritual insight, Nosh?'
'Not really' he said. 'I was reflecting upon how the pace of life has changed, and with it our relationship with nature. My grandfather, in the 1920s, would come down to this very allotment before work, very early in the morning, tend to his plants, then walk two miles to the farm where he was a labourer. In the evening he'd be back at the allotment for an hour or so on his way home. My father was a farm manager, but still managed to keep the allotment going, although he drove to work in an old Austin. And me, well, I managed to keep the allotment too after taking it over from my father, and I kept up the same habit of visiting every day, and since I retired I'm down here most of the time. But most people alive today have probably never been on an allotment, still less grown their own food. There's something special about that kind of relationship with nature.'
'You mean getting your hands dirty with hard work, and drinking parsnip wine?'
'Maybe there's that too' Nosher said 'but it's not just about the cycle of effort and reward, or being involved with the cycle of life. It's deeper than that - I think it's got something to do with the privilege of sharing the world in close quarters with other creatures - wild creatures such as that heron - which brings it home just how beautiful and fragile the world is. For those who get their food from the supermarket and drive everywhere, who never sit still in the open air long enough to see the wild birds and the plants growing, who never nurture and harvest their own food, well, I think they're missing something very important about being human.'
'And what might that be' I asked 'after all, plenty of people play golf or indulge in open-air activities - what's so special about having an allotment?'
'Because you learn to share it with nature' said Nosher 'and if you don't share it you're raping nature of what is most special about it - the wild plants and animals that should be all around us, that tell us we're merely human and not demi-gods who rule over everything with impunity. It's about harmony and balance and living together without harming others. That's the lesson nature has to teach us, and if we ignore it, it will have its revenge.'
'Very deep, Nosh' I said 'when's the book coming out?'
More from www.overthegardenfence.blogspot.com soon.
Find out more at www.paulsturdee.co.uk
and www.PGSBooks.co.uk
Paul Sturdee's book Is God a Terrorist? is available from all good booksellers. Please support your local bookshop - if you don't, it may not be there next time you visit!
If you have difficulty obtaining a copy, contact the PGS Books website.
Enjoy nature - but live in harmony with it!