"for the young at heart". Everytime I think about age and growing older, I know where to go to when it really frightens me: I walk off those disagreable feelings by going for a stroll through the beautiful park of Schloss Charlottenburg.
And nature teaches me that everything is relative, and depends utterly on your point of view.
Here you see a Bald cypress in the middle of the photo.
And the very consoling text on a chart about it starts with the words:
"Despite its youthful age of only 225 years, ..."
Ha, ain't that good news??
225 years? So that means only a hundred and something years older than us! :)
ReplyDeleteGreetings Maria x
Almost two hundred, Maria :-)
Delete(A few days ago I read in my diary how worried I was when I became 30. Thirty! ) Greetings, Britta xx
Of course! ;) xx
DeleteI can understand why you find solace in that wonderful space - most of the things in nature have been around a lot longer than us - age is all relative isn't it. It is only sometimes that I think about how old I am and it comes as a bit of a shock but really I don't feel any different inside, it is only when I look in the mirror that the reality hits :)
ReplyDeleteThe park is really beautiful, Elaine - behind the castle there is first a formal huge Parterre à la Versailles, then an English landscape (which I prefer). The tree sadly is - though healthy looking - sick. They do a lot to save it.
DeleteWell, to be fair, we have always needed passports to travel between E.U. countries, despite what they told us.
ReplyDeleteIt's true what you say Tom. A cop over here told me I should always carry my passport, and if stopped I should produce it along with my driving licence. Just one example.
DeleteOf course - and nothing will stop me to visit Great Britain. We have to change money too, and think in different measurements - no problem, though driving on the other side (AND operating keys etc) might sometimes be. But that makes it even more exotic!
DeleteAs Gene Hunt is - at the moment I have to watch 'Life on Mars' and 'Ashes to Ashes' - and I LOVE it - and love him (my friends all telling me that that is political incorrect, to adore such a 'macho' - well, but I do :-)
To Gwil: Last year Imy passport - and some other things - were nicked in Rome. In Germany the police told me, I don't have to carry a passport with me here - only a copy. On my driving licence I still look like Angela Davis - huge mop of hair, permed of course. Still like the photo.
Delete225 years. Only another 700 to go and your tree will be as old as Noah.
ReplyDeleteIf he reaches that age, Gwil - he tries to "Keeping up Appearances", but inside there is a hole.
DeleteFinding a place to reconnect with your heart is special. You do not really need that tree to know that you are still young and vital. But you might need the tree to listen to yourself and remember what you already know.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Emma - that expresses what I meant in a wonderful way.
DeleteOh, no! I don't know who Gene Hunt is and you've taken down the post that I thought would explain all.
ReplyDeleteGene Hunt is the very macho chef of the police in "Life on Mars" and "Ashes to Ashes" - and the series show two police persons who - after falling into a coma in our time - wake up in the Seventieth and the early Eighties.
DeleteThere is nothing better than a walk in a beautiful spot to shake off the blues. Much needed, for many reasons, in these times.
ReplyDeleteYes, Sue, it is. Beautiful and needed. Hope you'll have a look at it soon!
DeleteBritta...it's all a matter of heart and mind... Numbers ...age really doesn't matter. What a lovely, serene place! I hope the wonderful old tree hangs on..we have one in our yard that has had a gigantic hole for 15 years but the outer edges keep it going! Smiles...always, Susan
ReplyDeletedear Susan, in heart and mind everything is ok - hope in the eyes of others too :-) I hope that your tree - and the one in the park - will survive for a long time. In the park a person who studied arboristic is caring for it (and others).
DeleteAnd you are right, that is VERY young for a cypress tree. I find it fascinating that there are trees in this world that were standing when Socrates, Plato, and Shakespeare were alive...what a magnificent thought.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Optimistic Existentialist: for your thoughtful comment (to think of what might have been murmured under these trees for centuries - fascinating), for joining my blog, and for arousing my curiosity for a new blog - yours - (and such a great pen name). I will comment there soon (when I recovered from my surprise to see 196 comments!)
ReplyDelete