A Child, A Book & A Tree

The origin is unknown to me but I remember well this Spanish saying: ' En la vida, hay que tener un hijo, escribir un libro, y plantar un árbol'. In English it means: 'In life, one should have a child, write a book, and plant a tree'. I don't know why this suddenly came to me, but it stirs me a little that perhaps I should start living my life, if I don't want to regret one day at my death bed that I had totally wasted it without achieving anything worthwhile.

Having a child is definitely the most daunting task of the three, as it requires cooperation & dedication of another person for the process, which might even prove to be a much bigger & tougher challenge. I love children - other people's - and enjoy chatting or playing with them, then as soon as they misbehave, I can return them to their parents! And, I never have to worry about them during their absence.

I have never planted a tree, unless planting seeds of white cabbage and green lettuce count, which I did do in my boarding school days, as part of the education. Can I call them miniature trees?

Never have I written a book either, nearly as daunting as having a child. It is in a way like giving birth to a child, a brain child. But for that I need to have enough brain power to start with, lots of research, study, patience, and hours and hours of concentrated and dedicated writing, for months and even years, far longer than a pregnancy, to produce a book. And, at the end, whether the book is worthy of it's name is still a matter of debate.

Glancing up my site page, I see that I am writing my 4,552th Blog, in 5 years since my first one. An average book has about 4 or 5 hundred pages, so I have written the equivalent of 10 books - but disjointed, of totally unconnected subject matters. Maybe each Blog could be consider as a chapter on it's own? So I am not talented enough to write a book, at least I have an imitation of one which had been published. I will call this non-existent book 'Accidental Existence'.

Strictly speaking, anybody can write a book but ... Remembering the dozens of times when I had read only as far as the 2nd or 3rd page of a book & thought that I had already wasted too much of my time, and that the only place for it was the waste-paper bin. Inevitably wondering what idiot publisher was responsible for it's being on a shelf of a bookshop in the first place.

Tags:child,book,tree,

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The Fleeting But Delicious Moments ...

Talking about the many Fred-S in my life in my previous Blog yesterday, I had mentioned that Fred the Basset, by the famous cartoonist Alex Graham, was my favourite of all. Not just because he is the cutest and cheekiest, extremely doggy clever and with great understanding of the human species, but the fact that I have known him the longest, and can always find him at will. The other Fred-S visit me only when they choose to, or when destiny somehow put us on the same spot together by chance, giving me pleasure and enriching my existence. They had all in different ways, and to different degrees, helped me discover my inner self further, and let me become a better person, more understanding, more patient and more tolerant.

There had been many more Fred-S I hadn't mentioned in that Blog, as some of them had appeared in my life only once very briefly, but during that fleeting moment of seconds or minutes, had allowed me to get close and personal, been named Fred, and I had considered it a new friend. These wonderful moments had instantly formed part of my life, the memories of them safely filed away in the deep recess of my heart.

One casual encounter is particularly etched deep in my heart. I was taking a break on a patch of picnic spot alongside the motorway, to rest and have some lunch after many hours of driving from England to Spain. Just inches away in front of me I noticed a tiny little white head of a mouse sticking out of a hole on the ground, ate & also picked some scattered bits of food then quickly disappeared into the hole taking the food with it. It would soon stick out his head again, grabbed another bit of food and rapidly disappeared into the hole. Amused and fascinated, I purposely put some more food bits round the hole and he would again come, grab, & ran off into the hole. This went on a couple more times then, to my utter surprise and indescribable delight, he brought out his wife with a even more minute little mouse, smaller than half my little finger; all of them white with red nose and red mouth. I felt like a happy mother meeting her son's new family for the 1st time! They didn't run off so swiftly this time, eating the food right there in front of me ... I don't remember any other 'Fred' moment that had made me happier.

There had been monumental moments or events in my life, very much more significant or important, in theory should have been more memorable but, somehow, they had paled away, forgotten or, if remembered, just figments of them in sketchy and disorderly fashion. But those of all the Fred-s, I had known, would at times appear out of a blue, play out the scenes of our brief encounter in my mind's eye, as if I had clicked a replay button on a video, bringing me every details of those delicious moments, weeks, months even years ago, as clearly as if they had just happened.

I guess I have this automatic system in my head, with a file called "Precious Moments" that achieves all those wonderful moments of my life, however fleeting, for which I am truly grateful.

Tags:FleetingMoments,Delicious,Precious

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