In last week’s column we reflected on the views I’ve experienced from my tables at Cochrane Coffee Traders. Those views were immediately through the table-side window, such as a squirrel and a sparrow. But there was also a yellowjacket once just inside on the windowsill. And the star of that show? A wide-eyed spruce knot that was staring that yellowjacket down right from my table top!
Well, this week I’d like to pick up on the wisdom I’m learning from the wood knots that adorn the main-floor tables and balcony floor at Coffee Traders. Joining me is Nature’s friend, Barry Mach, an artist long mentored in First Nations ways.
Encounters with table-top wood knots have long been a source of pleasure and wisdom for both of us. Take, for example, the knots on the tables by where we were sitting, at top in accompanying photo collage. And yet, there were other wood knots in the room that are totally ignored!
As we chatted about how people could so enjoy the beauty of the wood knots beneath their cups, but completely miss the beauty of the wood knots right under their feet in the balcony floor above us (bottom photo), Barry recalled the wisdom of a Navajo song on the way of beauty:
“There is beauty in front of me, / Beauty to the side of me, / Beauty behind me, / Beauty above and below me. / There is beauty all around me.”
Ah yes, there’s beauty all around us, if we only have the eyes and heart to embrace it. And in this regard, I’m especially thinking of the people that cross our paths day to day right here in Cochrane. I’ve got to know so many of them in a heart-to-heart way at café tables. But what about all those newcomers to town I encounter at the post office and in stores? Doesn’t the wood knot wisdom of appreciating the beauty in all we meet apply to them, as well?
Thanks, Barry, for this reminder.
© 2024 Warren Harbeck
