Moving On

My first anti-covid vaccine injection recently made me feel better soon afterwards. Giving the inherent feeling of moving on with life. Unfortunately, that is still wishful thinking for many people in other parts of the world. Even so, when you can you must seize the day, even when the pandemic blues keeps lingering in the background. Life can be reinvented.

The lightness of Spring brings physical, mental and emotional healing. As carpe diem is my favorite pastime, I visited some corners in and around Marseille over the past weeks. Fortunately, I am not the only one who gets such ideas. There is a special touch this time in what people do. Some more conscious effort in the activities. An appreciation of things so well known but now their true values are better understood.

When I entered the Rose garden at Borely, I saw that people were admiring the park’s Peacock. Apparently, their attention was not enough yet for him to open its tail. When I took my camera I seem to have piqued his interest. The Peacock gracefully lifted its glorious tail and I could see that he genuinely enjoyed the admiration, he lifted his tail twice for long periods. It must take quite some energy to do so for a Peacock.

By now, I have become quite fond of the horses and ponies at the equestrian centre of Montredon as you can visit them. Especially on Wednesdays there are quite some activities happening. Adults and youth take riding classes, mostly seemingly simple exercises in order to learn how to manage yourself and the horse or pony. Those are fulfilling hours in a human’s life I guess, control over yourself and a powerful horse is a great life lesson learned.

It seems to me that the real excitement of horse riding is in the cultivation of a patient and intimate communication between horse and rider. Impatience causes havoc. Understanding creates a bond. To learn that at a young age is a genuine blessing. In my teenage years I only rode a horse once, without saddle and reins. The horse ran away with me, I had no control over it but I never forget the sense of freedom, the power and the thrill.

It’s beautiful out here. Sunny, cloudless skies or skies with white clouds. I like them both, surely in Spring when the temperatures are pleasant. That’s not expected for this summer, however. It’s high time governments get serious about the climate crisis. Giving up our bad habits to make the earth clean and safe for a sustainable living – it’s a no-brainer.