An Orchard at the Bottom of a Hill
Why don't you try just being quiet?, If you can find some silence, maybe, you can listen to it. How it works, is interesting. I really can't, explain it, but you know it when, it's happening. You realize, you're marveling at apple blossoms, and how they're clustered on the tree, and you see the bees meticulously, attending every blossom there,, and you think the tree is kind of sighing. Such careful beauty in the making. And then you think, it's really quiet,, but I am not alone in this world. That's how you know it's happening,, there's something solemn and wonderful, in the quiet, a slow and steady ease. Whether the tree is actually sighing, is beside the point. It's better to wonder,, you needn't be precise with quiet,, it just becomes another thing. It isn't a science, it's an art,, like love, or a dog who's pretty good,, asleep in the grass beneath the tree. This story is part of TIME's August 6 special issue on the American South. Discover more from the issue here.