Updated on March 6, 2022
Reading Dr Goh Lee Gan’s post on tiger orchids set off some thoughts – thoughts on my walks in the Singapore Botanical Gardens.
Why didn’t I see the biggest and oldest orchids in the world in full bloom? One reason is, “the eyes only see what the mind knows”. Knowledge helps us to understand, to see, and to appreciate. I didn’t know anything about tiger orchids then. I do now. And now that I know these awesome “tiger orchids” I will be on the lookout for them.
There is yet another reason. I could be so preoccupied listening to my chatter (while walking) that I did not hear or see nature’s beckoning. We can only hear one conversation at a time, it is how it is. Paying attention to myself talking makes it impossible to have a conversation with nature.
There might yet be another reason. I could be in a hurry: to run an errand, to go see a friend, to…It is impossible to appreciate anything meaningful if we just go whizzing by….
Welsh poet William Henry Davies (1871-1940) knew this all along when he wrote:
Leisure
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
I shall slow down…
Stand
Stare
And marvel…