'We come with our eyes more open and ready to be amazed and exhilarated by sights such as the murmurations of starlings...' Photo: reway2007 / flickr CC.
Glimpses of Eden
Rosalind Smith enjoys a celebration of the natural world
Jonathan Tulloch will be known to many, not only for his novels, which have been serialised on BBC Radio 4, but also for the series of gentle, thought-provoking passages he writes regularly in the ‘Nature Notebook’ in The Times and, probably more amongst Catholics, in The Tablet. Glimpses of Eden: Field notes from the edge of eternity comprises a round-the-year anthology taken from this column and so is divided into the seasons, starting with ‘Winter’.
There is wisdom in starting with that season because he exhorts us not to go into it with any kind of trepidation and dread, but rather to welcome it just as we do the other times of the year. And because he does start there we are immediately shown how we can truly appreciate just what is out there, in the gardens, in the hedgerows and in the fields and streams.
We come with our eyes more open and ready to be amazed and exhilarated by sights such as the murmurations of starlings against a winter sunset (a survival tactic against falcons apparently); gorse still in bloom (a plant abounding in rich folklore and which appeared so beautiful that ‘eighteenth century botanist Carl Linnaeus fell to his knees and wept when he saw a heath of English gorse in full bloom’); and many birds from northern climates that fly in to spend the winter here, including fieldfares (from the Anglo-Saxon feldfere meaning ‘wayfarer through the fields’), waxwings in search of rowan berries, and the beautiful whooper swans, also known as wild swans. Celtic mythology is rich with tales of their communication with man.
If we don’t live anywhere near places like these we can find things of beauty even in car parks, especially blackcaps feasting on mistletoe along the boundaries. Listen to their song! And towards the end of winter we can see the first stirrings of hawthorn which on a ‘suddenly sunny day reveal daubs of red in the swelling bud’. We need not wait for death to see ‘glimpses of Eden’: we are constantly assailed by them, because Eden, Heaven, is all around us, as many of the great mystics and poets have recognised though the ages. Heaven is here and now and only needs our inner stillness to become aware of it. But we do need eyes to see and ears to hear these intimations of the continuance of life; we do need to be open.
Today, while it was pouring with rain, I was suddenly amazed by the depth of colour in some plants outside. The good nourishment of the rain itself had brought out that intense colour. But I could easily have turned away from the window and grumbled about the ‘bad weather day’, thereby missing the experience of the spiritual reality of those flowers. Oh, what a beautiful natural world we live in!
There is nothing overtly ‘religious’ in these writings, even though they appear in a Catholic publication, but there is a continual current of spirituality that will appeal to many Quakers, and also to those who feel they belong to no particular faith but who, perhaps unknowingly, are deeply aware of the Oneness of all life, of all things. The passages are best read separately and thought about rather than straight through, better dipped into! Perhaps a lovely Christmas present for a Friend?
Glimpses of Eden: Field notes from the edge of eternity by Jonathan Tulloch is published by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd at £14.99.
