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Black Forest

Tom dinning

Registrant*
It's the other me. The one you haven't met. You will find me on a good day laying on the forest floor with the worms and leached, waiting for the last light to signal the end. No photograph can record the blackness that follows.


image by tom.dinning1, on Flickr​
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
It's the other me. The one you haven't met. You will find me on a good day laying on the forest floor with the worms and leached, waiting for the last light to signal the end. No photograph can record the blackness that follows.


image by tom.dinning1, on Flickr​

Actually Tom,

Allow me to correct you!

There's no blackness! That would be an absence of light, and although dim and scarce, there's always enough for wide open eyes, patiently gathering and mapping what's there for the taking! There are almost without exception worthy elements that counterbalance that which lacks!

You draw attention to a most critical and threatened habitat, the one on the Forrest and woodland floor. It's key to the life cycle of everything. Those leaves falling in the dark morose space provide a safe and nutritious ecosystem for microbes and fungi that breakdown the leaves and a nutritious feast for insects the staple diet of frogs and other amphibians and a good meal for snakes and hence for raptors and owls. The leaves bring needed nitrogen and phosphorous back into the soil to allow new trees to grow, after the next fire.

Besides, this is also where Maid Marion walks in the evenings and where Friar Tuck will find you and share some of the king's venison and some warm beer!

In the early morning, thin wispy clouds of moist air rise, curl around the flowers and grasses, coalesce and condense to a fine lingering mist, sheltering elves and fairies on toadstools and mushrooms, freshly sprouted overnight.

........and you just thought of the dim light. No my friend, there's much, much more to be enjoyed in the Forrest we are fated to lie down in.

Asher
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
"Actually Tom"
You sound just like Christine.
Being wrong has become part of my persona of late. Probably of early as well.
I've 'seen' black, Asher, both literally and figuratively. At first I saw it as the enemy, full of fear and apprehension. Now it is my constant companion. I have grown fond of it as I have you. There is nothing to fear when the lights go out. Blackness is soft and enveloping. It provises shelter from the reality of illumations. I welcome it's presence.
 
Tom, I've no idea what you are dealing with, but it appears to be some sort of dark episode. It may suit you for a good long while; if so, enjoy it while it lasts. It may also eventually become a total waste of time; if so, welcome back to life, sunshine, and color. Regardless, make the best of one or the other since neither lasts forever, or so the story generally goes.

Best wishes,

Tom
 

Tom dinning

Registrant*
It's mental health week here in Oz. All the nut cases are out and about. Dark is the new black. Crazy is the new normal. Light, sunshine and happiness have been abandoned for shadows, cave dwelling and moroseness.
I proudly carry the flag for my brothers in arms.
 
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