The Canopy

The Canopy, Kailua Beach Access Point #91A, Kailua, HI, October 2013, Canon PowerShot S90, 6mm, 1/30 sec @ f8, ISO 800, 0 EV, no flash © Steven Crisp  [Click on the photo to enlarge]

There is this magical place, on the way to the beach from where we first lived in Hawaii.  A healthy Banyan tree is flourishing in the sand at the beach access point.  It's not the largest tree, to be sure.  You might not even notice it while driving down the road.  But if you are walking past it, on your way to or from the beach at dawn or dusk, you will surely hear the tree -- it is alive!

In the canopy, largely hidden from sight by the dense foliage, are hundreds and hundreds of roosting birds.  And at the turn of each day, they are very chatty.  Cannot-hear-yourself-think chatty! 

And that is good, because our thinking can oft times inhibit our appreciation of the sensory world; of paying attention "now."  And what might our mind be thinking about?  Just about any thing other than our immediate and felt experience.  

So thank those flocks of birds, and anything else that jolts us awake or applies the brakes to our locomotive brain.  And be reminded of this:

"Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares
which will not withdraw from us.
We need hours of aimless wandering,
or spates of time sitting on park benches,
observing the mysterious world of ants
and the canopy of trees."

~Maya Angelou