Sometimes, beauty lies hiding in
your backyard. It is just a matter of looking for it.
There she was waiting on the
ground. My treasured white find which had me practically squealing with
delight. Barringtonia Asiatica, the flower that is
otherwise known as Sea Poison Tree and commonly referred to in Melay as
“putat”.
It was lying there on the grounds
out at FRIM (Forest Research Institute malaysia), a place that I had once
frequented for weekly walks.
Thing is, when you’re out with frens
that time walks too earnestly and have a gazillion things to accomplish
on a Sunday, there’s no time to stand and stare.
Totally different from when
photographers venture out.
Which is why that Sunday morning,
we took our own sweet time. The fitness freaks would have breezed through the
main road in five minutes. We only took about two hours.
A friend gleefully tested out her micro lens on mushrooms that tried to
hide away between leaves. Tall trees with leaves that hardly touched loomed
over us, barks with interesting
patterns stared at us and dragonflies that rested fleetingly teased us. That
and much more had us snapping away.
This particular forest still leaves
me spellbound no matter how many times I visit. Which brings me back to my
point about beauty being in our backyard.
Often, we don’t seem to look hard
enough with what we have and what is so close by. There’s no need to seek
beauty and joy afar; it’s most probably staring you right in the face.
Ever met old-time birders who are
still mesmerized by common birds?
They painstakingly focus their
binoculars on them, letting their beauty fill their lives with awe all over
again. Perhaps we should be like them. Appreciate the beauty in all that
surrounds us, no matter how many times we’ve seen it.
A quick word about FRIM