大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Nadiyka Gerbish, a Ukrainian writer and podcaster

Fascinated by History

Good morning.

Our daughter has just entered the age when history fascinates her, and the tours to the old castles have at last stopped being the despised boredom-inducers. As we visited several, and she was asking those elaborate questions all nine-year-olds love to pepper their parents with, my husband and I talked about the state of the ancient walls and everything those castles once stood for.

After the second world war, as Communists moved the administration centres to the towns of their own choosing, the requisitioned palaces, villas, fortresses, and castles decayed. The stones kept whispering their old stories to the wind and still do today. As mesmerising as they are, they give me the blues whenever I visit them. But it's always different with nature. Its indescribable beauty makes me feel free, loved, comforted, and full of vibrant life.

The tranquility of autumnal mornings, with the pinkish mists pierced so gently by the bevel rays of the rising sun, the canopies of joyful trees glowing with their warmest colours. I feel the instant urge to save the moment in a photograph. This tender beauty seems fleeting and so fragile. But as I keep looking, I realize that it is me who is fragile. It is me who will pass, not the moment I am tempted to capture. This beauty will be here long after I am gone, comforting my grandchildren and their children, too, making them feel loved and so much alive.

Dear Lord, I thank you for the blessing of living in your beautiful world. The times are hard, but you are always faithful.

Amen.