The Hedgerow

Sometimes it seems as though there is nothing there. The mind seems as empty as one of those rolling green fields that cover the gentle hillsides. There is just a vast expanse of emptiness from the horizon right down to where you stand in the lane, by this convenient gap in the hedgerow.

You stepped off the road, just for a moment, and crossed over the ditch to stand here and contemplate what could be seen through this gap. There is even a fence in the gap just the right height for leaning the elbows on as you stare out over the empty field.

It seems strange, in a way, that such an obvious space for contemplation does seem to look out over… well, over nothing much. Then, though, you realise that the emptiness is what you want, what you need. You came down this quiet road looking for… not exactly an escape, but some sort of quiet relief, a space in time you could take out of your life, a side road you could wander down having no objective in mind, just as somewhere to walk through.

Now you look out across the quiet still emptiness of the bare field and feel its quiet contemplative solitude filling up the space inside your mind that you though had been filled with all the worries and concerns of your life, as they trickle away like sand through an hour glass, until all you are left with is the peace of the moment. A moment that stretches further and further out until you have had all of it you can take.

You sigh, turn away from the gap in the hedgerow and back onto the quiet side road. Without a moment’s hesitation, you walk back up the side road, back to the main road of your life, but now with the weariness gone from your step.