Breath
"... it is evident that there is nothing to know, but only experiences to be had, fruits to be savored, bodies to be enjoyed, spirits to be perceived, lives to be loved. It is the dizzying understanding that life is an infinite process of self-generation. No Creator, but only the simple and interminable pulsation of a breath whose metamorphic rhythm holds everything and lets nothing vanish. If man could free himself from what prevents him from feeling this deep breath that passes through him from before he was born and that will accompany him after death, if the doors of perception were purified, everything would appear to man as it actually is, infinite."
from Ecstasy, by Jean-Luc Nancy and Federico Ferrari
The Tree and the Star Stone
Taro river between Ostia Parmense and Roccamurata
The stretch of river between Roccamurata and Ostia Parmense hides almost secret corners of great beauty. Not easy to reach, so fortunately still little contaminated by the assault tourism of bathers fleeing the city and looking for adventures to post on social media.
It is a little corner of paradise tailor-made for a castaway of these times, a beach where it is sweet to be shipwrecked and hope that no one comes to our rescue! I wrote my message and put it in the bottle, entrusting it to the river current. It said "I'm fine, don't come looking for me".
A tiny sandy beach overlooking a lake of fresh, crystal-clear green water, and a tree that casts providential shade in just the right place and at the right time... and this magical tree hides a little treasure, perhaps a message engraved in the rock directly from the soul of the Earth: this beautiful star-shaped stone, literally embedded in the roots of the tree, that stone does not move from there, it is immovable as if the tree were holding it tightly to itself in the grip of its own roots, almost as if to seal this cosmic alliance between the Earth and the stars, of which the trees are the living symbol. They sink their roots into the dark, deep heart of the Earth, they search its bowels, they know its mysteries and at the same time they stretch their branches towards the sky, and like a thousand fingers they search there too, while with their leaves they feed directly from a star, the closest one they have found.
I tried to move that stone, as soon as I saw it I thought it had been drawn and placed there by someone, but when I saw that it was stuck in the roots, when I saw that the star design was not a superficial incision, but the rays were made of a mineral (calcite) that penetrated the heart of the stone, then surrounded by a superficial oxidation, well... then I couldn't help but give up and let myself be overwhelmed by wonder!
The stone is in a cavity under the tree, it looks like a niche, like a small natural altar, a sacred and protected space. I don't exclude that some particularly sensitive human being found it and stuck it there, but the stone itself is something unique, and the tree itself is a plane tree, one of those that you find along many roads in the plains, certainly a common tree but one that is not easily found on the bed of a river, at least it is the first one I see. It has a very different shape from those columnar trunks that we are used to seeing, perhaps because here it has had the opportunity to express itself freely. It is a very particular place, here you feel far from civilization, and not only in a physical sense.
Thank you, thank you so much, my River always knows how to amaze me and conquer me, every time!
