I found this in the forest yesterday. One of Nature’s serendipitous creations. I was struck by how delicate and beautiful the feather and the leaf were together.
The feather is soft and downy. An early feather, lost before it develops into a stronger, longer lasting one, perhaps? Or shed to be replaced by a more mature one? I don’t know, but it makes me thinking of an early chapter in a life story.
The leaf has fallen as it is browning. There are still traces of green chlorophyll but the leaf has been damaged by the intense heat of the sun, or has otherwise reached a late chapter in a life story.
Early and late, finding themselves together, at the same place, at the same time.
Both speak to me of transience. Of how all lives flow through stages of birth, growth and withering. Of how nothing stays the same. Of how every living form manifests itself as if appearing from nowhere, the life force pushing us from formlessness to material existence. But only briefly. Soon dissolving back into the one-ness from which we emerged.
Transience is a key feature of what makes something beautiful according to Eastern values. I learned that in Japan where they celebrate the cherry blossom every year.
No two feathers, no two leaves, share an identical life story. Although similar to other feathers and leaves, every one is unique and I’ll only find these two particular ones together at this very moment. A gift. A present. A moment to slow down, admire, and wonder. Special.
What an astonishingly wonderful, transient life we live.
Heroes Not Zombies 
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