Castello dell'Acciaiolo Park - Scandicci comune /Florence - Italy

March 23, 2023

The whole day carried a peaceful energy. Observing the mountains far away, the green fields full of little white daisies, and all the fantastic shapes God made.

It was disturbing trying to disperse the calm by acting hurriedly. The space, people passing by at their falling pace, old ladies sitting on wooden benches in fine coats...Some hidden but tangible force grounded me in the green soil. Contemplate, contemplate.

Absorb the beautiful - which is what it exists for. Beauty brings harmony; it brings the feeling of truth on purpose. There is order in God's creations. And what a pleasure to have eyes and ears that feed on that beauty.

Contemplate the silence, the shapes, the colors, and the smells. It always brought me a lot of peace to be able to enjoy a few minutes in front of a landscape. It brings peace to know that none of this was made by human hands and that if there is something so beautiful and available, it is because a merciful and potent force takes care of the details, free of charge.

There is order and time to divine things, and it also occurs to me in my thoughts that all those pretty trees, and little daisies, had their own time to grow.

Every stone in its place, every ant and leaf, following its destiny in the time God wants it to be.

It makes me so grateful to realize how privileged I am to find God and my faith in all things. There comes a point when you stop fighting the facts and silence your mind; you can hear His voice and be grateful for it.

What a kind and gentle God who allowed me to have a calm afternoon where nothing happens.

An afternoon in which all my senses can rest on his creation, daydream, and admire.

I’m a keeper of sheep.
The sheep are my thoughts.
And my thoughts are all sensations.
I think with my eyes and ears.
And with my hands and feet
And with my nose and mouth.
To think a flower is to see it and smell it
And to eat a fruit is to taste its meaning.
Who is in the sun and closes his eyes,
Begins not to know what the sun is
And thinking many things full of heat.
But open your eyes and see the sun,
And you can't think of anything anymore,
Because sunlight is worth more than thoughts
Of all philosophers and of all poets.
Sunlight doesn't know what it's doing
And that's why it doesn't make mistakes and is common and good.

But if God is the flowers and the trees
And the hills and sun and moonlight,
So I believe him,
So I believe him all the time,
And my life is all a prayer and a mass,
It is a communion with eyes and ears.

Alberto Caeiro - The Keeper of Sheep poem V