Creative Writing: 'In This Moment' On Dry Rice Fields, Nepal

In this moment on the dry rice fields, a space I share with some cows, I look out at the lake, a warm wind on my face. A young boy with a dog on a string runs around and along the bank of the stream.  With his friend, this is his playground.

Several birds of pray fly over the water. One dives, picks up a fish and it glistens silver in the sunlight. The bird drops it, back to its freedom. 

The water trickles on its way. I'm taken back to walking next to the streams in Cornwall, seeing the water in its final moments before it ends its journey in the sea. This water here is the same but it's so early on in its journey. It's barely began and has yet to pass by many villages and terrains. An unknown lies ahead.

In this moment I feel 'in the moment'; like I haven't for quite a few days. In this moment, my hours of planning and research attached to my phone seem insignificant, unimportant. The importance I attached, gone on the wind. 

In this moment, nature brought me back to the present and reminded me of this gift that will, of course, come to an end. This gift which is today, this trip, this year, my life. A flowing gift; a stream journeying from source to sea, sometimes a trickle in a field, other times a raging, frothing torrent; sometimes dirty, sometimes absorbed into a vast lake. Each state temporary. 

Along its journey it has a constant impact on that which it passes and encounters. It will provide life and energy to animals, plants and humans; it may destroy life and bring great suffering, flooding crops and harming livelihood.

I too am this. Journeying, flowing, impacting, impermanent.