Bench

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

There lived a grandfather and a grandmother. On his small farm near a populated village. We didn’t grieve. By themselves. We enjoyed peace and nature. In a word, in Joy. And often, residents of the villages that are nearby walked past them. Some go to the forest for mushrooms and berries, and some go to another village on business. There was a shop at the foot of the path at the entrance to the forest. Grandfather, as he wanted, and put it. Yes, it turned out so well that a rare traveler, since then, walked past that shop without sitting down. Magic and nothing more. A man walks by and sits down. He sat down and went about business again. Yes, only many who went to another village or city, for some reason went back home. Wonderfully straight. Well, not many people noticed it, but the boy noticed that he lived on the outskirts of the village. And it became to him horror how wondering about what so.

One morning he came to his grandfather, got up and looked through the hedge. The grandfather did not put fences around the house, so the name is one hedge, it came out to the waist. Yes, only no one in that village remembers that someone from the village or outsiders crossed it. Come and look and stand rooted to the spot. As if some force does not let go. Yes, and it seems like, you can see both the yard and the house and there is no need to climb through the hedge then. However, it was evident that there was not a simple fence. Well, another time about that. The grandfather came out of the house, but with such a force he breathed as if it was not the grandfather in front of him, but the epic hero, about whom they tell in fairy tales, the kid died out of surprise. As if the feet have grown into the ground for generations. But as the people say, he took up the tug, do not say that it is not hefty. The boy greeted his grandfather, in Russia it was always customary to wish a person's health first, and then ask or tell his tale. And he doesn't know how to ask. And grandfather know he is grinning into his beard as if he was waiting for him. Well, come in, granddaughters, apparently an important matter brought you. Previously, in Mother Russia, everyone considered each other to be relatives. That is why the People called themselves, i.e. Our Rod. They sat down at the table, grandfather put the samovar on. At tea, the conversation is always more fun, and more sincere. Well, tell me he says. Well, then the kid laid it out for him. As he says so, the shop is magic or what is your grandfather? Why all sit on it, and then those who were going to the city go back. Yes, they do not just walk, but also such joyful ones. And some people even sing songs. The grandfather smiled, stroked his beard, and asks:

- Did you yourself sit on that bench?

- No, I didn't. - the kid answers.

- So you had the courage to come and ask, but you never made it to the shop?

- So I thought there was some kind of secret?

- Telling a secret ?! - the grandfather laughed.

- There is a secret. Yes, only secrets are revealed to those who try to open them, asks questions to themselves, and not just asks about them. Well, okay, you live on the outskirts?

- Yes, in the very last house.

- So it’s good, even that in the extreme. I have been living here for a long time, my granddaughters. But until that day no one asked me about the shop. No one is interested in the village, everyone has a lot of things to do, they live there very quickly. Either one thing or the other distracts. There is no time to think. What they don't see under their feet. And you are on the outskirts and look how observant you are. Let's go and look at the bench together, maybe you will notice what others do not see.

From that began the acquaintance of the boy Alyosha with a very difficult grandfather.

How long or short, they came to the shop. She stood right next to the spreading spruce. In many villages, it was customary, by the way. We sat down. Here grandfather take it and ask:

-Why did we come here with you?

-What do you mean why? - the kid was confused. Behind a secret.

-Ah yes a secret, a secret…. Let's first look around, what do you see?

The kid thought, he didn't even think about it that he needed to look around. He thought about the shop only.

- Well, how's that? - he was tightened.

Do not be ashamed of what you see and say. Do not be distorted. In Russia, it is not customary to bend the soul. As it is, say so.

-I see the forest, the path, the grass is green, the tree is growing near the bench.

-And you hear something? - just grinned into the beard of the grandfather.

-Birds in the forest are singing something. A brook is gurgling nearby.

-Is it good for you to sit here? What does the soul tell you? -the grandfather continued to smile.

And then Alyosha felt that he had never seen a more beautiful place in his life. As if everything around came to life and became so familiar. As if the forest into which the path led is not a forest at all, but people are giants who cordially wave their hands with leaves to him. And they are all as different as the people in his village. And the birds sing their song for a reason, but they greet him and for some reason rejoice simply in the fact that he is. Alyosha felt so happy about it that he seemed to be light as a feather. It seemed that he could now take off with the birds. The wind caressed his hair, as if someone were so dear.

And then the wind drove away the cloud, which until now had covered the sun. And the sun also smiled at him. This smile made him feel so warm and comfortable that he realized that there was probably no place where it was so good anywhere else. And to find something better and dearer is simply impossible. Or rather, it is simply not necessary, because everything is already here, around. Suddenly he realized that he didn’t feel himself, as if he had dissolved in what was around him. He had become a part of everything. As if he himself was as giant as trees and at the same time light as a feather.

-Hey, kid - sounded, somewhere far away, the voice of his grandfather.

-Ahh - that's all he could say. And his mouth remained open.

“Didn't you forget about the shop?” He was still smiling, but somehow differently. As if laughing at him. As if it was not the boy himself who saw everything around, but the grandfather, as an artist, painted a picture, into which one could enter and touch everything that was in it. As if it was the same familiar but completely different world and he was the master there.

There was a feeling that he could change whatever he wanted there.

-About the shop? - the boy just repeated his words.

-Well, yes, we are sitting on it. Secret! Do you remember?

And then it suddenly became clear to Alyosha that there was no secret at all! It's not about the shop at all. Rather, it was so comfortable that he stopped thinking about it as soon as he sat down. At the same time, she was so simple and beautiful that it was simply not possible to resist and not sit down. She seemed to beckon to her. As if some kind of power emanated from her. Maybe because it was made of simple, thick oak planks. But when you sat down, you had such a bewitching view that you no longer remembered the shop. It was like a wave of images rolled over you. There was nothing new in them, it was just that you didn’t see them while walking. It was all that simple.

- Probably there is no secret? - suggested the kid.

-How to look … - answered the grandfather. On the one hand, there is a shop and a shop. Stands by the road. A man walks past, and his thoughts go somewhere with him. And suddenly, he notices a simple shop. And the benches are known to sit on them. So he came up and sat down. He closed his eyes and his thoughts stopped. He opened it and looked at the world anew, with different eyes. It was as if before that he was floating on the river of "thinking" and his head was sticking out, and the pictures flashed before his eyes, but quickly everything that you can't figure out. Goals, plans, etc. But he dived headlong into this river and saw something there. Everyone will see his own there. This is called "going out into the mind." Reason solves only essential problems. His task is to see the basics, the very essence. Therefore, in the Russian language there are nouns, i.e. Essential words. They answer the question: Who? What? And what did the traveler see when he sat down? Beauty and nothing else. Our beautiful nature. In Russia, any word is not accidental. We have a Rod, dear people means. And with a Rod, everything that surrounds that Rod. So it turns out that Nature is dear to us, just like close people. And people are returning not because I bring them back by force. Force and that must be used wisely. They feel that they cannot find anything dearer and their vanity is mostly empty. Everything they are looking for is already here. Life is now and here, and not in another unknown place. Places where a person begins to feel especially well are called places of power. In such places, people feel different, in them the soul is revealed.

-Grandpa, I didn't close my eyes!

-You are a smart kid. The one who needs to close his eyes is the one whose eyes no longer see anything. And there is no rest in the head. Obvious things are not noticed by people now. Do not see. What you saw, not everyone sees. This can only be seen by those who are in Lada with themselves. A person is in Lada, which means that his soul unfolds and feels everything. That is why we say sympathy, empathy. A person unites with another soul. One becomes one with another person or nature. Begins to give. After all, everything has a soul, even this shop. After all, I did it, so I put my soul into it. And if there is no Lada, then a person is always in tension with his body or mind, which means that his soul is compressed. So he pulls everything to himself. Well, he is afraid, so she will completely go to the heels that you can't even lift your legs.

-And when does the soul open up? Alyosha asked.

-You are good Alekha, you know how to ask questions. Next time you come, we will set the samovar, and you will answer everything yourself.

At that, the grandfather got up and went to the house. And the kid, sat a little longer, and then he also went home, singing a song without words, which he had never heard before, but the melody was like his own.