The Color of Mother Earth

 

You might think this is seaweed or maybe my curly hair bleached and dyed a nice lime green.  But you'd be wrong.  This is Windswept moss, formally called dicranum scoparium or Broom Forkmoss.  I have moss everywhere around my yard.  On rocks.  On trees.  On the ground.  Much of my lawn is golden brown and crispy now as the August sun bears down, despite my best efforts to water two times a day.  But several different types of verdant moss, all along the border between my yard and the woods maintains a moist and green, soft and welcoming carpet of dreams.  It's curiously classified as a herb and grows about 3 inches tall.  I see stories linger in the curly fronds, hiding and waiting as I walk on spongy tufts of peaceful green.  Lost and found.  Like a cloud maybe but grounded and the color of Mother Earth.  Moss has been around for 400 million years and it survives in almost any landscape.  You should be awed.  I am.   It began its life before vertebrates walked the earth.  Blows my tiny mind.  I live my crazy life watching the news wide-eyed as China threatens to shoot down a US plane.  Uneasy that our geriatric president has had COVID for nearly two weeks.  Wary when the Climate Clock warns we have less than seven years to stop global warming which could end life on earth.  I look around my house and reflect on the dishes I have to wash and chapters to write.  The bills I have to pay.  When is the mortgage due?  I hope I get a workout in today to keep that blood pressure in the normal range.  But then I walk outside to the wide welcome of this lush and vibrant moss minding it's life under the shade of a tree.  For a moment I don't fret about the Chinese jockeying for power like kids on a playground of the world stage, a sick president running the country from isolation, the Climate Clocks that seems to be running wild, bills, and chapters I should be writing.  Workouts I should be doing.  Nope.  I'm taking a cue from the expanse of Windswept moss that grows under my feet in the shade of a tall maple tree.  And for a while I am just happy to be.