the comfort of moss

here i go again, visited the wife's place in the province. whew! the stubborn grass is high again, so green and vibrant. challenging me to sit down on the sandy ground and start plucking them away, roots and all. i was told if you would like to get rid of the grass once and for all, you'd have to pluck 'em up and be sure you'd be able to unearth up to the roots.  well, i did that last time, but, as i can see, they are there again, carpeting the lawn unevenly. i guess, this is going to be a perennial battle. i know, grass will win. they have lasted for eons. the sand on my hourglass, on the other hand, is steadily flowing down.

and yet, i must admit, it is fun to pit my patience against the stubbornness of the grass. so, i sat on the sandy ground and plucked away. after an hour or so, i have several little mounds of plucked grass lined up like miniature mountains.

as i walked about admiring my handiwork and the devastation i wrought on the grass, my gaze landed on other little green things that had somehow managed to populate.

moss!  i have not noticed these before, but now that they have considerably grown and overpopulated, i decided i needed to remove them as well. they mostly stuck and sprouted on the lower portion of the cemented walls, in between crevices and cracks especially where the portion of the wall is rather damp. well, my reckoning is, when the walls were erected they were not there, so they have to be removed.

so i sat beside the spot where the moss had grown. they were beautiful, green, tiny plants. delicate. primeval. i have this feeling, they were older than me. they existed before me. like the grass. they were ancient. they were soft against my fingers and cold. they have their own peculiar scent different from the grass but equally pleasing to my nose. i kept on pulling at the clumps of moss. after i pulled  a handful from the crevice between the wall and the cement flooring, these wriggly, two-inch worms, pink and soft and delicate also, were revealed. they were hiding behind or beneath the tiny plants.

they were agitated at the sudden exposure to light and blindly crawled to where their instincts say coldness and dampness beckons. i watched them as they sought protection from the nearest clump of moss i have not touched yet.

i had this tinge of shame in my mind, having intruded in these little creatures' privacy. i felt they have sought the comfort of moss because they were just finding their niche in the Infinite's great scheme of creation. the grass, the moss, the wriggly worms, they were just finding their niche, their little spot, in this never-ending play of the Infinite. i realized, i, like them, am trying to establish my niche as well.

i am trying to find my own comfort of moss, well, maybe perhaps, a different kind of moss, but,

i am trying to find comfort.