Being alive is a complicated thing.
Our understanding of existence comes from the senses, and our communication of it comes through language. Language can be read, all safely and quietly separate: writer and reader apart; or it can be spoken, speaker and listener together, so dangerously prone to misunderstanding, mishearing and misspeaking.
We understand by seeing. We can capture wonderful images with technology and can share the experience. Just as with the printed word, the image and the viewer are safely separated . When there is no technology between us, we try to understand each other by looking at one another, by reading faces and posture and just like with language we often misread one another.
Touch is a sense so fraught with potential misunderstanding that we restrict it to pets, petals and the smooth, smooth coolness of a stripped stump: smoke grey and strong, a tactile brush that cannot possibly be misunderstood.
Cathy's real country garden 
A sad post? Touch can be healing. A hug is worth hundreds of words, eh.
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Not sad, just an observation really. Hugging trees is for another life!
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A thoughtful post, and one that I certainly relate to. xx
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I think the silky beauty of the bare wood can be appreciated in the photo. I am glad you enjoyed the post! Xx
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Being alive is so complicated! And misunderstandings are common with technology. But touch is so nice. I grew up in an Italian family so there was always a lot of touch and hugs and cheek kisses. I would love to touch the skin of that old tree:)
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It was cool and wonderfully smooth:)
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Not to forget taste, Cathy. It adds incredible pleasure to our being, but can also fail us, by not signaling toxicity, as you experienced not long ago.
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Too true! I have only just regained my taste for food!
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I am glad to hear that your sense of taste has returned!
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Wonderful musings here, Cathy, and the opening line is especially stellar. That stump looks so wavy and smooth, very touchable through my eyes.
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That tactical beauty works even in some photos!
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