A beholding with mushrooms and moss.
(Image description: A photo of three, tiny, and red-orange mushrooms poking out of green moss, which is partially hidden by fallen brown leaves.) Credit: My work.
With the arrival of Imbolc and spring in some areas, the most obvious signs are new flowers growing among the returning grass.
For me, I found something just as telling as the wildflowers in my yard. I recently took this photo, and I thought it seemed like a good subject for a beholding session.
Mushrooms and moss certainly have their fans, but many people still ignore them. This is especially so if they don’t have the immediate purpose of being edible.
However, I thoroughly enjoy seeing this small patch of moss. Its softness contrasts with the sharp blades of grass, and the mushrooms provide a striking bit of color (most like saying they’re not for eating, like some brightly-colored animals can indicate) against the green and brown.
I even missed the moss during a drought that occurred in 2022. Instead of a vibrant green, it was brown and crunchy.
With the life-giving rains of winter and spring, it makes it seem as though there were never any issues.
Obviously, that wasn’t the case, and there’s always a significant likelihood that it will be that dry again.
Now, looking at the moss, I see the continuous and reciprocal relationships between the moss, mushrooms, and the fallen leaves.
The leaves will break down and decay more to provide nutrients for the moss, mushrooms, and even the nearby ash tree.
In turn, the mushrooms have a place to grow before eventually returning to the Earth. At the time that the photo was taken, they were smaller than one of my thumbnails.
For all of Imbolc’s emphasis on new life, death is still very present within nature. In this season, life overshadows its opposite, but it’s always there.
February is nearly over, and time feels fleeting yet slow because the start of the secular year was only at the beginning of last month.
The moment the photo was taken in is fleeting as well.
Within a few days, strong winds have repositioned the leaves. I have even noticed that the mushrooms are ever so slightly taller.
Time within human perception is strange.
Without paying close attention to small changes in something like a growth of moss and a few mushrooms, a bystander might think that this small detail in nature hadn’t changed at all.
On the other hand, I understand that the moment depicted in the photo was a minute fraction within the lifespan of both the moss and the mushrooms.
I can appreciate the beauty of the still image, but it’s worth observing the little changes in the environment for that beauty as well.
For the time being, I will continue to watch how the mushrooms grow, the moss develops, and the leaves shift until they finally disappear from my sight.
With the turning of the seasons, it’s easy to notice the large changes in animals, trees, and the flowers.
However, the smaller, less obvious occurrences are also important to pay attention to, as they can show that joy can be found in watching the subtleties play out. Meanwhile, they can display the ever-present cycles of nature happening right by the paths we walk upon.
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