The holiness of wide open places

As the sun sets on another evening out in the field -- in this familiar milieu where I have found poetry and other idylls (such as photography) while dealing with the increasing number of perplexities that have stalked my days -- I am overcome by the desire to give away half of the millions I don't have to own a patch of wilderness like this, to ensure that every tree and trail in it can remain the way it is -- sacrosanct.

Not because of this smell of burnt undergrowth, as indescribable as that of ink. Not because I have seen and known these grasses (now, a dry and wheaten gold) as a rain-fed green, ripening into a granary of bird feed. Not because, it is here that I come across the elusive majesty of raptors -- Oriental Honey Buzzards, Shikras, White-eyed Buzzards...but because of a very selfish reason, because of a feeling of blessedness. The kind that makes my favorite song come to my lips -- unbidden.

कहीं दूर जब दिन ढल जाये /
साँझ की दुल्हन बदन चुराए /
चुपके से आये /
मेरे ख्यालों के आँगन में /
कोई सपनों के दीप जलाए...

कभी यूँ ही जब हुई बोझल साँसें /
भर आई बैठे बैठे जब यूँ ही आँखें /
कभी मचल के, प्यार से चल के /

छुए कोई मुझे पर, नज़र न आये /
नज़र न आये...

And I feel rich, feel like I am overflowing with a happiness that I cannot even begin to explain or express, feel touched by the holiness of these open spaces.