The Way For Students - 202 Chapter 6. Reverend Moon's Student Days Section 1. Reverend Moon's Childhood
3) Search For Nature
2. I Built My Character Through Nature - 1
In my yard there was a garden with a big chestnut tree about 200 years old. It was very beautiful, and being born in the year of the monkey I often climbed that tree and climbed from one branch to another.
Since I was fat, sometimes I almost fell down because the branch would bend too much. So I prepared to hang from the branch in such a way that if I fell I would get caught on another branch rather then fall to the ground. I even tried to go to the tip of the branch and see if I could reach the ground from it.
Sometimes I stretched my hand out and picked a chestnut. Sometimes the chestnut cases had their mouths open. I tried to pick them before they fell to the ground.
But sometimes I couldn't catch them, and they fell to the ground anyway. It was very interesting to try to pick chestnuts without letting them fall to the ground. I still remember how interesting it was. Only those who were raised in rural areas would understand this. There were many trees, 10 or maybe several dozens. The chestnut trees were very big.
There were also some large acacia. In these trees there were several magpie nests. The magpies always sang throughout all the seasons. In the large trees there were always several bird's nests. In Korea the magpies are regarded as birds of fortune.
It is said that when the birds sing, "Ka, ka, ka," good news will come. In those days when I entered through the gate, they sang "ka, ka, ka" in the morning and in the evening.
I climbed the tree in which there were magpie nests in an instant. I kept climbing up and down until finally I was able to climb the tree in an instant. Observing these magpies was very interesting.
By looking at their nests you can know, "This year the wind will blow from this direction to that direction." When it is likely that the wind will blow from the east then they make nests in that direction. I don't know who teaches them, but they produce magnificent works of art for their nests by gathering twigs.
Since their nests are made of small pieces of wood, they get wet when it rains. So what do they do next? They get mud and put it into the nest thus preventing the wind from getting in.
And amazingly, when it rains they put small branches above the nest so that the rain can not get into the nest. Do you understand what I mean? So in that way, by collecting small twigs, they make their nests rain proof. I wonder who teaches them that? It indeed is a great skill. If we human beings were to make such a house, we would have to learn for several years.
But the birds make their nest in quite a short time by bringing twigs. Then what happens after a while? After several days the nests are completed, and then we wait until the eggs are laid and hatched.
When I looked at these birds eggs, I saw that they have light blue stripes. They are mysterious and very beautiful. The size of the eggs is about that of a chicken egg.
Before they laid their eggs, they didn't chirp even when I climbed the trees. But after they laid their eggs, interesting things happened, When I climbed up to their nest which had eggs in it, the magpies made such a big noise that it was heard all around the neighborhood. Then all the magpies in the neighborhood demonstrated. It was very interesting. This is why I became quite familiar with them. |