Looking...

“You know, to perceive something is an astonishing experience. I don’t know if you have ever really perceived anything; if you have ever perceived a flower or a face or the sky, or the sea. Of course, you see these things as you pass by in a bus or a car; but I wonder whether you have ever taken the trouble actually to look at a flower? And when you do look at a flower, what happens? You immediately name the flower, you are concerned with what species it belongs to, or you say 'What lovely colors it has. I would like to grow it in my garden; I would like to give it to my wife, or put it in my buttonhole', and so on. In other words, the moment you look at a flower, your mind begins chattering about it; therefore you never perceive the flower. You perceive something only when your mind is silent, when there is no chattering of any kind" (J Krishnamurti).

The residents of Haxby, north of York, are handily placed to worship either God or mammon...