Yes, it's an old tree stump (Corymbia gummifera, the Red Bloodwood, if I remember correctly).
But if you've got the eyes to see, it's so much more. Here is a microcosm, a world within a world, with its own interlinking networks of bacteria and algae and insects and arachnids and even mammals and reptiles.
When we actually dare to watch closely, it's amazing what we find. The wisdom writer urged the sluggard to 'Go to the ants - observe their ways, and be wise.'
Part of learning to smell the roses (and part of learning to be wise), is to remember the ways of your childhood: to stop sometimes and get down on your knees, scratch around and look more closely.
What appears simple (or defunct) on the surface has a life all its own on closer inspection - and often far more complex and interlinked than we were willing to admit.
And that doesn't just apply to tree stumps.
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