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Singing as the Darkness Lifts 22/01/2024 ( Episode 20)

Singing as the Darkness Lifts

Podbean link for those who like to listen 



This morning the air smells clear and clean, like the breeze on cloud-skimmed mountain tops.

In my dreams last night, squirrels hatched from gossamer spun eggs in the branches of fir trees. The tree I stood under was full of them, and I watched in awe as the white webs dissolved and the creatures emerged fully formed. These were red squirrels, but perhaps the dream came from seeing black squirrels whilst staying in a cottage in a field near a wood. I am not sure I have ever seen black squirrels before and I had to check with someone who lived locally that my eyes were not deceiving me.

In the past week I have sung with a local choir, sung ‘Happy Birthday’ to my sister and I celebrate my voice for doing these things. If you had asked me a year ago if I was likely to go out and sing with others I would have told you I don’t have a voice for that kind of thing. And yet on Wednesday last week I stopped working at my keyboard when my wife went out to run choir rehearsal for our local community choir and went with her. My ‘Tomorrow’ definitely needs some work and might even be  beyond me, but I am right there with ‘Consider Yourself’ and a range of other selected songs. It was good to be out chatting and laughing too. And my paperwork was still done before bedtime and was probably even better because of the refresh.

I have been readying myself for the question, ‘What do you do?’ Having stopped a job that was quite easy to sum up (although also incredibly hard to explain in terms of width!) I knew that it was important to me to be able to state my new role authentically. My answer this week during the time I have spent meeting a large number of new people? “I am a poet. I am also a coach who provides people with the time and space to think, breathe and be. And I photograph discarded elastic bands.” This is the authentic me coming forward and finding my new place in the world and is feeling like a proper emergence with the potential for much to unfold from here. I do let each of these elements sink in as I talk to the person because I love seeing which one resonates with them the most.

One of the new people I spoke with suggested I start a Facebook Group for the aBANDonment of elastic bands. And I loved that someone who had met me for the first time thought there would be some fun in that. So I did. The thought had been in the back of my mind, but hearing it said out loud in a fun conversation got me right on to it. And within a day or so there are now 20 members. I am excited to see what new photos get shared. 

It made me smile to then find an elastic band in the stairwell of the shopping centre at Welwyn Garden City having been telling people that was part of my joy and I have included the two photos for this blog. The same band from above and below. They are called: ‘Welwyn Garden City 1’ and ‘Welwyn Garden City 2’. Number 1 is visually appealing for the lines and textures and number 2 gives a flash of colour and the band becomes Daliesque.

If you tuned in last week you may want to know that there was no Itchy just a Scratchy and ‘he’ was a rat. Oh dear, but OK, thanks to Dave!

I hope there is plenty of whatever brings you joy in your week and if you see a discarded elastic band on your travels do consider taking a photograph and joining in with the Facebook Group. I would love to see it.



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