Skip to main content

I SEE BLUE SKY (#SingingAsTheDarknessLifts 122)

I SEE BLUE SKY

 

This morning the air holds the scent of green and unfurling. The birds are well awake when I step outside and are singing to each other of a new day to be in, seemingly unbothered by the wind.

 

Alt text says this week’s photo is a tree with no leaves. I say it is blue sky framing the branches of a tree, and that it delighted my heart to be walking under it.

 

After last weekend’s yarn show I set myself a catching up kind of a week. The kind where sparkly conversations with good friends featured amongst time to tackle admin type things and time to see if the poems that wait patiently in the draft folder are ready for polishing. The kind of week without a particular routine which allowed for resting and for seizing the moment when there was a gap in the rain to take a daily stroll.

 

It was good to get out for daily walks again after having recently had to wait for my cough to diminish. I felt my body easing its way back in to striding out and being glad for being out in the fresh air. I also realised how much I had missed listening to music for that dedicated segment of the day. My soul shines more fully when the right sounds are in the day. The country road route is currently muddy and wet, but I like its familiarity as I get back into the swing of things. The fact that walking this route takes as long as listening to the album Personal History by Mary Chapin Carpenter is also rather splendid.

 

It was good to have a free and easy week, it felt rather like having a springboard to jump from on the journey towards spring. Spring is my favourite season, and I love the feeling of entering it with a sense of renewal and to revelling in the newness it offers. So many reminders of growth as the rhubarb stretches out new stems and the snowdrops flourish in the borders. Mixing these wonderful visuals in with the joy of lengthened days makes so much seem possible. It even had me venturing into the garden with a pair of secateurs to begin the big tidy up.

 

When I realised how much the darker days of winter affected me, I made conscious efforts to find joy within the season itself. Hot chocolate, walks wrapped up in cosy knitwear, dedicated writing time, blankets, candles and films all played their role. And possibly the most helpful of all was visualising myself on the path towards the change of season. Much like the country road right now that path has muddy patches, but there is joy in the meanders it takes and to the way it alters under frost and snow and changes of light. And when it’s dark under a new moon I remember it is a moment in time. A time to realise that standing in the darkness can be a thing of its own. A time to pause and breathe before the waxing begins again. A time of anticipation.

 

I thought I would be including a seasonal poem this week, but this one comes to mind for me instead because there seems to be something coming up for me about standing in the moment and noticing...

 

My thanks to Black Bough Poetry for featuring this poem on the Silver Branch series.

 

I’VE COME TO THE DESERT TO SEE THE SAND

 

I know now not to try

to count the grains.

 

There will always be those missed

because they’re lodged in fingernails

 

or hiding their casual grit

in peoples’ stomachs;

grazed first by molars, then swallowed

before they could be tongued and spat out.

 

And that softness when you let it fall

through your fingers isn’t real –

there is hardness there.

 

Even the colour diminishes

when you separate the grains.

You would need a microscope

to bring the beauty back.

 

Instead of counting

I stand

lift my head­

just look at that sand.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MY YEAR IN REVIEW (#SingingAsTheDarknessLifts 114)

 MY YEAR IN REVIEW   Listening Link This morning it is raining and the almost unchilled air carries strong hints of green.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a collage of a group of people. It is indeed a collage and it is made from the photos that accompanied each blog post this year. I do like to take a look back before I look forward and I thought this would be one way of doing it for 2025.   When I was little I loved an annual. To me it was a book of delightful snippets collected together to be enjoyed in a period of time that involved a break from routine. I can picture myself reading in my pyjamas, the seemingly bottomless sweet tin, and the advent calendar that left its glitter on our fingers with all its doors open telling me that it was indeed Christmas Day. This week’s photo is like the cover of my 2025 annual.   This blog has been my way of building a good relationship with Mondays, and the fact there have been 114 episodes since Sept...
2 comments
Read more

LIFTED (#SingingAsTheDarknessLifts 108)

LIFTED Listening Link  This morning, the cool air brings the smell of hash browns as the traffic builds its familiar rush.   Alt text offers no suggestion for this week’s photo. I say it is my sister, me and my mum in the lift after coffee and before a little shopping spree. I love this moment in time from our lovely, shared day, and the fact I remembered to take a photo.   This week I learned that I am a competent pumpkin carver. Good company, a simple design idea, a whiteboard marker pen and a last-minute pumpkin purchase resulted in a Trick or Treat worthy exhibit which made me smile.   It has been like adopting a mini half-term this week... catching up with a good friend, time with family, carving that pumpkin, having a toffee apple, going to a big firework display, landing on the settee of lovely people and having a photograph taken... and perhaps there will always be echoes of school holidays even though I no longer have these as ...
Post a Comment
Read more

EVENING SUN (#SingingAsTheDarknessLifts 96)

EVENING SUN Listening Link    This morning, at ‘The Angel of the North’ the air smells of heather and lavender. Alt text isn’t offering a suggestion for this week’s photo, but I say it is Kath and me capturing a photo during a stroll by the river after the first day of the yarn show we attended at the weekend. After a full on day it was nice to walk in someone else’s city, and I love the way the evening sun makes the white on my hair glow and puts an extra shine on Kath’s blue. A moment of quiet in a busy world. I know that it relaxed me because I then became curious to look on a map to find out whereabouts in the country we were. When we drove up I was solely focused on being helpful with yarn type things and although I knew we were in Newcastle I didn’t have a clear idea geographically of what that meant. My phone map was super helpful and I realised how different it feels from turning the pages in a road atlas. Very helpful for putting it all in context especially for someo...
Post a Comment
Read more