be stilled
Be stilled and drink tea, but take it outside.
Despite the pandemic imposed pause, as the wheels of life have tentatively get set into motion once again, I feel a familiar rise of inner tension. The pressures of work/life/family balance can sometimes feel a little overwhelming. I freely admit I am guilty of adding too much to our ever current 'to do lists'. That said I have taken solace in my recognising the absolute need to stop despite the whirlwind that inhabits our day to day lives.
We don't stop often enough anymore. We feel guilty when we do and sometimes don't allow ourself the time to really just be. I try to find at least one of these moments every day and preferably outside. I often find that I also need to do this on my own, as much as I enjoy the company of friends and loved ones, it's occasionaly in solitude that I can really relax. Spending time in the places I love, which are most commonly outside, has now become more important than I ever first realised. Not just to pass through but to rest, listen, smell, feel and most importantly for me is time to just be there.
I used to fill my rucksack with things to do, a spoon to carve, work notes to take, but I now realise that the very simple act of making a cup of tea and sitting on my Moorswood Ramblers Roll is enough. We fill our lives with things to do, there needs to be a time when we choose to let our minds rest and do nothing.... or is nothing being done, I'm suddenly more attentive to the natural world around me and spending more time resting in nature can only ever be a good thing.
Don't just go there, it's actually more important to be there.
Be stilled.
Be stopped in your tracks by something. Marvel at it.
Get lost in a leaf or fronds of a fern. Study the map like veins and brush them through your fingertips.
Absorb the setting.
Find a view and study it. Let the clouds pass by, shadows merge and the light skip a beat or two. Watch the trees dance with one another and breathe with the flow.
Be moved.
Be tickled, swayed by the breeze or blown about and shuddered by a storm.
Be kissed by the sun or dowsed by a downpour.
Be cold, to be warm.
Plunge in the dancing light of a River pool or trickle your toes through the swash of the sand and sea in motion.
Soak them, feel the cold, let it bite. For it's in the warming recovery that you feel restored.
Be dappled upon.
Loll under a tree canopy and let the dappled light play over you.
There is no calmer light than beneath the silk green tenderness of a Beech tree.
Somewhere between the showers and the sunshine there should always be moments to sit and drink tea. Let nature come back to life around you.
Tread lightly, leave no trace on your wander about.
Return restored, let nature be your nurturer.
Be stilled.
Charles Fanshawe