Your writing soothes me because sometimes I feel that I am adrift, but then I read your wonderful words, rooted in the natural world and realise that I am actually fine.
This week I’ve been much focused on Ashton in Makerfield because it’s where I was born. Much has been said about Andy Burnham being a Catholic and going to Edmund Arrowsmith RC school in Ashton. I knew it well. However my experience of religion there is that it had a proliferation of non conformist churches. The chapel tradition started in the 18 th century in Ashton. and brought forth Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, Brethren- so many sects. I was brought up in the non conformist tradition and it has only just dawned on me that I have been a non conformist in its broadest sense, my entire life. It can sometimes make me feel an outlier and that can sometimes be lonely, which is why I love Jeanette’s writing. I identify with her values etc and feel that it’s ok to be me.
I like this. Your own mind can tell you wrong things, not sure how that is but it can (and does). I’ve started my usual ‘slow down’ technique of learning a poem. Every word there for a reason (in good poetry I think at least!). Words as rows of sweet peas. Each there if we slow it and notice.
I always look forward to reading you. Thank you for making sense in a very strange world. Thank you as well for your photos. How beautiful a space to be.
My GOODNESS I needed this. The way you have laid it all out...the process of thinking... so it feels not only do-able but thrillingly uplifting, important, soul-nourishing.
It's 5 to 10 in the evening on solstice night, still just about light enough to read a page of a book...or a poem...outside... and then to go inside and leave the curtains undrawn. That in itself feels free-ing. Thank you so much Jeanette.
Deeply grateful, as I frequently am, for you and your eloquent, reflective encouragement. I have latched onto re-wilding myself…I know so well the true peace and profound, boundlessness of natural connection is always there waiting for me. For all of us who choose it.
"I will light some candles inside and outside. I will read poems...."
A poem in itself. (I wonder which poems....)
The sacred incantation of poems.
I imagine you, Jeanette, your shadow flickering against the flowers and tall trees (your little Sherwood forest), with the sounds of early summer, the intimate noises of bugs and things rustling in bushes, the life of the wild that we once were, could be, are, if we apply a little candlelight, and insistence, to focus on the good, the holy, the kind, the candlelight, listening for the sounds outside and inside, reminding us that we are whole.
Thank you, always, for the reminder and invitation.
Mind like a bar full of drunks… love it. I don’t think I had a Solstice thinking pause today, it was more an observing, out in the wild, by the sea, on my own listening to skylarks. I noticed the songs and the colours and wondered at such arrangements and was surprised.
Thank you for this. I will be creating more thought moments. I listened to something/someone inside myself which wanted to honour marking the solstice - so got up at dawn yesterday - and I did need an alarm - and walked to the common ground near my house to sit and watch the sky and listen to the dawn chorus followed by a reverential walk home past sleeping houses, to sit in my conservatory with a cup of tea and watch the birds in the garden much smaller than yours but nonetheless, wonder-full. And at 5.45pm today back there again listening to some poetry and a blackbird and wren trying to out sing each other. Having retired from paid employment 15 months ago, my answer to ex-colleagues asking what I am doing with my time is that I am being.
Oh you are marvelous in so many ways Jeanette. So are your nasturtiums. Pick the biggest leaves, roll some green prawns inside with some spicy aromatic sauce. (Like a dolma) Then steam them, take the whole steaming basket out to your garden and eat them whilst you sit there looking at things. You can make them look even prettier with some of the flowers. Happy Solstice to all.
The Deva of Old Plum Tree in the back garden at Plum Tree End asked that her dream catcher Elder tree be laid to rest on Litha Day. She now sleeps among the corydalis, forget-me-nots, iris, mint, daffodils, mosses, fungi and lichen; a home for solitary bees, beetles, and whomever needs shelter. Blessed Be.
Your writing soothes me because sometimes I feel that I am adrift, but then I read your wonderful words, rooted in the natural world and realise that I am actually fine.
This week I’ve been much focused on Ashton in Makerfield because it’s where I was born. Much has been said about Andy Burnham being a Catholic and going to Edmund Arrowsmith RC school in Ashton. I knew it well. However my experience of religion there is that it had a proliferation of non conformist churches. The chapel tradition started in the 18 th century in Ashton. and brought forth Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, Brethren- so many sects. I was brought up in the non conformist tradition and it has only just dawned on me that I have been a non conformist in its broadest sense, my entire life. It can sometimes make me feel an outlier and that can sometimes be lonely, which is why I love Jeanette’s writing. I identify with her values etc and feel that it’s ok to be me.
I like this. Your own mind can tell you wrong things, not sure how that is but it can (and does). I’ve started my usual ‘slow down’ technique of learning a poem. Every word there for a reason (in good poetry I think at least!). Words as rows of sweet peas. Each there if we slow it and notice.
Slow Solstice wishes to all.
"Sometimes we live with a mind that is like a bar full of drunks." Yes. This explains it perfectly. Thank you.
...classic JW. So funny, too. Humor to help us enter the truth.
what a fantastic image that is Kathy and Jeanette.
I always look forward to reading you. Thank you for making sense in a very strange world. Thank you as well for your photos. How beautiful a space to be.
I find it helpful to have thought-pauses throughout the day too. Sometimes I feel like I am measuring out my life in thought pauses.
My GOODNESS I needed this. The way you have laid it all out...the process of thinking... so it feels not only do-able but thrillingly uplifting, important, soul-nourishing.
It's 5 to 10 in the evening on solstice night, still just about light enough to read a page of a book...or a poem...outside... and then to go inside and leave the curtains undrawn. That in itself feels free-ing. Thank you so much Jeanette.
Deeply grateful, as I frequently am, for you and your eloquent, reflective encouragement. I have latched onto re-wilding myself…I know so well the true peace and profound, boundlessness of natural connection is always there waiting for me. For all of us who choose it.
Thank you for this beautifully distilled wisdom. The garden looks glorious (in the real sense of that word)
Wow. Reading this just before bed and you have captured so much of my day’s wondering. Thank you
"I will light some candles inside and outside. I will read poems...."
A poem in itself. (I wonder which poems....)
The sacred incantation of poems.
I imagine you, Jeanette, your shadow flickering against the flowers and tall trees (your little Sherwood forest), with the sounds of early summer, the intimate noises of bugs and things rustling in bushes, the life of the wild that we once were, could be, are, if we apply a little candlelight, and insistence, to focus on the good, the holy, the kind, the candlelight, listening for the sounds outside and inside, reminding us that we are whole.
Thank you, always, for the reminder and invitation.
Mind like a bar full of drunks… love it. I don’t think I had a Solstice thinking pause today, it was more an observing, out in the wild, by the sea, on my own listening to skylarks. I noticed the songs and the colours and wondered at such arrangements and was surprised.
May I please camp out in one of your glorious garden terraces? I've not even a window box in my London attic quarters #Wildflowers
Thank you for this. I will be creating more thought moments. I listened to something/someone inside myself which wanted to honour marking the solstice - so got up at dawn yesterday - and I did need an alarm - and walked to the common ground near my house to sit and watch the sky and listen to the dawn chorus followed by a reverential walk home past sleeping houses, to sit in my conservatory with a cup of tea and watch the birds in the garden much smaller than yours but nonetheless, wonder-full. And at 5.45pm today back there again listening to some poetry and a blackbird and wren trying to out sing each other. Having retired from paid employment 15 months ago, my answer to ex-colleagues asking what I am doing with my time is that I am being.
Oh you are marvelous in so many ways Jeanette. So are your nasturtiums. Pick the biggest leaves, roll some green prawns inside with some spicy aromatic sauce. (Like a dolma) Then steam them, take the whole steaming basket out to your garden and eat them whilst you sit there looking at things. You can make them look even prettier with some of the flowers. Happy Solstice to all.
The thinking and the garden meld and I sank into both with unreserved relief. Thanks for this.
The Deva of Old Plum Tree in the back garden at Plum Tree End asked that her dream catcher Elder tree be laid to rest on Litha Day. She now sleeps among the corydalis, forget-me-nots, iris, mint, daffodils, mosses, fungi and lichen; a home for solitary bees, beetles, and whomever needs shelter. Blessed Be.