Looking

uP

Turned a corner… and have had the pleasure of meeting up with women friends. Out and about in the world again, albeit wrapped up Inuit style to stave off further colds and hold on to restored health. Sitting together, chatting across a table with delicious coffee steaming in front of us and a sweet little biscuit on the saucer felt like a tiny moment of heaven. We talked all things in those couple of hours or so. There was humour, empathy, understood shared frustrations, wisdom, innuendo and fun. Debate, listening, discussion, rumination. A tonic, much needed and deeply appreciated by each of us I think. The close companionship of other women, of all ages, plays such a vital part in being well. I’ve had the joy of a double dose over two days which has set me up for a quieter end to the week. What else?

I find I’m spending an increasing amount of time looking up. Very early morning I sit still in my armchair, in complete darkness, lights off and only the warm flicker of a candle burning to see the sun rise, or more correctly, day replacing night. Each time it’s different. Some days it’s so magnificent I hear myself exclaim out loud. An audible gasp. Oh. Accompanied by an urgent desire to capture it in a photo, an instant of staggering beauty and it’s free, it’s mine. I want to hold it. Keep it. 100% captivated. Fully engaged in that specific moment. Sometimes the light is copper coloured, other times gold or maybe a pure silver - crisp, clean and clear. Or a heavy leaden grey, no less lovely, signifying…Winter. During the day I find myself watching clouds sailing at speed across the sky or maybe a dense blanket of white. Almost solid. Holding rain or snow or hail. I don’t care what weather it contains. It’s a privilege to have time to stop and look properly at what’s happening up there. Even when there seems nothing to see, the birds can be heard filling that ‘up’ space with their own brilliance. Listen. Even the dying yellow tulips on my window sill seem to sing to me. They open their petals wide wide and reveal golden throats from which a chorus of glorias and alleluias can be heard.

As for night…. the most spectacular performance unfolds as the night sky reveals itself and on a cloudless night (with not too much light pollution here) we’re given a firmament of glittering stars. Planets align and a moon that waxes and wanes with cunning complicity in this heavenly recital. I’ve cricked my neck looking up, being unable to tear myself away from the constellations. I got very cold standing outside while common sense nudges me to return indoors, my spirit resists sense and greedily drinks deep drafts of the night…and the same delighted exclamations leave my body, unbidden and whispered, because this night time moment requires a softer tone of voice. Gently, gently into the night. I want to lie down and never leave.

Despite the various blighted world conditions currently so talked about, I’m convinced that all will be well. We do not have it in us to upend such cosmic glory…. We just haven’t got the intelligence. Our cleverness is of the brutal kind and a low cast variety, it simply cannot compete with the origin of creation…. and it was good. There is an inherent goodness present and it’s impossible not to mirror back the genius of nature. It’s reparative condition. This is not to suggest that there is not work to do on our part. We are a glorious slice of the solution. Ask any question and within yourself is usually part of the answer.

In my own tiny world I’ve tried out a new foundation from Jones Road. It’s very good… very natural and does what it says on the tin… or at least in the Bobby Brown marketing for the product. So I haven’t been duped this time, seduced by the packaging or handed my money over to online bandits! Makes a change. Also some efforts have been made, during enforced house-bound time, to put my look together for our son’s wedding in Chamonix. A snowy mountain top, their venue, for the wedding service. We could not be closer to heaven while remaining fully terrestrial. Some of the most important spiritual events have taken place on the side of a mountain, but I digress… I love the 60s vibe for snow gear and all things James Bond, so I will be channelling something of this and have had great fun searching online and putting things together for the trip and the wedding itself. Jess has worked so hard to bring together their special day. They both have in different ways. Not easy organising from a distance, it requires great trust in the ones at the other end of the phone and lots of forward thinking. There is a wonderful sense of anticipation around their plans. Snow makes everything feel exciting doesn’t it, wherever it falls is immediately transformed and becomes a landscape of pure magic. It already has a glamorous feel to me, my imagination is on fire. Hoping, of course, that none in our intimate party slip and break a limb…there’s always that chance. It is snow after all.

Here a storm is forecast this weekend and outside I see it is already brewing. Wind’s circulating and stirring things up. Rain is falling and I’m having a quiet day, pottering at home. Keep looking up I say, there’s a celestial planetary spectacular lined up for the 25th, we share the same sky. Wishing you a starry, starry night. Till the next time…

A

https://youtu.be/oxHnRfhDmr