Its possible that this time of year makes me thoughtful. Maybe I just am that kind of person who needs to make sense of the world around and look to poets and artists and nature for inspiration. A problem with this time of year is that I spend so little time out in nature, plus it wont be long before I am going to work and coming home in the darkness each day. I really feel this lack of fresh air and light and I'm sure it affects my mood. I'm hoping this weekend will mean some dry weather and a chance to start tidying up in the garden and spend some time amongst the birds in the trees.
I'm a great believer in trying to live in the moment more. Looking backwards or forwards too much can mean not enjoying the present time and being too anxious over the future. When I'm failing miserably to appreciate the present, I find reading R.S Thomas's poem rather useful:
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
the treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give up all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
– RS Thomas, ‘The Bright Field’
I always find baking cakes or sewing rather calming too. I am very slowly putting together my patchwork/applique picture. I've made all of the hexagons and am now sewing them together. By the end of the weekend I had actually got this far, which is quite surprising considering how little I had done for months.
Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind
DAPHNE DU MAURIER
