It was one of those rare moments in life where nothing feels real, and yet in the same instant life burns hot and sharp through veins and eyes. The utter beauty and haunting stillness of the shimmering light caught my breath, and I held it as long as I could, for fear of dispelling the mirage in ripples towards the horizon. A feeling crept into my soul that blinking, or looking away for even a second, would cause the whole silvery scene to vanish, as though it had never been. As though it might slide back through the portal to fairyland, sweeping all it’s impossible enchantment away, leaving only the cold dark sea, and a lingering sense of disbelief. What creature, what goddess of nature could have dreamed and woven such a scene? The question has been been haunting me ever since, and the answer has been stalking the edges of my dreams.
Waking Dreams
Posted in art, photos, spiritual
Tagged art, beauty, dreams, golden hour, mindfulness, muse, nature, Ocean, photography, poetry, scotland
56 Comments
Spring Tales
Walk with me a while, beneath the creamy blossom trees, and I’ll tell you a tale or two about Spring and her vibrant magic. She stretches her arms wide, and pushes the cold and the darkness out to the edges of the world. In the space she creates, light and warmth pour in, and life pulses through in waves of green leaves and frothy flowers.
Each flower, each leaf, of the millions born each day, is a child of the light flowing like a cresting wave across the dark earth. Seeming to defy the laws of physics, spring summons their growth from the utter stillness of winter. The momentum is unstoppable and the energy of growth seems endless, as blossom after blossom bursts overhead. Imagine the power which must rest within each brown branch, hidden and resting through the dark months of winter.
It seems impossible that all this creamy foaming beauty can unfold from within the dark hard limbs of trees. This breaking edge of spring is a liminal space, a threshold between seasons, where the light and the dark create new patterns and shapes. Insects are attracted to the new growth, and in turn they attract birds who sing with wild abandon late into the night. Dreams, hopes and wishes rest on these fleeting petals, so let them work their magic. Let your mind fill with all of the stories you would like to unfold into your life, as you walk beneath the drifting blossoms. In the spring, beneath the cherry trees, everything is possible, and dreams can be birthed.
Form, birth and release your dreams into the soft warm breeze of spring. Who knows which ones will fruit, but all of them are beautiful as they swirl in the air in dancing petal clouds. Let springs enchantment flow through your bones releasing ancient long held dreams into the world. There can never be enough blossom in the world, or so my Granny used to say.
This blossom is on a tree planted in memory of my beautiful and wise grandmother, because you see she loved blossom and a good story.
Find more Spring tales at this weeks WP photo challenge.
Posted in philosophy, photos, weekly photo challenge
Tagged change, cherry blossom, dreams, magic, nature, philosophy, photography, postaday, spring
66 Comments
Spring Bounce
The sudden increase in sunshine, and the lengthening of the days produces a definite effect on all of us. As the flowers pop open all around us, and the sap rises in the trees, we can all feel a little frisky as our energy levels grow. It seems to add a little bounce to the dogs too, and they get all playful as the sun warms their fur.
Watching them play is a great reminder to have some fun with all this increased spring energy. Time to shake off the winter stillness and leap back into the flowing energies of life. It’s a time of creative output, as the natural worlds bursts with flowers and leaves, we can turn outwards into this beautiful fresh world.
Once things get going at this time of year the pace can pick up pretty fast. It’s a time to run with ideas, and to ride the natural wave of growth and expansion flowing around us. There’s lots of fun to be had, and energy to be burnt off.
Once the dust settles we can examine and explore the new ground beneath our feet. It’s a time to explore, and to play a bit, and in this way to create something new this spring. Don’t let that spring bounce go to waste!
Posted in change, mindfulness, photos
Tagged change, creative, dogs, growth, life, mindfulness, nature, philosophy, photography, spring
36 Comments
Spring Gossip
On the banks they crowd
Confetti blossom gossips
Surfing springs green wave.
Ancient Bluebell Woods
At the end of the road, a path through the palace gates leads you over cobblestones, past a golden sandstone chapel and on into the deep woods. A choir of spring birds fills the air with bursts and waves of song, and high overhead the soft newborn leaves flutter in a sun warmed breeze. If you follow the path onwards, it will lead you through the trees, deeper and deeper into the ancient woodland. Here in the deep heart of the woods, bluebells burst like ocean waves across the earth floor.
They rise miraculous, like asparagus spears, piercing the soft dark skin of the earth. Sunlight peels the bells open and paints them vivid blue, and their sweet scent swirls in clouds into the still air. Sitting here among the bluebells, in the dappled shade of the trees feels like falling into a scented dream. This scene is as ancient as our ancestors, yet repeats fresh and entrancing each year, for just a few short weeks in Spring.
No visit to the bluebell woods is ever the same. Each day new flowers will have burst open, different bird tunes wave through the air, and the light and warmth shifts hour by hour. Each moment begs to be noticed, to be drunk in and savoured, before it passes into the next. To be truly alive, to have your senses wide open, is easy in this timeless beautiful space. Waves of fresh inspiration roll through these woods, and if you let them they will roll through your mind too. Little bells of creative delight, ringing out from the ancient heart of the forest. Can you hear their tune, and their message to surrender to your wild creative passions?
One of the markers of ancient woodland, there are many places across the UK where you can enjoy the bluebells. These photos were taken in Dalkeith Country Park, one of our regular dog walks. Click the link to find out where else you can enjoy the bluebell woods.
Posted in elemental, mindfulness, photos
Tagged bluebells, earth, mindfulness, nature, photography, relaxation, scotland, spring, travel
60 Comments
Persephone’s Bells
Follow me along
Shadow paths of dreams and thoughts
Towards lights white lips.
Persephone comes
Trailing bluebells in her wake
And earth gushes life.
All is well within
Deep under thick flower filled woods
Spring flows eternal.
Posted in art, elemental, nature photo, poem
Tagged Britain, flowers, Haiku, magic, mindfulness, nature, photography, poetry, spring
29 Comments
Earth Dragon of Ashaig
Lying on the South East coast of Skye is a rippled green carpet, lying in soft folds over deep layers of history stretching back at least 7,000 years. Beneath the lush green grass lie remains of human activities, whispering in half obscured lines and echoes, now given over almost entirely to the dead. The green mound enclosed in lichen covered stones, is an ancient burial mound, and it sits on top and around the faded remains of a C7th Celtic Church. This ancient Kirk was placed on an even older burial site, which is flanked by a huge Mesolithic shell midden. It seems this site has drawn people to its natural beauty and peace ever since they arrived on these shores. Looking at the vibrant mossy mound I was reminded of a giant sleeping dragon, curled within the stones and rocks, with just it’s huge stone claws peeping out under the ancient stone boundary.
Walking away from this enchanting mound, the view back was dramatically lit by low sun and stray clouds. The newer ancient graves can be seen to the left, where they stand looking out across the waves towards Applecross, Jura and Pabay, while those more ancient have long since crumbled down towards the earth and lie now re absorbed beneath the grass within the body of the dragon.
At the older seaward end of the walled mound, just beyond the ancient shell debris, lies a wooden gate leading into a stone enclosure.
In the heart of this space lies a healing well, with a history of at least 1,300 years, but probably stretching back even further into the prechristian past. It’s waters were claimed as a cure for asthma, eye complaints and soft bones, and prayers and curses could be granted at its edge. Still gushing strongly from the earth, it flows into a stone chamber, partially covered by curiously marked stones.
Diamond shaped eyes look back blankly, holding their stone secrets for eternity.
Little hollow cups and faces swim in and out of view as the sun casts ever longer shadows, and the stillness and mystery of the deep earth meets us in the crystal waters of the well. An eye, black and moist gazes up from the depths, the earth dragon looks out on the world as we look inwards. The sound of the flowing water leads us out of the enclosure, following a trail of shining white stones scattered in the healing stream.
A trail of magic marked by the glistening white pebbles, bejewelling the blue ribbon flowing through the green moss out towards the ocean beyond. Water herbs grow fresh and bright in the healing waters, and a basin fills with water topped by glittering golden sun stars. Here would be the place to take the cure, to drink the waters, but afterwards the well head should be circled three times, sunwise, and a natural offering left, all to appease the ancient earth dragon and his glittering eye, or so they say.
Even closer to the shore, where the sweet clear waters pour over salty tidal stones and earth, there is an ancient wishing stone, a bullaun. Turning the stone within the hollow you could seek a blessing or a curse, depending on the direction you turned the stone. Round as a dragons egg, new directions and fates were birthed by it’s turning. Here at the edge of an island, on the edge of the sea, all was possible if you dreamed hard enough, and the dragon heard.
No wonder the Celtic Saint Maelrubha chose this as his holy place to preach on Skye, hanging his bell from the branches of the ash tree near the well. He travelled by ferry from Applecross so frequently that the place became known as the ferry of Maelrubha. Nowadays the dead are still laid to rest here beneath this soft green turf, with beautiful views across the waves. Countless layers of humanity resting peacefully, returning to the earth from which they came. It’s a beautiful place to reflect on our mortality, and our place within the cycles of life, and to dream of change.
Posted in ancient history, ancient sites, Celtic, change, elemental, mindfulness, mythology, nature photo, photos, relaxation, spiritual, travel
Tagged Celtic, healing wells, history, magic, photography, Saint Maelrubha, Skye, tobar ashaig, travel
51 Comments
Passing
She passed peacefully
Despite soft words of comfort
Grief rips us open
In memory of a dear friend, Ruth, who was cremated today.
She made the world a brighter place, and filled it with laughter, mischief and creative passion.
She saw clearly and with an open heart, and I will miss her.
Posted in art, change, mindfulness, nature photo, photos, poem, spiritual, verse
Tagged change, death, dusk, grief, Haiku, nature, photography, poetry, spiritual
32 Comments
The Oceans Tongue
Late storm light simmers
Brooding satin waves licking
Lichen coated rocks
Posted in art, elemental, mindfulness, nature photo, photos, poem, spiritual, verse
Tagged art, Haiku, mindfulness, nature, Ocean, photography, poetry, scotland, spiritual
32 Comments
Thresholds
Thresholds are magical spaces, which lie in between two places or states. They are neither one nor the other, but are a mixture of both at once. Because they are neither here nor there, they lie in the third place which is not of this place, but is the once-upon-a-time place of fairy tales and myth.
A threshold space can contain opposites, and so it is space where everything is possible. They are spaces where one thing ends and another begins, and so hold both beginnings and endings. Change occurs by crossing thresholds, by passing through liminal spaces, and finding new possibilities to challenge the status quo.
The word itself is quite mysterious and seems to have Norse roots. [Old English therscold; related to Old Norse threskoldr, Old High German driscubli, Old Swedish thriskuldi]
Thres meaning tread or step, and skoldr or skuld meaning shield or skin. So together they give the meaning of a protective edge to the steps we can take. In other words a place where we should pause and chose our steps carefully.
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Some thresholds are clearly marked by doors or gates, which bar our progress, literally making us come to a halt before moving forwards. In our inner world these can be feelings or experiences which keep us from changing. The gates or doors prevent us from moving into the transitional space where change and new ways of thinking and doing become available to us. Of course fear is usually the biggest door we will encounter, and fear of change will keep us locked out of an emotional space where we can think in different ways. We may never manage to get passed the gate and into the field beyond where there are new views, new landscapes and potentials just waiting to be discovered. We remain cut off from our potential to grow and change, because of the fear of change itself. Better to stay safely tucked behind the walls and fences of our life as we know it, than to risk stepping over a threshold and allowing all that unknown, unpredictable potential to sweep us away into who knows what. Our egos can feel very afraid at thresholds, and for good reason, because we don’t know what lies beyond.
Thresholds can mark the liminal edges between states of being, between earth and water, between sleep and wakefulness, between night and day. Despite appearances there are no clear cut edges where one thing ends and another begins, rather there is a blurred edge where both states exist at once. The edge of a loch, scattered with rocks and stones is both earth and water, and our ancestors saw in between spaces like this as gateways connecting this world with the otherworld. Where the water and the stones of earth meet something new is created by the mixing, waves ripple back across the water and sound pours out into the air. The encounter of opposites can create something new.
Thresholds are wonderful places, full of the potential to change, to release old ways of looking at things, and to open up into new ways of encountering and experiencing life. Perhaps you can use the thresholds you cross everyday to waken up a little more. Each doorway you step through could be a chance to pause just for a moment and notice where you are and where you are going. Start to notice the changes in light and sound as you cross through doorways from one space to another, and in this way become a little more engaged with your life as it actually is right now, with all of its wild potential.
Discover more thresholds at the WP Photo Challenge
Posted in art, Celtic, change, elemental, mindfulness, mythology, nature photo, photos, spiritual, unconscious, weekly photo challenge
Tagged Celtic, change, magic, nature, photography, postaday, spring, symbolism, thresholds
64 Comments
breathofgreenair 