This morning the air brings me the scent of grass. Slightly herbed and fresh. The more silage-based smell of old cuttings stays in the brown bin.
Yesterday the birds celebrated themselves for Dawn Chorus Day and I shared one of my dawn chorus poems on social media even though I did not join them in the early morning. I did take a moment to remember two of my favourite dawn chorus experiences though. One of these was my first ever dawn chorus when my friend Karen’s Dad took me Karen and Sarah out for to experience sunrise and helped us name the birds we could hear. The other was at Loggerheads were Kath and I stood to hear the last owl and the first blackbird. Both magical in completely different ways.
I have been looking at things from a variety of different angles this week and found myself with some perfect moments for reflection. One of these came after a wonderful meal out with a friend at the start of the week. Laughter and chat and that feeling of being heard and hearing yourself out loud is freeing. The sea and driving a straight road under the moon also bring a lightness to things for me so it was good that all that was mixed in too.
I have had fast paced walks and slow meanders this week and I like the contrast. I can walk things out with a speedy pace and I can enjoy the curiosity of my thoughts when it is more of a stroll. Both are important, but I guess the meander tells me I am finding the world interesting and that ‘Hurry Up’ driver is nicely at bay. When I was thinking about that this week I reflected on the fact that the ‘Hurry Up’ is only telling me I have a feeling of stress and that if I take a moment to think about what is causing that I can dampen it down. When I don’t take notice I just end up doing more than one thing at a time and not enjoying them.
When I coach I wonder about the need to put some things down in order to move forward and I felt myself thinking about this ahead of having a coaching session this week. Putting things down is important to me. It helps me to stop procrastinating when something needs to be done and saves that time of rolling around in too many thoughts instead of just noting the actions that will move things on and doing them.
Alt Text says this week’s picture is “A blue apple next to a book”. Alt text pretty much nails it. Did I mention I will be launching ‘Welcome to the Museum of a Life’ this week? And do you know how much it makes me smile that there are blue apples in the world as well as the ones I have already discovered?
My day had two starts to it this morning, the finding out what the air smells like start and the watching of a video. During coaching last week I was talking about what brings in my performance nerves and my coach asked if I had thought about videoing myself in order to review my performance. I laughed because I remembered all the work I had put in to make sure I could share individual poems on my YouTube channel. This made me realise I must have been working on this for some time and I tapped in to what it was I did there that enabled me to be ready to read. So yes, I was the poet that watched themselves back this morning and I am pleased to say I have been giving myself a harder time than I need to.
IT IS NOT ABOUT DAWN
It is about that moment
before the dark time breaks,
being present in the silence,
standing still in an exact moment.
It is all about when that first bird sings,
first light,
the fact that there is an order
that layer upon layer
sculpts the day’s beginning.
It is about discovering how long it takes
before the crow starts to echo back
with his rough
cruck, cruck.
DAWN CHORUS
Your bed was a lazy lover,
warm and familiar, holding you.
Yet soon the birds would be waking,
mapping out a set of songs
to greet the moon-washed sky.
I waited for you to free yourself
to stand and listen as the mist thinned
so we, too, could welcome the new day.
Here’s to holding things lightly, sharing time, and to the people who bring out the best in us.
Sue Finch 