This year, only the weather is as it use to be. So instead of a big fire, a walk in the twilight woods, listening to birds singing.
Content in the knowledge that I managed to achieve a goal, even if depression still rules my life. I’ve written 30 poems in 30 days during GloPoWriMo. Even though I published a bit less other pieces I’ve still managed to write way more this month than I have before.
Going forward I will set up time to rest and not write unless inspiration strikes, but will keep pushing myself to write something all other days, to keep chipping away at those ten thousand hours you need.
I see no way the world can just resume as it was, and anyhow my world where already going trough seismic changes, so I’m grateful for this push to restart positively with a months writing challenge, building my confidence, that maybe I can do this. Instead of sinking deep in all the misery around.
In preparation for tonight When we bask in warm firelight Celebrating the return of spring Releasing old patterns within We scrub and clean fresh House and yard, mind and flesh So when we light the fire tonight We offer our old self to the light Rejuvenating in the energies of spring Manifesting what we keep deep within Restarting life afresh United heart, soul, mind and flesh.
Tonight is Beltane, for my three Nordic Witches it’s Walpurgis Night, when finally spring has arrived. Another Christian celebration hiding a much older history. It’s usually also the last cold period before balmier temperatures reach this far north.
I wrote this before reading today’s GloPoWriMo prompt, but no surprised the return of the three lead me directly on prompt with something that returns yearly.
Recall our midwinter feast Our hope and ecological fears as we laid the tens to rest A new decade for new beginnings at least Instead modern humanity put to one of our greatest tests
Now we shelter in place Curtailed from roaming free Lost within our inner maze Now we have ample time for truths, we might not want to face
So fortify yourself by recalling those hopes and fears Decide where you want to go from here So next time we meet, after our happy to be free tears We’ll start working to bring a better greener world near
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough …and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and […]
We enter the farmstead And the first thing I see A horse big as a plum tree Roaming the yard totally free
We exit the car and start up the hill As we plod up to the house We’re followed by the big horse, quiet as a mouse He just wants a sniff and a look, to welcome us to his farmhouse
After greeting the watch horse We enter through the rough door With farm frocks on pegs and work boots on the floor Opposite the gigant wood pile store
The house is warm and calm Safe haven for a child in constant storms A life that to natural seasons conform Farm learning experience that transforms
At the end of the attic Is a sunshine and giggle filled room Where two girls learn how to bloom How to freedom under responsibility assume
Every night we played cards and talked Early mornings we did milking shores After breakfast the work outdoors Everyday cooking meals and working replenishing stores
The house might have been old and creaky The work old days hard and tiring But most days I went to bed happily smiling Snug for once in a house full of kind caring
I realized I got lost in how this place felt to me and what it gave me, and described that, rather than the buildings, people, animals, fields, lakes and woods. But maybe that is why this place will always be vivid in my memory.
This week in group we where taught a Mindfulness technique called 3 – 2 – 1, it can be done sitting or walking, eyes open or closed, and as so many other meditation tools for the beginner it’s easier achieved sitting still with eyes closed. So we start there until we can do it more freely.
It’s purpose is to soothe and calm an overactive mind.
Here’s how to do 3 – 2 – 1
State, silently or aloud, three things you See, Hear and Feel(as in perceive with a sense). Then two things of each. Then one.
Breath calm, deep and even during. Though the focus here is not breath but the world around.
I see purple tulips. I see rain drops. I see a stack of books. I hear the sound of typing. I hear birds singing. I hear the sound of wind. I feel the warmth of my sweater. I feel the chill spring air trough the window. I feel the wood floor beneath my feet.
I see purple tulips. I see a stack of books. I hear birds singing. I hear the sound of wind. I feel the warmth of my sweater. I feel the chill spring air trough the window.
I see purple tulips. I hear birds singing. I feel the chill spring air trough the window.
I have found this tool to work quite well, especially done in nature, but then all forms of meditation is easier for me there. Even writing a version now made me way more mindful and present in the current moment.
After four weeks meditating several times daily, it feels like a habit has formed, that I’ve completed the first step on the path. Now I’m looking forward to finding out what the next step is.
The attentive might notice, way more than four week’s have now gone since the first post. When I started this series, I envisioned meditating this intensely, mening around three hours per day, for the duration of the eight week – Compassion Mind Training – and writing a post for each week.
Then corona virus SARS-CoV2 causing the illness Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. And everyone’s lives changed. Including cancellation of all non-essential treatments to lighten the load on the health care system.
I’m happy and heartfelt grateful for having managed to make meditation a routine before the pandemic, and I’m proud to say I still meditate daily. It might not cure PTSD or clinical depression, but it helps to cope with both.
Going forward I plan to set up a page to gather my resources on Compassion Focused Therapy and meditation. I will also keep writing posts about my own experience and path. Reviews of tools, techniques, teachers, books and other resources. And share the insights I gather on the way.
The other day I ran across pictures of Guillaume Legros artwork Beyond Crisis. Ever since then It’s been on my mind. And today together with Go Dog Go’s Tuesday Writing Prompt it became a poem.
This rain started with soft pattering A whiff of new green things Then the wind picked up And temperature dropped The downfall comes sideways Now more smarting pellets Than soft drop splashes The clouds darken Pellets turn to sleet Big patches of flakes Swirling in the wind Melting upon touch Sunset falls Flakes turn to ice cold dark drizzle A typical, but cold April experience Best looked at from the needed rain perspective Snug and warm indoors
The world according to RedCat 
![Daniel Gardner [Public domain]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Three_Witches_from_Shakespeares_Macbeth_by_Daniel_Gardner,_1775.jpg){kind=link}