This week has been a little surreal. Unplanned endings and unprepared new beginnings colliding in a time that felt disorientated. Or discombobulated, as I heard someone say. I’ve also missed my usual routine of a pause among the trees during the morning alpaca round. This is because Steve and I have been synchronising our arrival … Read more
We need to pause when we cross a threshold of endings and beginnings. Even if momentarily. Not because of indecision or reticence but because this is a significant step. Endings are important. We are not in charge of their timescale, yet we must honour their process. And likewise, birth rarely comes to order. Yet the … Read more
We know what beginnings sound like. The excited whispers, the first cry, the jubilation of finally arriving. At the start. But what about endings? Why do we often avoid the marking of closure, the celebration of what has been and the rhythm of mourning? Yet even the most magnificent piece of music, or journey or … Read more
A cherry drops,plump and redfrom the cherry tree. Is this a beginningor an ending? Coming back to theplace where we startedand knowing it forthe first time. Is this an endingor a beginning? Wherever we appear in the circle of life is always an ending and a beginning. How we see it depends on where … Read more
We bless this year for all we have learned,For all we loved and lostAnd for the quiet way it brought usNearer to our invisible destination. + John O’Donohue Time has taken us by the hand and led us along many strange paths. Ways we had not expected to walk. People we never thought we’d meet. … Read more
We had just finished dismantling the large round bale of sweet-smelling hay, moving it armful by armful through the narrow passage into the hay store. The alpacas were thrilled to be clearing up after us, yet it was still grey Welsh dismal damp. And then – the sun shone – for the first time in … Read more
Endings don’t always have to be the ambush we fear – the thing taken from us without our consent. So as we approach the end of this year, how might we prepare ourselves for the possibilities of the next? And open our senses with gratitude to the natural passing of time? Perhaps by walking with … Read more