I hung a load of washing out on the line in the early evening of a Friday. My theory was if I did it late that day, it would all be dry and ready to bring in and put away the next morning. My ulterior motive was I wouldn’t need to spend that time doing it on the weekend. Within about an hour of me returning inside, the skies opened up and an incredible amount of rain poured down giving it a thorough extra rinse. The rinse cycle was hard and relentless for a good 15 minutes and I mentally rolled my eyes thinking ‘well that was pointless!’
Not long after this and almost like it was synchronised, the wind picked up to gale force speeds. This continued throughout the night and well into the next day. At various times during the night I would hear banging and light crashing of things being blown around outside and doors bumping almost closed, then open, and bumping almost closed again. I didn’t bother to get up as I knew no matter what was being blown around there wasn’t a lot I could do in the middle of the night. I would ride it out and see where things were the next day.
When I got up the next morning the sky was a stunning clear blue, the sun was shining, and the air felt clean and fresh. The wind was still very strong and was no doubt giving anyone out and about a brand-new hairstyle, but it there was a fantastic energy in the air. It felt exciting and was pushing for people (and me) to get moving and be productive with the arrival of a brand-new day.
I chatted with a magpie that decided to join me to retrieve my very dry washing from the line and we discussed how it felt like the wind had blown all previous non positive energy away and delivered a refreshing and unexpected clarity and sense of vitality and life to the air.
It was cool that morning and I thought about the seasons, not that we really have them where I live, but in other countries they are usually defined by four different quadrants in a year. No matter how long the Winter lasts and no matter how cold it is, Spring will definitely come again filled with another opportunity for things to grow and to develop into full flourish with the warmth of Summer. We also know that Winter will come around again within a few months and bring with it the cold, but we have this initial period of time beforehand, to recharge and re-energise and somewhat prepare, before it inevitably arrives.
I suppose the variables are that we don’t know exactly how cold Winter will be or for how many days or weeks it will stay cold. We don’t know if it will get very cold and then warm up only to lull us into a false sense of security before it gets very cold again. It could be quite hard sometimes to remember that Spring is coming when you are walking around in sub-zero temperatures trying to find ways to avoid the cold and get back to where you are warm again…
Like being a morning person or a night person, I suppose we can be seasonal people as well. I personally love all the seasons and am learning to just go with whatever season it is, with whatever weather it brings. I know it won’t last forever.
As my magpie ‘friend’ and I shared a moment in the wind, me trying to get the pegs off the clothes before they blew away, and him just trying to stay perched on the clothes line before he blew away, I smiled at him and couldn’t help but to look up at the sky and close my eyes for a second. With a deep breath I thought, “I think I’m ready, I think I am starting to get the hang of it, let’s do this!”
I opened my eyes and the magpie still looking at me cocked his head to one side and then flew away.
Much Love
Dalya xx💙