Spring Words and Images from The Dene
'Make the beauty we love, be what we do...' Rumi
"In lovely harmony the wood has put on its green mantle, and summer is on its throne, playing its string music; the willow, whose harp hung silent when it was withered in winter, now gives forth its melody – Hush! Listen! The world is alive.."
Welsh; Thomas Telynog Evans; 1840 -65
Welsh; Thomas Telynog Evans; 1840 -65
I read these words this morning as I was sitting by the open window, after my morning meditation. I picked up the book, an old favourite of mine, full of poems, stories and legends from the Celtic world. The last words - 'Hush! Listen! the world is alive...' made my heart leap. I realised that each time the thrush starts to sing from the nearby fir tree, I just cannot help smiling. It is so glorious to hear the rush of birdsong again, as the sun comes up, red behind the hill.
There was a heavy frost in the Dene last night so that it was a white world that caught the rays of the rising sun. A blackbird swept across the trees and was caught fleetingly in the red-gold light. Her glossy black wings seemed to flame with ruby light for a moment, like a winged jewel. It seemed I was holding my breath with the beauty of it all.
Above the sound of the beck, which is full and brown with peat after recent rains, I heard the curlew's call bubbling on the hilltop. The tap tap tapping on my wall told me that my feathered friend, the blue tit, was back, re-building her nest in the eaves.
There was a heavy frost in the Dene last night so that it was a white world that caught the rays of the rising sun. A blackbird swept across the trees and was caught fleetingly in the red-gold light. Her glossy black wings seemed to flame with ruby light for a moment, like a winged jewel. It seemed I was holding my breath with the beauty of it all.
Above the sound of the beck, which is full and brown with peat after recent rains, I heard the curlew's call bubbling on the hilltop. The tap tap tapping on my wall told me that my feathered friend, the blue tit, was back, re-building her nest in the eaves.
Each morning I walk in the Dene, and surprise brown hares who are lying in their secret hiding places. They leap out from the copper bracken and streak away across the hill. They are so full of life and yet so utterly invisible if they choose to be, that I always feel that they are rather magical beings. As symbols of rebirth, fertility, intuition and balance they are in perfect harmony with the approaching equinox and the spiralling energy of the season. I just had to share this photograph with you again, of a hare caught in the light of a bright February morning, on the edge of the birchwood.
'Make the beauty we love, be what we do... ' Rumi
Rumi's words are the starting point for my Spiritual Harp events over the next few months. They seem to dovetail very neatly with my own thoughts on how the Celtic world, and the lives of our ancestors who lived on the land, can inform my own spiritual journey today.
Recently, I have been reading again the collection of blessings and chants in the Carmina Gadelica, which is the collected words of the people who lived and worked the land in the Hebrides, the Western Isles of Scotland.
There is so much wisdom and inspiration for us, leading such complex lives in a fast paced modern world, in reading the words of a people who lived close to The Great Mystery, to God, to The Source - however we choose to name it. Their words are a glimpse into the lives of a people for whom there was no separation between the spiritual life and daily life.
Each task, however mundane or menial, was carried out to the accompaniment of chants and blessings. Every moment of each day and night, was lived with the light of the divine as a natural and constant companion.
It seems to me that this is a way of being that many of us are seeking to attain - to walk through each day, wherever life may take us, living, breathing and responding from the heart of our own divine light. So that with each day, more and more, we are bringing the beauty of what we love into our own lives and the lives of others.
It seems to me that this is a way of being that many of us are seeking to attain - to walk through each day, wherever life may take us, living, breathing and responding from the heart of our own divine light. So that with each day, more and more, we are bringing the beauty of what we love into our own lives and the lives of others.
Spiritual Harp Events for Spring
If you would like to explore this way of living and being, and share some of this journey with me and my harp, just click the Events Button below for the dates of forthcoming events this spring.
Thank you to all of you who showed interest in the Spiritual Harp Retreat to Iona this May. The retreat is now fully booked. I am so looking forward to sharing sacred time with this group of souls on the holy isle, as we listen to the wind play her song in the harp strings.
Sending my love and the blessing of spring birdsong!
Julie
Thank you to all of you who showed interest in the Spiritual Harp Retreat to Iona this May. The retreat is now fully booked. I am so looking forward to sharing sacred time with this group of souls on the holy isle, as we listen to the wind play her song in the harp strings.
Sending my love and the blessing of spring birdsong!
Julie
