A Blessing Reconceived
Photo: Kasha-may Benson
Do you ever feel a little boxed in?
Surrounded by walls on all sides and houses here, there and everywhere along my terrace street, I try to find time to check in with myself. Recently I found I’m not altogether comfortable, certainly not claustrophobic by any stretch, though a little cagey, nonetheless.
My thoughts then turn to some form of enforced gratitude. I find it a shame to feel constricting emotions when many of us aren’t blessed to even have a home. But it’s out there in nature and open space that I feel the freest.
Last year (not long after I made the decision to start Musings of the Everyman), I wrote a piece entitled “A Forgotten Blessing.” I discussed the reimagined significance of nature in the grips of lockdown, and it always dawns on me how everything seems to come back around. Lockdown is now on a steady decline, so perhaps this is simply a feeling I hold when the weather starts to improve and temperatures rise and the prospect of an unexplored summer looms near on the horizon?
It’s a concept I’m often drawn to, and one I’ve frequently discussed in my work. There’s a quote by Robert Louis Stevenson that offers some insight, it reads “It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.”
To say I romanticise nature is palpable, although that’s the way it’s always been, for as long as I can remember. Now a man approaching his thirties, I’m fortunate enough to share my ideals and notions with an understanding, like-minded partner, along with an equally adventurous puppy whose bursts of sustained energy mean she’s always game for an escapade of any sort.
It’s on those ventures and explorations to the natural world that time and anxieties seem to melt away, never with absolute finality but certainly to a level of comprehension that is worry-less and carefree. We find absolute contentment in the present moment and joyful inspiration from the simple beauty unfolding all around us.
With the stabilising realities of lockdown enforced, places like Pegwell Bay Nature Reserve, The Warren and a rewarding trail in Peene. They offer us safe haven and an abundant fix of that much-desired serenity. My creative tendencies are given space to ravel and unwind as a snake would shed its skin. No longer confined, the words quickly find their way onto their page.
After an odd week, I started this morning in a more befitting manner. Breakfast and my admittedly infrequent morning ritual, then a walk to awaken some clarity. And that’s why I find myself here, curious reader, laying it all out on the page for you, as I do every week.
Thank you for reading, sincerely.