Today is the shortest day of the year; the day when we experience the dark for longer than any other day of the year. Looking outside my window it’s hardly light with the mountains obscured by sheets of drizzle. It’s a day of reflection; Covid cases increasing, Brexit talks at a stalemate and borders closed.
I’m thinking back to happier days and at the same time projecting forward to what may happen when life returns to some form of normality. I hope to go walking. Walking has always been a huge part of my life, travelling simply from one place to another putting one foot in front of the other, exploring, experiencing, discovering, sometimes for days on end, a journey.
I have a good friend who lives up the valley from me who is also an artist and is an inspiration to me. Jane Whittle also writes. Recently I’ve been re-reading her books of reflections and poems. Below is an extract from one of her books which has inspired me.
FOOTSTEPS
Introduction
“Solitary, long distance walking stirs up a deep, original sense of the land as something alive and in motion – a being supporting all other beings. Its infinitely long past has left dramatic and subtle traces in the shapes and the textures of the mountains and valleys, in rocks and seaside pebbles. Its elemental cycles are so much slower than ours, they are not easy to decipher, but we understand and respond to day and night and the changing seasons.
People have always had good reason to study the movements of the sun, moon and stars, currents, winds and tides. We resonate with these things even if we are not aware of it .
Walking is one of the simplest ways of becoming more conscious of these universal connections, and an activity which until recently, was as basic as breathing.”
Jane Whittle Footsteps 2014 ISBN 978-1539118435
Nuala Dunn Artist 