** June, 2020 - Rough Ideas HAS MOVED to: catherinewhite.com/roughideas] **
Zoë and Mike arrived today to be with us for the week. We went for a sunset dog walk, lit a fire and had a delicious hot drink to celebrate the night. After dinner our conversation turned to therapy and how we change our perceptions of memory and experience. I told Mike that sometimes writing can change my perspective, but as we spoke I couldn't think of an example.
Zoë and Mike arrived today to be with us for the week. We went for a sunset dog walk, lit a fire and had a delicious hot drink to celebrate the night. After dinner our conversation turned to therapy and how we change our perceptions of memory and experience. I told Mike that sometimes writing can change my perspective, but as we spoke I couldn't think of an example.
Half an hour later as I write I remember how I used to think of the shortest day of the year as being a really depressing moment in time. But through writing these posts I have been able to focus on the solstice as being the marker for a return to light and longer days.
In yoga we learn to pay attention to our breath. I have learned to notice the moment of stillness when we have fully exhaled before we take our next breath. It is much like this moment--these long nights when we can pause, reflect, count, focus and breath. I light the fire in the fireplace or outside in the fire-pit to extend my moments of reflection, a dream that our actions can persuade the light to return.
SolsticeWe laugh to think the Romans lit great fires in December
to persuade the sun to come back. To persuade the sun!
--Elizabeth Arnold (2006)
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