The sun is shining and the blue skies have come again, though winter is still cold and wet in places, this past week has been a welcome treat. Most mornings I have been greeted by the light in my curtains, the type of light that gently caresses your cheeks into a smile while signalling the eyelids to slowly open. Even as I write this it makes me smile, these past months have been wet and grey, the outside has been uninviting and harsh, today I sat in my garden with a brew as birds danced around in the trees.
Earlier in the week I went to a woodland to survey it, the ground was wet but the day was beautiful, the sun casting glorious shadows across the open grasses. There was a crisp chill, the type that keeps you on your toes in an attempt to warm up but that only made exploration a more viable activity. I clambered over rocks and walls, jumped a running stream and saw how the trees had faired the winter, as ever they had endured though there was a number of snapped branches, victims of the high winds.
The floor was layered in brown leaves, fallen back in autumn, now they are moist and deteriorating as the tips of the hardiest early flowering plants have begun to break through the soil surface. Spring in all of its youthful glory is on the horizon and for the first time in a long while I could see it, soon the floors of that woodland will be saturated with plants vying for the precious summer sun. The chance to be outside, to take in the fresh air without bracing against the rain and wind is something to easy to take for granted, something healing and nice.
The hours of the day will change in a month and a bit, then we will arrive home at 6 or even 7 and there will still be some of the day left, remember that if you are like me and are craving those longer days. It is fantastic to look forward to being outside, to take every opportunity to find myself busy, there surrounded by fresh air over the more mundane of places I have found myself in during this strange hibernation. My excitement and reflection of late lead me to once more ponder upon the idea of living wild, the all or nothing idea of leaving it all behind only to look forward.
What about money? It is always the first question, though surely it misses the entire point, if one was to leave it all behind on a crusade into natural living, then it is likely that day to day worry of money would be no greater than in any other walk of life. Most of us have ambitions, projects and other investments, while we are busy with these we must sleep, eat and socialize and so our worry considers what we have compared with what we need to maintain such a life. In the case of one who had left it behind, we could suspect that outgoings wouldn’t be particularly extreme, food and water, maybe a roof to sleep under now and again, how we could achieve these essentials, that must be a apart of the journey.
I suppose it could be compared to simply living without a plan in its purest sense, trusting yourself and life completely in a kind of surrender, something that could never be conjured up or invented but something entirely sincere. The adventure would be epic and more in line with a life that loves living that many of the routines I find myself repeating daily. It is likely only a fantasy but how fantastic would it be to follow bilbo bagins out of the door and into the unknown… maybe one day.
Adventure and Arb 