Today is my half birthday. Exactly six months ago, I turned fifty, an age that seems impossibly old and yet, at the same time, is a number that I'm delighted and somewhat amazed to claim as my own.
A day to reflect
Today is also Lughnasadh, the first celebration of the harvest and the mid-point between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. In Welsh tradition, it's associated with Lleu Llaw Gyffes of folklore. I won't even try to simplify his story here, but it was the inspiration for Ed Org's incredible pencil drawing of Prince Lleu, a picture which hangs in pride of place in my office and one that played a huge part in my intertwined spiritual and writing journeys.
Garden harvest
This morning, I stood barefoot on our clover lawn in my bathrobe, plucking fat, ripe blueberries from two small bushes in terracotta pots. Despite my soggy robe and damp feet, the rain on my shoulders felt like a gift after the stifling heat of yesterday and I was reminded that all things pass. Summer always relents to the cool kiss of autumn and even the strongest storms eventually run out of fury. Everything can be a gift if we choose to see it as such.
Water, feed, love. Repeat.
Having popped the blueberries into a pot that still bears the initials and school form twelve-year-old-me scratched into the base; I washed them grateful for the water in our tap. Ate them marvelling at how two small bushes could yield such a sweet harvest and gazed out at our little garden that’s so teeming with life. The woodpecker on the peanuts, the second brood of bluetit fledglings that peer through my office window, wide-eyed and guileless in a way that young sparrows never are. I think it thrives as much because of the things we don’t do (e.g. use chemicals that poison the soil and destroy the food chain) as those that we do – water, feed, love. Repeat. As a recipe for life, maybe it’s not a bad one.
What small harvest will you be celebrating today?
P.S Head to my Instagram to see the picture of Lleu.