Sunday Mar 25 2007 21:52:43
By Cait
Dear Diary, I have been musing on time. To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sow; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace. The day that lost its hour draws on. I don’t know about you but I dislike the changing of the clocks, the Spring Forward, Fall Backwards ritual we have to go through every year. It always takes me a long time to adjust and by the time my body has adjusted it is time to change back again. Why don’t they leave the clock the same all the year round? I’ve been meditating about time and the powerful effect it has on our lives. How we race against it and dread its passing. A relative of mine turns the clock’s face to the wall at weekends so she is not ruled by it. A good idea I think. I don’t wear a watch, partly because they always stop on me but also because I refuse to feel pressured. I look forward to retirement when time really will not matter. I’d better not repeat myself because I have covered this ground before in one of my very early blogs and am in danger of repeating myself (something I am always doing lately, must be an age thing!). For the new incomer to country life it can take a long time to adjust to the slower pace of life, especially the huge length time it takes for things to get done for example. The length of the simplest of conversations, day-to-day meetings, the routine of the slow exchange of pleasantries and what may seem to be the going round the houses before you are allowed to get down to the nitty gritty of what you want to say (or what you are hoping to hear!) When we first moved to Wales we would get so frustrated at how long people took to turn up, tradesmen for example. And if you asked a farmer what time he would be coming, to cut the hay for example, he would look at you blankly. We understand now of course that they are ruled by more important things in life than timekeeping, things like life and death for one. Only the timing of the Seasons really rule their working environs. Yes, when you first escape to the country it will take you ages, years even, to properly wind down and recover from the ‘treadmill-mode’ that you have been used to. Nowadays, when we go back to visit the ‘Other World’ of rush and stress we find that we are very affected by the faster pace of things. We notice how tense people are and how aggressive they seem. Don’t get me wrong, we country folk do get stressed and we can moan. I could probably moan for Wales if I put my mind to it as we have plenty to moan about. But just don’t get me started…. Seriously though, I’ve been thinking about the ups and downs of country life. The ups? Small is beautiful. Peace and the beauteous environment, friendliness, the sense of belonging to the community, the slow pace of life. Downs? High unemployment as there a very few jobs and the jobs there are pay very low wages, no public transport and the resultant reliance on our cars and costly petrol prices in this area, and last but not least the threats to our public services. Just a few for starters! However to my mind the ups are many and the downs are few even if the realities may not be so. But it is the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse syndrome isn’t it? What appeals to me may be hell on earth for a city-lover. I love to visit towns and cities; I get a buzz and find them exciting and stimulating. All the galleries, lovely shops and the architecture to behold just for starters. But I find the number of people overwhelming and dislike the noise and the polluted air. I love the road home to Wales and when we reach the hills I feel I am truly ‘home’. The Welsh have a word for it of course, this feeling of love of home. ‘Hiraeth’. Actually it is more than that; they say it is not translatable into English as it is a ‘feeling’ deep in the Welsh heart, for home, for Cymru. I think that is the nearest explanation I can give but I am sure that the Welsh bloggers will be able to give a better definition than mine. Most of the blood in my veins is Irish and I feel the very same way about Eire but I see the Celtic Welsh as my first cousins and I think that is why I feel at home here. I am so pleased that they have made me welcome. Now my daughter is married to a Welshman and my three granddaughters are proud to think of themselves as Welsh. But I don’t let them forget they have an Irish heritage as well! * Sometimes it is hard to write isn’t it? The dreaded writer’s block sets in. Or sometimes I am trying so hard to express something but the only way I can say it is in poetry. Poems have a power that is mystical for they can speak to your soul. I am pleased that you have been enjoying my poetic ’attachments’. I am going out on a limb here but I have always thought the one thing missing from the CL mag. was a poetry page as country life has indeed influenced poets throughout the centuries. I’ve often thought of writing to the magazine to suggest they print the occasional poem but I never got around to it. Blessings? The night sky. Living in an area without ‘light pollution’. Something much appreciated by our visitors from ‘Off’. Venus shining in the sky. Stars they twinkle, planets they shine. My youngest granddaughter, aged five, who told me on the phone she is looking forward to coming to stay with me next weekend. The feeling is mutual. She has started packing already! Herbal teas that revive: lemon and ginger, peppermint, green tea with jasmine, cranberry and elderflower, Refreshing showers, invigorating shower gel. Emails from family, old and new. And I can’t go today without leaving you a poem or two……. If I should never see the moon again Rising red gold across the harvest field, Or feel the stinging of soft April rain As the brown earth her hidden treasures yield. If I should never hear the thrushes wake Long before the sunrise in the glittering dawn, Or watch the huge Atlantic rollers break Against the rugged cliffs in baffling scorn. If I have said good-bye to stream and wood, To the wide ocean and the green-clad hills, I know that He who made this world so good Has somewhere made a heaven better still. Major Malcolm Boyd (Killed on D-Day) I don’t know who wrote this one. Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round? Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight? Or gazed at the sun into the fading night? You better slow down. Don't dance so fast. Time is short. The music won't last. Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask "How are you?" Do you hear the reply? When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? You better slow down. Don't dance so fast. Time is short The music won't last. Ever told a child, we'll do it tomorrow? And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die? Cause you never had time to call and say "hi" When you run so fast to get somewhere You miss half the fun of getting there. When you worry and hurry through your day It is like an unopened gift.... thrown away Life is not a race Do take it slower, Hear the music Before the song is over. ********************************************************************* AND A FEW FUNNIES TO LIGHTEN THE DAY. Never take life seriously, nobody gets out alive anyway. Life is sexually transmitted. Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die. Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without the one make him a sandwich. Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks. Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing. Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again. All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism. Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred pounds and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty pence? In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal. Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession, but I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. I’ll sign off now, The Golden Light of yesterday has briefly returned. It reminds me of the glorious evenings of the last few summers and I can’t wait for them to come again. Meals in the garden, sitting by the river, a bottle or two of wine, and forgetting about time altogether….. For those very special moments are truly timeless. Bye for now, Caitx