Sensing

I-you-we. Have we just been gifted connection, gifted being closer to experiencing our world and its rhythms of change? Its cycles of renewal? 

If you are in the north, northerly latitudes, two weeks ago at the start of February did you notice the air change? Did you notice the smell, outside and around you, change? Are you aware of this now as you’re reading?

I think of this month as northern winter. However, it is Imbloc in Celtic lands—Feile Brighde, the ‘quickening of the year’ and for rural communities start of lambing. If you’re in the north did you feel it? I did even as the temperatures hit the lowest for the year and snow came to sea level.

In the Southern hemisphere it’s hot, very hot, for many. Bunuru—adolescence season—in Western Australia Nyoongar lands. I smell that too. The intensifying of the air, the dryness, sharpening of the bush smells with seed-cones going red on trees and—in the heat, little rain—the call of the sea, beaches and billabongs.

February’s shift

With this rhythm, north and south are going in different directions. It’s speeding up a little in the south after January. Yet, any chance possible to get to cooler places, to honour the heat and days of slowness that come with it, we’ll take.

In the mid to far north we’re coming out of An Geamhrachd, the dark days, days of the wolf, cutting months—a quarter of a year name-sourced from a translation of stiff and rigid. The frozen lands were and are a cleansing time, one that’s shifting to rebirth now.

In the south we’re waiting, waiting for rain. It’s a long way off, usually 2 months away. We’ll try and wait by the water, by the sea, by the rivers.

So, during these first two weeks of February, did you notice the shift in our world? In ourselves? Are you noticing it? Think back…

Not noticed yet 

Take a deep breath, 
breath in through your nose 
and deep into your chest.

Look out. 

What do you feel in your body? 
In your nose? 
In your throat? 
On your skin, 
in your eyes
and hara/gut? 

Exhale.

Closer

The rhythms and changes—in ourselves and the world, our connections with it—allow for an opening of potentials. We are not suck. We change continuously. Our wellbeing and the multiple world crisis—from climate to injustice—need us to.

That’s where our gift comes in. We are and have been living in isolated bubbles—isolated by country, state, house depending on local, geographic and personal circumstances. In my living memory, and most likely yours, that’s most unusual. We’re usually busy, engaged in multiple in person social activities, family, friends and work. 

In our year with COVID, amid the undeniable pain and suffering, we’re close to different connections. There is an unusually large opportunity for our senses to expand beyond the immediate. Given our relative bubbles, relative states of isolation, sources of stimulus have faded. In this space we may attune to more subtle phenomena. 

Here’s to our world’s rhythms, our rhythms and our collective memories of these changes. Here’s to such silver linings for much, for as many gifts as we may find. These include, I believe, assisting us with the transformational positive changes we are making and need to make.