In Nature's Rhythm by Leah Black
Birds pray to a rising sun in a respectful slip of unfamiliar silence, as the village fades away with each step towards swelling mountain peaks. Four days alone in the wilds embark. No watch, phone or company by my side. Solo, free, timeless solitude. A quest for vision and meaning. A walk without destination. It is the build up to Samhain, warm air and cosy glows of crispy colour. As darkness falls beings cry their eerie tales from the dimmed forest below, and the eve fire hypnotically dances to the sporadic sound of their howling and screeches. My mind rewilds with every unexpected crack and chill. Sky lit by scattered stars, uprooting a scene that takes me back to another time. Rather than sleep, I rise like a weary warrior for my evening walk. Soon drifting along winding mountain paths into the pitch black of night. Here, an uncanny character joins my silent mission. A white wiry half-wild horse. Majestic, old and full of wisdom he walks tall by my side. I bow to him like a royal soldier. He looks straight on, focussed with intent towards sharp mountain edges. We march together, energy in motion.
Senses sharper, sight pierced and my walk more powerful. With the white horse now long gone, I sit myself heavily on an ancient tomb; icy quartz touching my palm and a navy night opening my wonderings. What’s hidden in the earth below me? Who stood here in this sacred place to sing or cry when time existed only in seasons, skies and senses? Time, like my imagination, grows untamed as I enter weighted thoughts of ancient lives. Are these memories of another? Who thought to steal the circle of the sun, wrist-bound and wall-hung?
I feel my soul awaken and my heart open like dandelion petals spreading their golden rays at first light. Blackbirds chime the arrival of dawn as hefty clouds advance over mountain peaks, like an army of Pegasus stampeding a purple tinted sky. The light of another day, another era, fills me with awe and stillness. My journey into and out of time continues and years of anxiety begin to drop away like the falling leaves of autumn, showering their magic ochre fairy dust around me as I stroll.
Weatherscape, landscape and skyscape merge with the soulscape of my being. How hours can pass without realising; simply staring at clouds and watching drowsy grass sway in a breeze! I am captivated, timelessly, by the horizon. The distant kaleidoscope of light, deep with natural beauty and enchantment charms me with co-created words of love that I scribe into pages of a blank book. Soon the sundial of Nature’s shadows will fade again until tomorrow. Fear, once held, now withers away with the light of a second wild dusk descending.
Day turns into night, night into day and something deep within me seeks to feel thorns of a fruit bush scratch my freckled skin, in a quest of autumnal challenge and reward. With sweet berry stains on my fingers, I sit in a painted meadow weaving my prayer stick while I watch the world go by. Nothing more, nothing less. I feel “human”. Fog appears like a white dragon snaking through mountain valleys, full of vigour and personality. Life-filled misty liquid dances with pre-meditated movement, as graceful as a theatre phantom flittering through mountain cracks. I could almost jump into the fleecy ocean below me to swim weightlessly in a pool of imagination. As I stare into the silvery abyss, a clouded arm immerses me in a watery embrace. After we share solemn words of hope, the transparent limb reluctantly returns to its enchanting white sea of oneness, of being.
Brown cows with horns sharp and souls sweet join my third night. By my side they stay like fearless guardians; motherly and protective. Tonight I am not alone; maybe I never was! Lying next to the crackling fire, dinner cooks slowly to the soft smell of lavender crushed under their bellies. I watch stories born from fiery flames; messages flickering in endless shapes that seem to lick the galaxy above. Simplicity, spirals, and time unknown strain away my worries, as questions slip in and out of my mind. Does a star strive to shine or fade into dust? Why did humans evolve to worry so much about hours they never had and never lost? Cow bells ring around me like nursery rhymes playing in a black crystal room of endless twinkling lights. The wondrous Milky Way guides our dreams as Sirius watches over us; cows and person curled up like an ancient herd each one protecting the other.
Morning air pulsates with hoverflies that wake me from my slumber. The call of another day scented by rising dew. With no desire for tomorrow or yesterday, I could live like this forever, a true human for once flowing with the tide of time; never beginning, never ending. Existence in harmonious swirling rhythm.
