09/01/2016

a walk on the beach


 Happy New Year to all you lovely peeps out there!


It's funny how traditions are established, for us a New Years Day walk along a beach has become something we just do.



It's a great way to blow away the cobwebs.  And this year especially a chance to reflect and take stock of the year that had past.  We headed to St. Andrews, the beach there is one of our favourites, but I would probably say that about most beaches!  I love being by the sea!



It was a blustery day, so we walked with our heads down against the wind and I found myself getting lost in my own thoughts; thinking back to other walks we had taken along this beach.


There is something so good about the rhythm of walking to help all the thoughts that tumble about my mind come together in some sort of coherent order.  I thought I would be glad to say goodbye to the year, to all the devastation and fear that it had brought.  But when I thought more about everything that had happened I remembered the good as well, all the love, care and compassion I have been surrounded by and I noticed a subtle shift in my thinking too. I realised over the last year I have learnt to be more present, to stop over thinking about what has been and what could be to come and instead take in the now.




There are always so many beautiful shells on this beach, and it's hard just to choose one or two to pick up! I choose these two as a reminder of our New Years Day walk.


None of us knows what our future holds, and while my future still feels uncertain, I hope that I will be able to walk along the beach next New Years Day.

2 comments:

  1. I recognise the ability to be more present. I was always quite driven, although that doesn't mean that I wasn't also happy and engaged. I think my brush with illness has left me more able to be rather than do although it didn't come easily to me. The death of first my mother and very recently my father (both joyous and adventurous people) has perhaps honed that. Today matters more than it did. Love your photos.

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  2. Thank-you Elizabeth. Grief and loss are such burdens to bare; but there is a point in the process where things come into focus - and as you say today matters and the rest can just wait.

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