Blog
November
Sunday 1st November 2020
I didn't do a blog for October. I was feeling quite agitated by the end of September and couldn't seem to focus my attention. September is usually a 'traveling month' and this year it was not going to happen. After much deliberation, my husband and I decided to head to Scotland—a much-needed trip. The empty distances and surreal beauty afforded by the moors and mountains and lakes of Scotland inspired me. I loved having a chance to try and capture the breathtaking landscapes with my camera. The vistas allowed me to breathe, to recharge, to think. At times I felt as if I was on a spiritual journey where time had stopped.
I've been to Scotland several times over the years and I always have the sensation of 'coming home', as if a part of me just belongs there. We had such a rejuvenating week. We were based in Inverness, in the Highlands. Our hotel backed onto parkland where we saw young stags nibbling grass at dusk and heard older stags bellowing in the middle of the night. It was magical.
Near the end of our trip I paid a visit to my mother. Back in 2016 we had tucked her ashes under the lichen of the low wall of a churchyard overlooking a loch and Ben Lomond. It felt good to sit by her 'bed' and just rest in the sunshine and chat for a while before heading south.
Returning home brought us sharply back into the real world—lockdowns, increasing covid-19 counts, the USA election, deaths of friends and family, near asteroid misses, bubbling methane gas escaping in Siberia, tsunamis, earthquakes, and hurricanes—and all this news was packed into just one week. It's no wonder I didn't want to return to what was 'normal'. I wanted to stay in the enchanted world of stags climbing over the moors, misty lakes, ruined castles, seals playing in the surf, sheep minding their own business on the hillsides, endless landscapes—all of which I was fortunate to view.
I am so grateful I can escape into my imagination and write. Inside my mind, I can shape the world to my will. Writing and reading—wonderful voyages for the mind and soul.
