Mmmmm.... having just switched on again after another deliciously slow and simple off-grid Sunday, I'm feeling completely recharged and ready to take on the world. I wish everyone could tap into the kind of energy I'm filled with after a full 24 hours away from the machine. It's not like the kind of energy you need to run a 100 metre sprint; more like the energy you need to run a marathon. I feel calm, clear headed and fully recharged rather than just 'topped up' - if that makes sense? I also feel more at peace, have regained my perspective and am less likely to be flustered by the stresses and worries of everyday modern life. It really is a great way to start the week!
One of the things I'm really starting to to appreciate and tune into more is 'daylight'. I've started to notice the different qualities of light at different times of the day and have become especially fascinated by the twilight hours around dusk and sunset. I have no idea, need or desire to know what time it is. Measured time is becoming irrelevant, unimportant, even alien to me. Nature doesn't need a clock to make decisions about what to do and when to do it; she just 'is'. When the sun is shining the woodland flowers open; when it disappears behind a cloud or goes to sleep they close. Bees wake up and start foraging when there's sufficient daylight and warmth for them to fly, and moths and other nocturnal creatures manage very well without a clock to tell them that night has fallen; they just 'know'. Erkhart Tolle would call this being 'fully present'.
If we all just took the time to watch, observe and learn from nature, we surely wouldn't need self help books!
I can't help wishing I could transport myself back to a time before human beings learned to measure everything in a linear way; to a time when we didn't have appointments, meetings and deadlines - all precisely arranged to take place at 'exactly something o'clock' and all having absolutely nothing to do with what time of day or night it really is in natural terms. We must be the only creatures on earth that go against our natural body clocks and I'm sure it's not a healthy way to exist. Some cultures manage at least to take siestas in the middle of the day - and seem to function better for having succumbed to their body's needs and requirements. Maybe we should all listen more to our bodies instead of ignoring them the way we do...
Yesterday I spent hours walking on the hills and in the woodlands. I listened to birds whose calls I didn't recognise and thought it rather odd that I know more about the French Revolution than I do about our native bird songs. I'm so glad that our primary education system is starting to include things like 'forest school' these days.
I could write for hours about the new things I'm experiencing through reclaiming these precious hours away from the merry-go-round of modern life, but they'd just be my own thoughts and experiences - so wouldn't be the same as if you experienced it for yourself.
I'll write another post later about the beautiful solitary mining bees I watched for a few hours yesterday, but in the mean time here's a link to a short video about the Piraha, an amazing Amazonian tribe who's lives are still completely immersed in nature...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr3q6Cid1po
Have a beautiful week!
B x
Love this blog post! I've quite often found myself wondering why we are all so set on precisely arranged times and what not, I guess its just all habit. Need to break the habit!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite time of the day at the moment is sunrise – that first hour or so when you let the chickens out and can sit there and enjoy a cup of tea and watch them scratching around and hear the birds cheeping away. Its the slice of the day when I feel properly relaxed.
Claire
Honestly Its Easy
Morning lovely Bee,
ReplyDeleteYou sound totally blissed out today - makes me want to emulate the feeling (in my unique way of course - hehe) - xx
I have always found it bizarre how we feel compelled to get up at the right time, got to bed at the right time, eat at the right time etc. Surely its better to do these things when our body tells us they are needed. In a former life before I escaped the rat race of London for the calmer lifestyle of Norfolk I used to have every minute of every day mapped out. Literally mapped out, most of it was in my filofax! I used to schedule time for everything. Even going to the loo!
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't a healthy way to live and now that I am away from it and have put away my filofax and am not governed by my watch as much life is so much better. Maybe eventually I will totally liberate myself from the clock but its a surprisingly big leap to take. Claire is right, it is habit, and also a degree of conforming to other people's expectations. Maybe off-grid Sundays is the place to start my revolution!
Lovely post Bee...I really would love to fully experience Off Grid Sunday...I'm trying to get my husband and children on board with it but it's slow going...I keep feeling like my children will thank me when they grow up even if they complain a bit now. We've taken the kids electronics away for the weekend which has greatly enhanced family time but I'd like to take it a step further with no tv/no electricity, etc. Possibly when summer finds us in upstate New York we'll be able to do that. Til then I so enjoy reading your blog and I thank you for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the feedback; it's lovely to know that someone's reading my ramblings and to read other people's stories and thoughts. I do so hope more people will start trying off-grid sundays.....even if it's not going the whole way.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to recommend a good place to start I'd say switch off your computers, mobile phones and clocks, don't use the car and stay away from the shops. When you're not using these things you can't help feeling more alive and reconnected to nature. Clare's so right about us just needing to break our habits :)
Once you experience the new kind of energy you get from jumping off the bandwagon, the rest follows easily...