I spent the day in the woods today. What a wonderful present!

I did not want to get out of bed this morning, I was happy snuggling down between my two little girls watching the sky, blue and cloudless, through my window. Waiting for a storm.

But up I got because today was the day that I ran my singing group in Hallr woods. I really don’t mind whether people come to this group in the woods or not. Of course it is a treat if anyone turns up to sing, but I realised a few months ago that if they did not come I would have the woods to myself!

I arrived an hour before everyone else, time to light a fire, to smell the earth, to hear the buzzards mew, to take in the woods as they are right now. The woods at this time of year have a stark beauty, the beauty of winter, leafless, cold and clear. The dead leaves of last summer crackle under my feet, the ground is wet, cold, still. The Earth is stirring, green tips are emerging slowly, softly.

The fire does not want to light, the winter sunlight glides softly down through the trees, like rays of thin laughter. I coax the fire feeding it small dry sticks, calling to it to warm our hearts and hands as we sing to the trees on this rare sunny winters day.

One by one, or two by two everybody arrived to sing in the woods! The biggest group we have had so far. What a glorious sound we all made together, singing in amongst the trees, singing to the trees, to the sky, to the earth, to each other.

What a joy it is to sing with other people! Today it felt really special to be singing songs from this land on this land.

Breathe in breathe out, smile to each other, warm our hands and our hearts by the fire!

 

 

Cold Sweetness

 

I press my cheek against your cold darkness;

You smell sweet, rich, alive.

Inside you something is stirring, moving, turning

Shifting with time and life.

The roots are twisting and turning

Deep down within you,

And suddenly from you bursts forth

 

A great strong being;

Tall and rough under my fingertips

Which brush against her skin.

Life rushes through her, water moves within her.

Oh great palatial being, home to all creatures.

Upon your great boughs fruit ripens

Birds sing amongst your greatness

 

And I feel the wonder of lightness

The magical brightness

No longer the tightness of my earthly body.

The wind carries me up, up, away

Higher and higher we climb

Far from the reaches of time

As the world turns softly below.

 

I am cold, icy.

I fall shrouded in freshness,

A new sensation, dripping wetness.

And as I fly southward

I know that I do not belong in the sky

I belong to the Earth, the rich sweet Earth.

Where I press my cheek against her cold sweetness.

 

If you would like to join us singing in the woods take a look at the Workshops page, where you can find out more.