Mulling

It's a time of the year for mulling things over.

Today, in a lull, between rain storms, I stand on the shore in Annestown and feel the power of the sea overwhelm the questions I have queuing up from 2015. Like fragments of flotsam and jetsam they end up in flithers on the high tide line.

With New Year resolutions being made all around me, my vague musings on 2016 are blown away on the wind, evaporating into white foamy bubbles.

The cold saltiness is an ice bucket challenge. The eyes are focusing on the horizon, capturing the constant changes; the head full of the roar of waves. Don't stumble, don't drop the camera, don't fall in.

Under her spell, hanging in there, mulling......



Happy New Year and great mulling dear friends!



PS Speaking about the sea, this moving piece by Ruth Fitzmaurice blew me away.....

On having an inkling about 2015

The haze was low this morning, wafting across the fields like an amber blanket. The combination of dawn and lingering mist is one to savour for any photographer. So even though it's still a bit foggy, my word for 2015 is "inkling"

Inkling - a vague idea or notion, a slight understanding, hint, hunch, intimation....... 

Where to start? Not a clue. Maybe it means following hunches and hints? Listening to whispers, both intriguing and unsettling? 

So inkling it is. Add a T and you get tinkling, the sound of the distant bells that are starting to ring, the promise of miles and miles of dry land ahoy, a hint of celebration.

And this morning look! It was as misty and foggy as any New Year's Day could possibly be. The winds are picking up now, the rain is battering down but the two feet are dry.... 

So Happy New Year dear friends. Let's love life in 2015 and here's to the freedom to explore vague inklings, hunches, hints and intimations. There is another kind of opening to possibility in that....

Setting out....#Pilgrimage

At the beginning of this Pilgrimage into 2014 it's all about setting out. With January as the starting point and 12 staging posts along the way, we put one foot in front of another and we are off!

While it's just another year in many ways,  the older I get the more 365 spins around the sun feels like a small handful of days. I am greedy for nothing else but time, every moment counts.

Do you have a plan? I tried to make one and it turned into a song of sorts. 

The setting out along the path, the hurdles along the way, the dark night in the forest, reaching the enchanted land, meetings with the spiritual sisters, the slaying of the evil one, the transformation of the way and the return of the heroine.

Well not a song exactly just the bones of the "hero's journey" which each of us will make.......

How long will it take? What adventures will we have along the way? Where will we lay our heads when we are weary of it?

I hope wherever I am along the way that I can lay my head down in the crook of my arm as before.....and in between times I will listen to the sound of your re-assuring voices by my side.

See the Setting out on the path Gallery here

Light

The sun shone on Christmas Day and beamed long rays of golden light into the house. The slow unfolding of the meal, the unwrapping of gifts, the popping of corks seemed more relaxed and cheery this year. At it's heart these 12 days are a hibernation away from the world, some solace in the darkest part of winter.

The voices that surrounded me were clear and true. Almost upbeat. A sense of turning the corner.

During the dark hours of the last week I stole time and tried to reflect on the transition to the New Year, 2013. Last year I dipped my toe into so many new things. My word for 2012 was EXPAND. Normally fairly cautious, somehow through selecting this word, I gave myself permission to dabble and dream a bit more than usual....

My word for 2013 is LIGHT and I notice already a clearer focus on what is important and what is not in my struggle to survive economically and spiritually. For that will be the challenge for most Irish people as we try to stay afloat while at the same follow our own individual stars...

When I am living with close family and friends it becomes impossible to write or take photographs. I am torn between the practice and the laughs! So although I will miss their presence and colour, I am also looking forward to that little bit of magic, just me, the camera and the light.

Returning to the sound of my own beating heart. The mystery of being here at all. The beauty of the ordinary.

Did you chose a word, set an intention, make a resolution, would love to hear about it, and if you have blogged about it please share a link?



Also posted here on Vision and Verb a global collaboration of creative women