Bardic skills?

During my work with the druid order I never thought of myself as a bard. I always thought I was more aligned with the Ovate work, healing modalities, working with trees and plants. But looking back at what I have done and still do in my life I am beginning to think about my bardic skills.

I have always been a musician, I learned to play the piano at the age of seven and still play seventy years later. In the early years of my teaching career I composed the music for songs for children and remember being interviewed on the local radio while the children sang.

Since I was at school I have always sketched or painted and still do. But what is new over the last 20 years is the fact that I now also write. I have written several books, some of poetry and some about druidry while others are about local and family history.

Looking back at some of the poetry I wrote about twenty years ago I see that much of it also carries a message. Around the year 1999 and also in 2000 I set some of the poetry to music and made a CD. I have been looking at that recently and seeing that I can do better now where the music is concerned so I am busy re-arranging the songs so they have a piano accompaniment. I am also looking at setting other poems to music.

To me these are definitely bardic skills even though I never thought of them that way before. So here is a poem taken from one of my books and a photo taken early this morning.

The hope of Spring

Watching the new spring leaves unfurl
Gives me hope in a chaotic world;
New growth springs from the dark
Of the winter and makes its mark.

Signs of growth are everywhere,
The birds and trees all doing their share.
So in this dark material world
Is there light ready to be unfurled?

Can we look inside our hearts today
To find a better more spiritual way?
To live without such ugly greed
And only have what we truly need.

We do not need large houses and cars;
We do not need to travel to Mars;
Some clothes and food and a rainproof roof
Are really, truly, quite enough.

So watch the new spring growth today
And think about a spiritual way
To live your life with love and care
And cherish all, if you dare!

The winter darkness

It has been another week of dark grey days with lots of rain and occasional flakes of snow. But it is the dark grey days that I do not like. I need light and warmth in my life in order to function. I started well at the beginning of the week as I was writing a new book then suddenly on Wednesday everything came to a stop. I was feeling depressed again and I am sure it is the dark grey days.

I used my SAD lamp for a short time and it did lift my spirits enough to do a bit more writing. But I shall be really glad when the weather improves. If the sun comes out I immediately feel better as I am sure we all do. Yet the landscape in winter has a beauty all its own. I love the bare trees with their gnarled branches standing out against the sky. I love to watch the birds on the feeder in the garden and see the hazel catkins swaying in the breeze.

We have been lucky where I live unlike many of my friends further north who have had large amounts of snow. Yet I think I would have preferred to see the snow rather than the grey dark rainy days we have had. The snow brings light to the landscape unlike the rain which just seems to wash it out into a greyish mass.

Soon it will be Imbolc, where we welcome Brigid. The snowdrops will be out then bringing their light and joy into our world. I am looking forward to this and to the lengthening days.

A new year and new ideas

It is seven months since I moved into my current home. Yesterday I decided to move the piano so I could get to the shelves behind it and sort out the boxes and folders. The piano is portable but it is heavy so I took it off its stand and put it in the bedroom propped up against the wardrobe door. I then looked at the shelves and sorted boxes and books so I could get at the ones I need most when the piano is back in place. This was a good thing to do. I found some writings from 1995 which could become part of a new book.

This led to looking elsewhere for other old pieces of writing and more were found. None of these will be on the computer of course as they were written so long ago in the days of Windows 3.1! So this led to another search. I have changed computers recently but have all my data files on CDs or on an external disk drive. I started with the CDs and have found even more bits of writing. I wished I had found these when I wrote my last book but hey ho I have stuff for another book now.

Lots of people keep telling me to get rid of stuff, mainly books and folders but I am glad I didn’t listen to them or I would not have found these little gems of writing.

On another note, it is a beautiful sunny morning here but it is cold. My mind tells me to take a walk but my body refuses as it aches after all the lifting and moving. So time for reflection instead and plans for a new book and maybe some card readings as well to set me on my way.

Are you a keeper or do you get rid of things that you think you no longer need? Do you back up your computer files?

The photo was taken the other day when the wind was making lots of ripples on the pond.

Reflecting

I picked up my journal on Christmas Day and realised I had written nothing in it for six months. This was quite a shock as I generally write in my journal at regular intervals. So I spent the day updating my journal. Those six months had been traumatic and chaotic and there was much to write about. It took several hours to write it all down and at the end I felt a sense of release. It had been a very therapeutic experience.

Since then I have tried to write each day. Journalling is good for the soul as you can write down all your thoughts and feelings which of course must help when having to deal with trauma. I am planning to write more during the coming year and not have to write about several months in one go. I found that I kept remembering things I wanted to write about so kept going back to the journal for several hours, each time thinking I had finished.

For 2018 I have also got one of those journals where you write in your aims and what you want to do and achieve in the coming year. There is a lot of space for this so I hope to use it at least once a week. This year I did manage to write a few sentences in my diary every day which for me is quite an achievement. Next year I intend to do much better.

Do you journal or write in a diary? I love to go back and read them and see what I did all those years ago. They tell my life story of course. I hope that the new year of 2018 brings you all love and peace and also much joy in your life. Blessings to you all.