The Need to Write

With many apologies to my readers who have been patiently waiting for more posts on my travels in Australia, I just have to squeeze in this little one on a totally different subject. 

As any writer will know, procrastination is our Achilles heel. There is always a distraction, another job to do, which prevents so many writers from cracking on. This is even worse if you have a busy family life and a house to run, as I do - and now a retired husband! It requires immense discipline to write and you really do have to carve out time dedicated to it as many days of the week as possible. Getting into a writing routine is so very important - and what I have always failed to do. As a mother and wife I always tend to put others first. I just can’t help it. I also find it very difficult to write if there are other people in the house - it’s another distraction (excuse?) just knowing they’re around…

However, occasionally, even I have an urgent need to write down the words that are passing through my head as I know that they will leave as quickly as they came unless I trap them on a piece of paper. Call it fleeting inspiration, if you will - and it can come at the most unexpected times - but it will always come when I am alone and often when I am outside in nature. 

This morning it has just happened to me. I took my cup of tea outside to sit on the bench on the terrace at the front of the house which is bathed in morning sunshine and has the most beautiful view of the September fields, recently stripped for hay, and the iconic escarpment beyond with its deep crevices, craggy outcrops and flat top of the grouse moor. The sun was streaming down from a blue sky (we have been blessed these last few days after two weeks of truly awful weather) and fluffy white clouds drifted across its warm beams from time to time. 

I sipped my hot tea, wrote my gratitude journal (a new habit inspired by my daughter which I’m enjoying hugely as it forces you to take a moment to sit and reflect positively on all that you have to be grateful for) and then opened the pages of the September edition of Country Living magazine. Serendipitously, I’d noted on the cover that they were announcing the winning location for ‘the nation’s No.1 feel-good location’ in their landmark wellbeing survey. Unsurprisingly, the Lake District took the crown (for the double wellbeing whammy of blue and green therapy due to its stunning landscapes and iconic lakes), followed by the Yorkshire Dales and then the Scottish Highlands. There then followed some statistics, backed by science, as to the reasons spending time in nature actively boosts our mood and mental wellbeing with even the suggestion that this should be prescribed as medicine - both from a preventative health perspective as well as a supporting healing perspective. This whole area of research finally seems to be gathering momentum, which is music to my ears…

Now, it may not surprise you to learn that I have been banging on about writing a book for about two decades and counting! To be fair, I have already started a couple but they lie abandoned as both my life and I have changed since I began them. My third attempt reflects where I am now as a person and in my life, and it happens to be a book - a sort of gentle memoir - about motherhood, the healing powers of nature and my spiritual development. Some of you will already know that I had to move unexpectedly to the north west of England over twenty years ago and that I started this blog not just for the writing practice but also as a way of coping with the changes and challenges of mothering in my new circumstances while battling chronic depression. While I have touched on the journey in a number of posts along the way, I decided I really wanted to pull my experience together and show how nature really has been the most powerful element in my recovery toolbox, and how, as my spiritual connection with the natural world and the universe developed, I came to a higher understanding of how we are all connected and just a tiny part of one infinite whole. So, as it happened, writing my gratitude journal in the sunshine with the magnificent view before my eyes and then falling on an article with some supportive statistics on the positive effects of interaction with the natural world, I suddenly felt the urge to write the words that you are reading now. 

It seems to me that possibly the time really is right to make a dedicated effort to write the book that has been trying to get out for so many years. Even if no-one reads it, it will be a worthwhile exercise for me - a homage to the environment that has helped me heal and for which every day I feel deep gratitude and connection. 

I am also deeply grateful for the safe return home of my middle daughter from her Australian adventures and for all she is currently doing to help me find the time and focus to write. Without her giving me support and structure, I would still be drifting around putting in yet another wash and finding every excuse in the world not to write. For my part, I like to think I have given her and her sisters a home that they love and always want to return to, a place where they can find sanctuary from the hurly burly of life. She recently returned from an early morning walk on a local high ridge where the sun was shining, the birds were singing and an awe-inspiring view of hills, valleys and moors spread before her and she simply said ‘this was what I was dreaming of when I was in Australia and contemplating returning home’. If I have achieved nothing else in my life, I have at least helped create this strong sense of home and place for my children - the solid, fertile ground from which strong plants grow…

If you would like to read any more about my spiritual development and energy healing work, then please do pop over to The Healing Habit. I am also on Instagram as @in_spire_living and @in_spire_healing.