Life is not hurrying on to a receding future

Its possible that this time of year makes me thoughtful.  Maybe I just am that kind of person who needs to make sense of the world around and look to poets and artists and nature for inspiration.  A problem with this time of year is that I spend so little time out in nature, plus it wont be long before I am going to work and coming home in the darkness each day. I really feel this lack of fresh air and light and I'm sure it affects my mood. I'm hoping this weekend will mean some dry weather and a chance to start tidying up in the garden and spend some time amongst the birds in the trees.

I'm a great believer in trying to live in the moment more.  Looking backwards or forwards too much can mean not enjoying the present time and being too anxious over the future. When I'm failing miserably to appreciate the present, I find reading R.S Thomas's poem rather useful:

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the pearl

of great price, the one field that had

the treasure in it. I realise now

that I must give up all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

– RS Thomas, ‘The Bright Field’

I always find  baking cakes or sewing rather calming too.  I am very slowly putting together my patchwork/applique picture.  I've made all of the hexagons and am now sewing them together.  By the end of the weekend I had actually got this far, which is quite surprising considering how little I had done for months.

Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind
DAPHNE DU MAURIER