We're having some rare weather here in the UK at the moment. It is warm and peaceful. I'm swimming everyday. The evenings seem to be stretching on for ever and the outside keeps calling me into her. I'm enjoying throwing open all the windows and the feeling of air against my skin - choosing no shoes...
These are feelings I associate with the warmer climates of my birth land. I've never experienced the sun as medicine so potently as i do in this country. He is a welcome antidote to the pervading dampness here; he brings a clarity to the usual indirectness and obfuscation in the British character. I find I grieve the brevity of the summer here before it has even gotten going. And still people complain. 'oooh it is every so close!' 'oh i'm not getting along AT ALL with this heat!' etc etc. But complaining is woven deeply into the national identity here. It is an important part of how people find connection and belonging. It is social currency - secular sacred bread and butter. When i first moved here, i found it extremely confusing to relate to - like an anti-relationship. Then i went through a phase of feeling compelled to change it. That didn't go so well. Now i've learnt to let it play lightly in the back ground and focus where i want. Now Covid has eclipsed The Weather (and narrowly, Brexit) as the preferred topic of generic British wingeing. And with surging Delta Variants and Systems Chaos providing juicy and some may say, perfectly legitimate fodder for such perspectives, i do get it. And it is tempting to jump in and add my 2 cents worth .. have a bit of a winge, because when in Rome... But I'm experimenting with letting it all settle more quietly into the back ground. Still doing my bit as a responsible citizen - I'm vaccinated. I'm mask wearing. I'm respectful. I'm seeking reliable data etc etc etc. but am actively tuning out of all the hyper arousal and high drama. It is making things a lot more peaceful in me and around me. There are thousands of years worth of hungry ghosts and beleaguered ancestors deeply committed to battling on with this particular dynamic here in England. I suspect it has been these people's secular sacrament since way before witches were being burnt at stakes in town squares... So who am I to take all that on? I'm choosing a similar approach with domineering or colonising personalities. I'll just quietly take my attention somewhere else and get on with things over there ... and wow - what a difference it makes. As a great person once said - 'Not my circus, not my monkeys'. Our attention is a precious generous and highly generative resource. Where we offer our attention, so we invest and create. So if you could place your attention (with open, gentle curiousity) anywhere you'd like today - right now in this moment - even for a little bit - where might that be? 💛 Rachel image by Jarvadh on Unsplash
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Oh. You could be talking about Belgium. And it could have been me, saying all that you’re saying. Except the comparison to your home country. I was born and raised here. And still I tune out when people start wingeing. The alternative is becoming frustrated, and I learned not to do that. It’s not worth it. Being frustrated about people complaining about the weather (or covid, or anything), is the same as complaining 😀
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