The Kingfisher
When my father passed over I went to St Albans to register his death and sort out other things for him. It was October, and driving back home to Bedford with my husband, I saw lapwings in the fields near Cardington. I decided that the next day I would take my binoculars and have a better look.
I had to cross a bridge over a brook to do this: a beauty spot I had walked to many times before, but never with my binoculars. Because of the lapwing sighting I had them with me for the first time, and I paused on the bridge to look at the scene.
I spotted what initially looked like a robin’s breast, but rather large! Then in flight, there was a flash of vivid blue and I realised I was watching a kingfisher, a bird I had always wanted to see.
What followed rivalled a nature film, as aided by the binoculars, I saw the kingfisher dive and surface in one swift movement with a fish in its beak. I watched spellbound for ages, using the binoculars my father had bought me when I was younger!
Valerie Jeffery
Pensamiento
As I pottered in my garden, one warm, bright, autumn day
I heard a rustle in the flowers – a fairy had come my way!
She was dressed in deep magenta, tiny ringlets in her hair
With a hat of daffodil yellow – I could not help but stare.
Her wings were the finest gossamer. Stars sparkled all around
Her shoes glistened in the sunlight. What beauty to be found.
'What is your name my sweet one?' 'Pensamiento' was her reply
'I have come from your Spanish garden where it can be very hot and dry.
I live among the jasmine flowers, bougainvillea and geranium too,
But I must go back again now, there is so much work to do.
I've come to tell you I miss you, but I know in your heart I'll remain
Until next summer when you return to your beautiful garden in Spain'.
I wanted her to stay forever, but time was flying by
Suddenly there was a wave of her wand and all I could do was sigh.
Off she flew in a cloud of stardust, then she turned and called to me,
'I have left you a little gift on a toadstool. Go and look and see....'
There at the bottom of my garden, what do you think I found?
The most exquisite posy of pansies, tied with pink ribbons all around.
I turned to wave goodbye, but alas
she had gone.
Hasta manana! The memory will linger on.
Dolly Robertson
(Pensamiento is Spanish for ‘pansy’ and ‘contemplation’)
New Life Emerging
Her swollen belly
Surrounded by light
Rising and falling
Rising and falling
With each breath in
With each breath out
A beat of silver white wings
With every push
With every pain
A strand of her soul is woven
Entwined with every mother
Back to the beginning
To the very first thread
This is woman
So is life
A tapestry of Goddess
Movements under skin
An elbow a hand
Spirit surging
A new life emerging
Her hand upon her womb
Spirit spiralling
Deeper within
Innate mother sings
Calling to her child
"It is time"
Overhead
A silver white heron is flying …
Louisa Godden
A Soaring Spirit
Pondering on the theme of nurtured by nature I reflected back to yesterday morning when the first thing I saw through my bedroom window was a V-shaped formation of geese honking across a rose pink sky. Later I thrilled to the sound of a blackbird singing for a mate and to the sight of the tiniest of snowdrops peeping through the barren black earth of my garden.
While walking my dog I smelled the aroma of woodsmoke, touched the sticky buds of the horse chestnut with the wonderment of a child and laughed with joy when a flock of blue tits flew close over my head.
I arrived that evening at the coast, just in time to see the fiery ball of the sun plop into a silver sea and watch the full moon rise up into the heavens to take her place amongst the stars.
This was just one day in January when my spirit soared and my soul was nourished. Yes, I definitely felt nurtured by nature and there is yet the hedgerow flowers and bursting buds of Spring to look forward to!
Pamela Kilgour
The Power of Nature
Being nurtured by Nature sounds as though it might be a soft, gentle experience, but I have found it to be quite different.
I grew up in Gloucestershire, but have lived and worked in Liverpool for the last 24 years. In 2000, I went on a course called Educational Therapeutics and we were encouraged to keep a journal of our thoughts and feelings, and note the weather, phases of the moon, etc. One cold evening in February I went out into the backyard of our terraced house and looked up at the moon.
Suddenly, I had a vision of the same scene – high backyard walls and chimney pots, but as though huge trees and vegetation had forced their way up through the Victorian paving stones and cracked walls apart. It was as though the sheer power of Nature had been revealed to me.
Living in a city, it is sometimes hard to tell when the seasons change unless you really look. My vision showed me how foolish we are to think that Nature is something under our control in front gardens or on a patio.
When the big trees were towering over our backyard walls I felt awe and a healthy respect.
This experience seemed to connect with something long forgotten in my blood – the wonderful wildness and power of the natural world which, after all, is the only world, and has stayed with me ever since.
Sarah Lowes
Nature Time
A sense of excitement as I enter her world
I submerge myself awaiting restoration
She blows away the clutter from my mind
Here lies the solitude I desire
Physically sheltered, emotionally exposed
A moving meditation on life's ups and downs
Time to let go and time to reflect
We all need to escape
Burying our heads does not work
So take some timeless time
Take some nature time
Amanda Hurst
The Path of Gold
The tide glides in – as liquid gold.
Let my heart sing – and let my heart hold
to its wild rhythm.
No matter what I've been,
in mouthing this crude hymn,
let me now see, as I am seen.
Rich in time, I move outside,
to awaken from life's dream.
Here beauty tells that love is all,
so freely given – a shining fall,
that covers the ocean like a shawl.
It covers the depths of ultramarinewith shimmering skirts of blue and green,
like a silken shawl of the brightest sheen.
Today I walk out from the old.
I wind my skirts about me
and take Your gift of gold.
Through Your gentle nurturing
let me now stand without fear.
Your gold is buoyant,
buoyant in the lap of sea.
So, in Her open lap, let the earth hold me.
I have been sifted throughout eons,
shaping this life by the light I hold.
I have been on a path of ashes,
Now I choose the path of gold.
Hazel Saville
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