|
Post by lowri on Nov 21, 2007 21:11:15 GMT -1
I was going somewhere today with time to spare.. So I went to a bit of woodland I know that was on the way. Not so much time to spare as in the end I was late. But it didn't matter because I stood for a long time in the rain under the trees watching the river and it was so wonderful because all the water running through that place was running through me and it was like I was running water too and seeping through all of the place and it was all a part of me. Tears came to my eyes and were running down with the rain but I ws not upset, just so deeply moved.
I arrived all wet and then had to put what had happened to the back of my mind for the rest of the day, but it has all come back to me now and I hope this is the place to share it with others who will understand what I felt.
Lowri x
|
|
|
Post by Craig on Nov 22, 2007 6:39:11 GMT -1
Oh yes Lowri, you are definitely Feral.
My favourite places in the Mawddach are all by running water. To have time to sit by a waterfall and pool in the rain is a true pleasure these hectic days.
To our ancestors water was the very stuff of life. They loved it and revered many of their spirits by sacrificing to the flowing waters.
I am lucky enough to live only 100yds from the Severn. Not the mighty river of England, but the lazy upper reaches in Wales, where she slips past with deceptive power, filling the valley with energy. I am often by her banks doing my thing.
Unlike many places my small town has not built right to the river's edge, rightly respecting her ability to rise twenty feet in a night. Instead there is parkland, woods and meadows, a great place for a rainy rendezvous with Sabhrina.
|
|
|
Post by Francis on Nov 22, 2007 11:53:10 GMT -1
When I watch water flowing like that I see 'time' our mortality. The movement of the water, each new moment clearly visible as the shape of the water changes. And each past shape and moment of the water gone, in many ways forever. I see the flux from the water and it guides me to more clearly feel it everywhere - pushing onto the banks of the river and into the woodland beyond.
I was sat by one of the waterfalls of the Afon Porth Llwyd yesterday, by the pool below its "great grey gates" (the Argonath of my childhood! - and a place of much resonance for me). This is one of Wales' most beautiful small rivers, but she has danced with the people of Dolgarrog village below for good and bad. Bringing industry, jobs and prosperity through hydroelectricity to power aluminium smelting, but also death, taking village children from time to time -and on one November night in the 1920's bursting the dam she had been contained within to kill 16 people in the village below.
It seems the factory she powered in the village below is closing for good now at the end of this week, and much as I hated the noise of it, sat in the rain watching her retire further from her human relationship- no one collects their water from her now, or wahes their clothes by her banks...I did feel a strange melancholy in the rain- almost to the point of tears. All is change, all passes.
I don't really do science fiction but reading your post I couldn't help remembering the lines from Blade Runner (probably misquoted a bit- and not really relevant to what you were saying!)
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”
I don't think I really understood them when I first heard them but somehow their melancholy power never left me.
When Henry IV attached the Conwy Valley in 1402 some of the valley people lived in the woods either side of this river in hiding for over a year. With their crops burnt life must have been unimaginably hard- I had the strongest feeling of a mother of that story collecting water from the river in the rain to take to her ill child, with tears in her eyes. That place must have witnessed so many moments like that all now "...lost in time, like tears in the rain".
I think for me the question is whether I believe anything is ever really "lost in time" and I don't think I really do...Everything is still here echoing around.
|
|
|
Post by Craig on Nov 22, 2007 12:05:03 GMT -1
Have you any idea how I can explain sitting at my PC in work crying like a baby?
Us ferals are emotional beggars to be sure... I'll get you back for that Stephen...
|
|
|
Post by claer on Nov 22, 2007 13:06:19 GMT -1
Have you any idea how I can explain sitting at my PC in work crying like a baby? Us ferals are emotional beggars to be sure... I'll get you back for that Stephen... Well, I'm currently blaming a slipped contact lens, but not sure if you can use that too, Craig. Thanks to Lowri and Stephen for the beautiful word-smithing.
|
|
|
Post by coedwen on Nov 22, 2007 15:26:55 GMT -1
Have you any idea how I can explain sitting at my PC in work crying like a baby? Us ferals are emotional beggars to be sure... I'll get you back for that Stephen... Craig and Stephen the strong and proud warriors of our tribe ;D ;D I can see Craig hiding behind a bush ready to spring out and get his revenge attacking Stephen and breaking his heart with a quick poetry reading. Its a bit Monty Python! Warriors battling with poems to leave each other heart broken and crying Sorry! I've got a weird imagination!
|
|
|
Post by coedwen on Nov 22, 2007 15:32:52 GMT -1
Oh I just get it. Tears in the rain because if its raining you can't tell if it's tears or rain and the tears get lost in the rain washing down your face. Not because rain is sad. Not the sharpest cookie in the box am I I was once told to follow the advice of John Wane Talk low Talk slow and don't say to much. Probably a good idea for me!
|
|
|
Post by Craig on Nov 22, 2007 15:37:23 GMT -1
Actually Coedwen our ancient forebears were known for their ability to destroy a man's reputation with a poem or even a single phrase... so maybe not so Monty Python. In the Norse sagas similar attacks exist. Egil Skallagrimmsson won his freedom from the King of Northumbria, who was going to have him put to death, by composing and speaking such a great poem of praise of the King, that the King had to free him or appear churlish and mean. A poet can be a truly dangerous enemy. A modern example that caught my ear was in an episode of Dr.Who. In this he told the female PM of Britain that he could destroy her with just six words. Then he whispered into one of her aides' ear "doesn't she look tired to you?". Maybe you are not so weird after all ;D Anyhoo, who says a warrior cannot cry? I'm always crying at films, musicals, when my children are on stage or receiving yet another award, with friends, in private in the woods. So
|
|
|
Post by Craig on Nov 22, 2007 15:39:39 GMT -1
I was once told to follow the advice of John Wane Talk low Talk slow and don't say to much. Probably a good idea for me! The advice I follow is this: "It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool, than open it and remove all doubt." It has stood me in good stead. people think me wise or even 'deep' because I only speak when there is something worth saying (others think me 'strange' but that's another story).
|
|
|
Post by coedwen on Nov 22, 2007 15:45:57 GMT -1
"It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool, than open it and remove all doubt." Sounds like good advice! LOL!
|
|
|
Post by Heron on Nov 22, 2007 17:26:21 GMT -1
I arrived all wet and then had to put what had happened to the back of my mind for the rest of the day, but it has all come back to me now and I hope this is the place to share it with others who will understand what I felt. Oh yes Lowri - what a beautiful expression of a powerful experience! Thank you for sharing it with us and I do hope that this is, indeed, the place where you feel able to share such things with us again. You might like to take a look at this site: www.sacredwaters.co.uk
|
|
|
Post by Heron on Nov 22, 2007 17:45:28 GMT -1
I think for me the question is whether I believe anything is ever really "lost in time" and I don't think I really do...Everything is still here echoing around. And echoing suggestively around your post. I agree with this and with the way you put it. Very nicely evoked.
|
|
|
Post by lowri on Nov 23, 2007 22:43:44 GMT -1
Thank you everyone who replied to this. Some of the posts have gone a long way from my experience, but I suppose that's what happens on these forums.
Thank you Craig and Heron for responding directly as I wanted know how those feelings would be received. And thank you Francis for your own deeper response.
Yes Heron that web site is interesting. I'll go back and read the things on it again more carefully.
Full Moon blessings to all.
Lowri x
|
|