Idle and blessed

 I share my angst with you on the blog, so I am going to share my happiness too.

We are not having the heating on at all because of the price of domestic heating oil, and when at teatime we haven’t yet lit the fire, and I feel cold and miserable, I dread next winter, with rationed heating. But… now that the spring is here I’m saying to myself with absolutely no effort, Don’t think about next winter, it’s lovely now. Enjoy now! 

Finally - thanks to the awfulness out there - I have achieved being in the now, enjoying the moment.

This morning I rode up the Monsal Trail as far as Millers Dale station and locked up my bike, and walked down the steps to the river. There is a lot of sunshine to be had down there because the leaves on the trees are not fully out. I found a comfy spot and drank my coffee 

and sat looking at the river, listening to the river, lapping up the sunshine, and I was perfectly happy. Not a worry. not a disturbing thought. How lucky am I to have such lovely places so accessible? The price I pay for them is the long dark winters, but now I am here, in the sunny spring, being “idle and blessed.”

The quote is from Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day”