Signs and Signals and Symbols

The swallow babies are jostling for position in their increasingly cramped living space. Yesterday, a sizeable swallow baby bottom was hanging over the edge of the nest which made me feel a little nervous. I’m already treading carefully whenever I go into the laundry now, for fear that one of them may have been shoved overboard by its feisty siblings; the last thing I want to do is accidentally squish a baby swallow, especially given the effort I’ve invested into providing them with a safe home. And clearing up sizeable piles of poop. Anyway, I think it can’t be long now before they will be fledging! It is all very exciting!

Yesterday, I found three clovers of the four leafed variety, and one that had five leaves.

Here are two of them. I shoved them in my diary to bring them home which means they weren’t as carefully preserved as they might have been had I still been 9 years old and obsessed with pressing flowers. Do you remember pressing flowers? I didn’t have a posh flower press - I just arranged my finds - Scarlet Pimpernels, Cat’s Eyes, Red Dead Nettles, forget-me-nots - carefully between folds of paper and slammed them between various volumes of Encyclopaedia Brittanica.  It was a favourite ‘thing’ of mine when I was a child. I don’t know why. It seemed a ‘thing’ to do.

Well, I haven’t found a four leafed clover for, blimey, over 40 years! And to find three in one day AND a five leafed one - surely that must be an sign that a MASSIVE dollop of good luck must be heading my way? One of the four leafed treasures and the five leafed one were purloined by my walking companions, so I hope the luck is shared with them, too. Perhaps we shall compare notes when we next meet up.

The finding of these clovers made me think that actually, I’ve had a few ‘signs’ arriving my way this week. Life has shifted considerably for me in the last year or so, like it’s been moving various bits of ‘life furniture’ around in order that I can travel forwards onto new pathways. I’ve left teaching and am now happily settled in a new part time job. I’ve at last lost weight - 19lbs gone for good now and I still have the determination and focus to lose a few more. I’ve ditched social media and my mobile phone. The garden is taking rapid shape and becoming the vision I had in my imagination when we moved here 4 years ago. Yes, there has been life furniture moving, that’s for sure, and I think a lot of it has been out of my hands.

And a treasured friend of yore has reconnected with me. I know we have spirit work to do together, as once we did many years ago. To that end I have been prompted to start keeping a fresh Meditation and Healing book. And I have bought a fresh set of Tarot cards...

...these! Over the previous 30 years I’ve owned five sets, maybe six. Celtic, Eastern, Arthurian - they come, they stay, they help, they guide, and then suddenly the urge is there to say goodbye and move on to a new pack. I use them in fits and starts, depending on my needs and the needs of anyone who happens to drift into my life in need of a bit of guidance themselves. My last set, one based on Tao, has served its purpose now. This set is the new ‘right for now’ set.

A lot of things that mattered once, matter no more. I am keeping calmer, lighter, brighter, in these unsettled times by avoiding both the news and being drawn into the hysterical arguments of others. Television, even radio, seems worthless and futile. There is a greater value in stillness, introspection and watching Nature go about her business. Relaxing into the gentleness of life seems to be the way my days are being signalled.

As we head into the weekend, as we are testing new waters of day to day living with a maybe somewhat cautious toe, I wish you calmness, lightness and all merry brightness, too.