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Ah. The paying attention to the small things in lockdown. I did exactly that. During that April of that first lockdown I began a daily meditational walk along the shore in Hove. Inspired by the Siberian story of Old Kitna and the Wolf as told to us by Martin Shaw, and his own 101 step practice of sitting in the woods at dusk, I began a 101 day morning walk. It was transformational, as I recorded all the small things I observed, both externally and internally, on the walk. I found myself creating a Salty Temple (an old groyne people used as a small fishing pier) exposed at low tide, where I began to offer libations. This practice culminated on an overnight sit, and Utiseta, on a bronze age barrow on Newtimber Hill, above Saddlescombe Farm, where I had attended your workshop on sitting with nature and observing, a few years before.

I kept a daily diary of everything that arose on that walk. At some point it will become a small book. It was a transformational and creative journey as the world grapples with the chaos and restrictions that the pandemic wrought. At the end of the overnight sit, I saw the Isle of Wight gleaming on the horizon, with the Eye of the Dragon lit up in the chalk cliffs by the morning sun. This led me into dowsing parts of the Spine of Albion ley lines, which runs through several ruined houses and monasteries in the South. One of these was Titchfield Abbey, which also possesses a dark foreboding energy. It was there just a week after my sit, I was locked in the grounds on a hot late afternoon and not fancying spending the night there, had to call the fire brigade to rescue me!

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Thanks Serena. Locked in in lockdown, that is quite some encounter!

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In definitely left an impression! Titchfield Abbey has many dark secrets

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Oh, if you don't know Dillard's two slim books: Holy the Firm and Teaching a Stone to Talk, you might try to find them. A strange and marvelous the both of them ...

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Beautiful

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Gorgeous

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I now own The Writing Life and awaiting updates

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Once I seek those Dillard books, I'll start to follow "occasional series on writing as a metaphysical practice" that you'll be doing.

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Charlotte,

As I navigate my own way into my words through writing - it seems you are gradually becoming a mentor - as your work keeps showing up unexpectedly. I look forward to the provocation you bring forward with your coming writing series - I will drink from it with a long-trailed proboscis.

Blessed Be

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