This is a very short-and-sweet message to you all as I've just found out I'm in charge of the cooking tomorrow plus last minute guests tonight! As I say and have always said, my life would be far less rich for having you all in it. As the ups and downs of life have ebbed and flowed this year, so the tides have lapped upon our shores as we've gathered - whatever the weather - to take stock, share food and stories. And whenever felt right for each of us, we have dipped our toes in the ever present sea that surrounds this land here in Selsey - mostly because it just feels so good. Like a reset, the cold envelops us, washing away our worries and our fears if just for a moment, so that the troubles we face as a collective and as individuals seem, for those moments, like a dim and distant memory.
One of my favourite poems the encapsulates the times right now is by Kahil Gilbran and is called Fear:
It is said that before entering
the sea a river trembles with fear.
she looks back at the path
she has travelled from the
peaks of the mountains, the
long winding road, crossing
forests and villages
and in front of her, she sees
an ocean so vast, that to
enter there seems nothing
more than to disappear
forever.
but there is no other way. the
river can not go back.
nobody can go back. to go
back is impossible in existences.
the river needs to take the
risk of entering the ocean,
because only then will fear
disappear, because that’s
where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing
into the ocean, but of
becoming the ocean.
Khalil Gibran
So, here are some photos and videos from the December gathering, I hope you enjoy them.
I'm sure I'll be in touch again before 2022, but in the meantime, once Christmas Day has been and gone, I hope you have a good rest, recharge and reset.
Here is a gallery of the photos, just scroll through.