Transformation

I love this time of the year, midwinter, days of beautiful sunlight, no longer burning but warming deliciously. I love it too, when like the flick of a switch, the usual weather turns into a swirling, surging storm that brings with it the blessed rain that the ground soaks up; my nostrils inhaling that headiest perfume, the aroma of the soil imbibing the liquid that it craves. I watch too with awe the flocks of exhilarated gulls swaying and swooping and swirling in the strong winds that burst in over the seas.

Then the waves crash and burn against the beach in long grey moiling rollers that energise me like nothing else. The sand lies dormant waiting for the next level of invasion as the beach restaurants shut down till the storm is over. The wind howls and whines like an animal in the pine trees, running its course through the valleys and ridges like an untrammelled beast. All night long shutters bang against the walls; outdoor furniture sways and moves on terraces like mad things; while wind chimes resonate to fierce gusts that swoop in violently and then stop nonplussed.

There is no set rhythm, no prediction about how it will unfold. Every time is different and uniquely glorious in its power and ferocity, or not. Just when you think it is building into something that is going to blow down trees or cause widespread destruction it cools itself and adopts a quieter tenor. There are other places where the ferocity of nature asserts itself in its pre-eminent power. But here it tempers itself. Why? Perhaps the people here have not pitted themselves against nature in such arrogant manner. Perhaps they have listened to the lessons and decided to partner with the forces of nature. Perhaps they have just been more fortunate, so far.

This time of the year resonates with the desire for peace as we settle into end of year ruminations. We all get so bound up in the highly-charged emotions of politics- whether this or that person in politics is valid, a force for good or bad, incompetence or transformation. Truth is that we are all charged with great possibility, in our own political lives. As we are social so are we political animals. The personal is political to quote a phrase. We relish the excitement of our differences as we love the calm of our being united. We love the wildness of the wild political days and the calmness of the social calm days.

We need more of the calm days in which to breathe easily and move forward. We need the spaces of rest and relaxation in which to achieve the peace that unleashes our creativity and vision for a future that allows us to be the best versions of ourselves. Not pitted against one another but moving together to realise the transformation of our world into a better place.