READYING FOR RELOCATION
by contemplativeinquiry
I will be moving house very soon. This will no longer be the view from my bedroom window. My gaze today is tinged with premature nostalgia.
This gaze shows continuity and slow, gradual change in the world outside. This world wears its winter look, with bare branches and extensive views. At other times of the year, both are covered by foliage. But the solstice darkness has already withdrawn from the mid-afternoon. Today is blessed with strong sunlight and blue sky. The year is turning again, now towards the light.
The house move feels more abrupt. I have lived here for longer than anywhere else in my adult life. Chiefly it has been the hallowed setting for my life with Elaine (1). Whilst living here, I completed my OBOD training, later beginning a self-directed exploration of contemplative Druidry, including a 4 year project within the Druid community (2). For a while, contemplative inquiry – within and beyond Druidry – became the guiding principle of my spirituality. Now it is more like an influential thread within my Druid practice.
I wonder what changes life in another location will make, as Elaine and I continue our journey together. There will be only a limited break from the past. We will be in the same county, though not the same town. But there will be differences too. The psychogeography will be different. The spirits of place will be different. The world beyond our windows will be new.
(1) http://www.elaineknight.wordpress.com
(2) James Nichol , Contemplative Druidry: People, Practice and Potential, Amazon/Kindle, 2014. https://www.amazon.co.uk/contemplative-druidry-people-practice-potential/dp/1500807206/
contemplativeinquiry 
Good luck to you both with your move – the start of a new adventure!
Thanks Lis!
Good wishes for your new adventures to you both, and a wonderful 2022.
Thanks Anne 😊
Best of luck for you and Elaine whilst going on this new adventure. From personal expecience I kwow what you’re going through. Things will find their way, have faith in that. /|\
Thanks Raymond 😊
This has been a regular feature in my life – leaving much loved locations, specifically saying goodbye to the landscape of dear friends in nature. It gets harder every time – the last was coming away from an off grid island location as remote and wild as possible for us. Now we are in what we perceive as our forever/last homeland it’s a relief. I still visit the area of my birth and childhood the magical Salisbury Plain although less and less, but the sights sounds and smells of that home will never fade – I have already reserved my final resting place in a woodland there. It took me a long time to realise that for me connection to place was what I needed in the physical but connection to people could be more distant and inhabit a different part of me.
Thanks Selkie. I like what you say about the different ways in which connection to place and people work. We had been thinking of moving further afield – but Gloucester isn’t so very far from Stroud and we have a sense of staying in the same region.
This has been a regular feature in my life – leaving much loved locations, specifically saying goodbye to the landscape of dear friends in nature. It gets harder every time – the last was coming away from an off grid island location as remote and wild as possible for us. Now we are in what we perceive as our forever/last homeland it’s a relief. I still visit the area of my birth and childhood the magical Salisbury Plain although less and less, but the sights sounds and smells of that home will never fade – I have already reserved my final resting place in a woodland there. It took me a long time to realise that for me connection to place was what I needed in the physical but connection to people could be more distant and inhabit a different part of me.
Blessings for you both in your new home
I hope it all goes smoothly!
Thanks Nimue! Me too. Only to Gloucester I’ll send you the details by email later today.
Best wishes for a smooth transition and blessings in your new home.
Thanks Linda. Bright Blessings, James