Tuesday, August 30, 2011

2011 Streak Day 218/365 (Aug 6th): The quality of peace


2011 Streak Day 218/365 (Aug 6th): Run - 2 miles, Time - 23 min Weather - light rain, low grey clouds
As you can see from the photo it was another wet day, however running first thing has saved us. So far there has been no significant rain at daybreak. Is this a general rule? Does the early morning have less rain than other times off day? All I can say is that on this holiday that has been the case.
Later we went for a walk and got very wet.  During the walk we talked about the quality of peace tto be found here. At home we have no easy access to the same openness of landscape, the same sense of quiet. It might seem strange to say as we live in pleasant countryside with nearby woods and quiet country lanes - but it is in the South of England, a densely populated area.There may be many nice vistas but the traffic is never far away.
However, as with everything, for every up there is a down. There is a fine line between quiet and boredom and in winter an open landscape, which in summer is rich with crops and wild flowers, can be empty and bleak.
We talked with an English couple who live in the village full time and they find winters hard, with nothing much to do. This year, as an experiment they are renting a villa in Spain from January to March to be part of a bigger community. It will be interesting to see how that works.
Which only goes to show, I think, that peace is not actually in your surroundings but in your attitude to them.

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