Finding Peace at Home and Away

 We have been on holiday in our favourite part of Wales since last Saturday, and will be driving home tomorrow. It's been a glorious week, yet very relaxing. One of the highlights was visiting Dolgoch Falls, as we do every time we come here, which is an incredibly special space for me. It was the only day we had some rain, but even then it was still beautiful.

We have also spent a gorgeously warm and sunny day in Aberystwyth, which was new for both of us, and visited Bodnant Garden in north Wales yesterday, which was glorious in the sunshine. Although even the overflow car park was nearly full when we arrived, Bodnant is such a large site that we never felt crowded with people except at the refreshment places. It was too late in the year for the laburnum arch and for the rhododendrons and azaleas, but there was still so much beauty to wonder at and glory over. Towards the end of our visit, we came back to the house and the rose gardens, which were in full and luscious bloom. 

All in all, it has been a gorgeous week - we've had a mixture of sunshine and rain, long days out and relaxing days where we stayed local (Barmouth to the south and Harlech to the north) and simply relaxed. I love being here, on Ystumgwern Farm, in our lovely upside down cottage, just being peaceful. I've done some writing, a lot of reading and just enjoyed spending time with my beloved. For me, this is the best kind of holiday. Lots of time to recharge my batteries, and when we go home tomorrow, I will feel relaxed and at peace.

 

Room to Breathe

This week's postcard is an idyllic scene - a white beach in front of a blue sea, in the sunshine. The ideal place to rest and restore one's soul, perhaps.

Just looking at it makes me yearn for a few peaceful days off. And the quotation, by Victor Levin, says: "Geniesse deine Freiheit und gib deiner Seele Raum zum Atmen."

"Enjoy your freedom and give your soul room to breathe."

I wonder, how often do we do that, even on holiday? In our family, the main holiday each year is spent exploring cities, which is great fun, and very interesting, even satisfying, but it is rarely about giving my soul room to breathe. Walking holidays near lakes and mountains do that, but again, they're still active.

I don't think I've ever been on holiday, and just rested. Just. Rested. Often, when I come back from an exploring-a-new-city holiday, we've packed in so much to our few days away, that I come home needing another holiday to get over it!

It's interesting that the derivation of the word "holiday" is holy day. On holy days, we do stop and rest, and give our souls room to breathe in the resulting freedom.

Hucklow Summer School helps me to do exactly what Levin advises: enjoy my freedom and give my soul room to breathe. A week in the Nightingale Centre, set in the midst of the beautiful Peak District, in the company of other Unitarians, does give my soul room to breathe. Perhaps we should rename it 'Hucklow Holy Days'.

Of course, there are theme talks to attend, and the all-important two hours a day in your engagement group, but the rest of the activities are optional, and there are many opportunities to give your soul room to stretch and breathe and rest. I would recommend it to all Unitarians.

That Bit

A friend of mine just posted a lovely meme about the days between Christmas and New Year:

And the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I realise that I really love "that bit", when the frenetic socialising in the lead-up to Christmas and the two Big Days (Christmas Day and Boxing Day) are over, and I have the chance to sit down quietly and appreciate the days that have gone, and the people with whom I have spent them, and the gifts I have received. I am blessed in usually being able to take the period between Christmas and New Year off work. There is generally oodles of food left in the fridge and cupboard, so we can nibble on our favourite dainties, and drink our favourite drinks (peppermint and liquorice tea, in my case) without the pressure to put on a show. And there is often something good to watch on the TV. It is an interlude of peace between the frenzy of Christmas, and the re-dedication to work that the New Year brings. And I am very grateful for it.

Bliss.

I wish you all a very blessed That Bit, and a Happy, Peaceful, and Productive New Year.

Festival Days

I treated myself to a really pretty calendar from the Calendar Club shop this year - beautiful Japanese paintings, each with an accompanying Haiku.

When I was transferring all the birthdays etc from 2013 to 2014, I came across a typed insert, between June and July. It is double-sided, and shows all the holidays taken in various different countries (24 in all). The holidays for the US, the UK and Canada were integrated in the calendar proper. It makes fascinating reading.

Many of the holidays (and of course the word holiday derives from holy-day) are religious. In Christian (or nominally Christian) countries, the standard holidays include Good Friday, Easter Monday and Christmas Day, with variations around the theme: some include Maundy Thursday, and the more traditional countries also celebrate other  dates in the Christian year, such as Epiphany in January, Ascension Day in May, Pentecost and Corpus Christi in June, the Assumption in August, All Saints and All Souls in November, and Immaculate Conception and St. Stephen's Day (Boxing Day) in December. Sundry national saints also have their own holidays, such as St. Patrick in Ireland, and St. Peter & St. Paul in Italy.

In Israel, of course, all the major Jewish festivals are celebrated, and Buddhist festivals have their own holidays in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and South Korea. Islamic holy days are celebrated in Singapore and India, of the countries listed. India had a particularly rich list of religious festivals, having special holy days for Buddhist, Muslim and Sikh festivals, as well as for Hindu ones.

But it was the "other" holidays I found particularly fascinating. I think that the holidays deemed worthy of time off tell a lot about what a particular country values. Many of the countries listed included a holiday (or more than one) to do with sovereignty - a day to commemorate a revolution or independence or liberation. And many countries celebrate their workers on Labor Day (usually 1st May). And all celebrate New Year's Day.

The ones that particularly caught my eye included a Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity (celebrated in Argentina in October); Picnic Day (celebrated in Australia's Northern Territory in August); the Dragon Boat Festival (celebrated in China and Hong Kong at the beginning of June); and Children's Day and Respect for the Aged Day (celebrated in Japan in May and September respectively).

But my favourite country for the holidays they celebrate has to be South Africa. Their holidays include Human Rights Day in March, Family Day and Freedom Day in April, Youth Day in June, National Women's Day in August, Heritage Day in September, and Day of Reconciliation and Day of Goodwill in December.
How wonderful!