By the River Lif

 

Chapter IX

By the River Lif

Spending some time to reflect whilst sitting on my mossy mat which I made as a precursor to the burial cradle beside the river flowing from high up in the hills I come from, through the centre of this peninsular I've travelled to and out into the sea nearby. I sometimes imagine that I can smell the salty air and this along with the occasional cries of seabirds come inland combine to fill me with a kind of nostalgic longing I've felt since going to the seaside as a child.

So long ago. Such momentous events over recent years, wars, interrupted by the second pandemic, then the sudden unexpected switching of the magnetic poles and the way it disrupted technology for years and years. We were left stranded, left so much to our own devices, left to try to carry on with whatever was still working and develop other things which have now taken on such momentous significance and urgency; the provision of food, shelter, maintenance and promotion of health, both physical and mental, social cohesion depends on these things and we depend on each other more and more. We have to organise and work in a way that only a small minority were doing over the long decades leading up to The Chaos. This past decade has seen exponential change and rapid realisation that alternatives to central control are essential to our survival. We have had to face the hard reality of taking responsibility for our own lives again. It's both scary and exhilarating.

But exhausting too and so I am appreciating this short respite from the heavy burden of managing in a haphazard way back home, hoping to develop some essential coping skills, but mainly focussing on this final one that has cropped up continually over my whole life; how to enable a peaceful transition from life to death. 

*

Rhodri and Awena, the leaders of the course here at Ghia, are the types of people I would once have met at yoga or Tai Chi classes years ago, but they spent the intervening years pursuing their chosen path so that now they are experts in what they consider to be the right way to live, ie; treading lightly, leaving few traces and those only beautiful. Right livlihood. I can't remember when it started to concern me. Maybe something I learned in early childhood which never left me. 

That this should also encompass how to die is something I have largely ignored until events in my own life compelled me to face it. Death has always been something I allowed to take me by surprise and cause me great consternation and shock over the years. 

Now, I have resolved to address this gaping hole. 

*

Out of a nearby holly bush emerge the two teenagers who are in our group. Will and Sophie. They're smiling as they squat down beside me, both seeming at home in this wild place even after just the few days we've been here. 

" We've been sent to find you " Sophie admits.

" Partly an exercise in us being able to find our way " adds Will. 

Their accents are soft and Northern and make me feel happy. Will is tall and thin, Sophie much smaller and more filled out, but it's hard to tell which is the elder. Perhaps they're close in age, they do appear to be great friends whatever the age gap. 

" It's nice to be cared for " I quip, " What's on the menu today - I hope it's baked potatoes again, I'm starving. " Will and Sophie groan in unison and we set off, chuckling together, following the river back to the place we marked where the trail leads West back to our camp.

*

Baby steps. This short period of initiation is like reading the blurb of a very fat book.

It's going to take some time.

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