Love is short, forgetting is long
Inspirational journeys, walks to wild coves, poems at pitstops and a new Yoga for Beginner's course
Land’s End to John o’Groats
Those of you who signed up to a yoga class last week will know I received a last minute invitation to volunteer and support a group of runners who are running the length of England from Land’s End to John o’Groats. These ordinary folk with extraordinarily strong calves have been running over a marathon a day (yep, you heard that right!) since the end of May bar one rest day once per week - gulp.
I joined them for week three of their five week journey as they made their way through the Lake District and crossed a BIG milestone into Scotland with a man in full kilt attire playing the bagpipes to welcoming them in. Before you ask, no, I didn’t run with them. (I worked towards a ‘couch to 5k’ once, but on achieving the mini milestone, quickly let it lapse - must try harder next time!) My role instead involved cheering, cooking, setting up pit stops, water bottle filling, yoga sessions, luggage carrying, hugging, more cheering and taxing them from their start and finish points to their accommodation.
More than anything, last week was living testament to just how much we can achieve when we support each other. I’m rather in awe of their magnificent (and slightly mad) feat. Witnessing the small kindnesses of the participants was perhaps the most moving part of all - achey all over and tired to the bone, they’d smile and joke with each other en route and slow down to walk beside anyone who needed a little encouragement.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
African Proverb
Join Me for a Walk and some Vitamin Sea this Sunday
It’s not too late to join me on a trip to Chapman’s Pool on the Jurassic coast this Sunday 29th June for a wild and wonderful morning of walking, sea swimming and fossil hunting.
There’s an opportunity to lift share - just contact me.
Yoga for Beginners
Yoga classes are on as usual again next week with a new four week Yoga for Beginner’s course starting too.
Yoga for Beginners starts Monday 30th June 7:30pm - 8:30pm for four consecutive weeks. Cost £36
Regular Class Schedule:
Monday Flow 6:15pm - 7:15pm
Wednesday Yin 6:15pm- 7:15pm
Wednesday Flow 7:30pm - 8:30pm
PAYG £11 per class, 6 class pass £54 (£9 per class)
Poems at Pitstops
A special friend, fellow poetry lover and leader of the (somewhat mad) running event, introduced me to two new poems last week as we waited for the runners at our pitstop - I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me sharing them with you too.
The Orange by Wendy Cope
At lunchtime I bought a huge orange—
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
They got quarters and I got a half.And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist.
It was also at this pitstop that I was introduced to slices of orange sprinkled with a little salt … strangely delicious on a hot day!
Tonight I Can Write by Pablo Neruda - translated by WS Merwin
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write, for example, 'The night is starry
and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is starry and she is not with me.This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tries to find the wind to touch her hearing.Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.
Sending much love,
Camille