Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
It's the beginning of February and I've brought you out on a walk and I'm in the valley of the Ludbrook and the Ludbrook is a fast running stream that comes off Dartmoor and last night we had some heavy rain so it's quite full and you might be able to hear it rushing and gushing in the background.
It's quite high at the moment and I've come here to the valley because it's very blowy and even though I'm in a valley and quite sheltered I can feel a gusty southwesterly wind on my back so it feels quite cool and damp still.
But the 1st of February marks a festival that I wanted to share with you as part of the festivals that were shared in the Celtic calendar.
It's called Imolc and at the beginning of February it's marked in the same way that Candlemas is marked I think that's on the 2nd of February.
It's a festival that is marked at this time of year and in the Celtic calendar Imolc falls between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and it's a really important part of the Celtic calendar.
It's an important way of marking the passing of the seasons.
Today we are marking the return of light.
It's like a tipping point has been passed.
The sap is rising,
The energy of spring is arising in the soil,
There are many more shoots coming up through the ground and winter is losing its grip.
There's no doubt about it yet it hasn't quite gone.
It's still very cold and I need a hat and gloves to come outside but this is a sense of turning,
Of transition.
It's a sense of moving on and that's what I want to mark with you today.
One of the reasons I love coming out in nature and one of the reasons I encourage you to go out into nature is that it connects us to something that is in our bones,
In our blood.
It is something that connects us to the passing seasons that we have become so alienated and separate from in our lives and in our culture.
There was a time when the weather and the seasons and the cold and hunger and the need for shelter were so strong in our lives,
Were so important in our lives and we were so aware of the passing weather systems and the passing seasons and we needed to be and now for me anyway I'm closeted in a lovely house and I've got heating and I can boil a cattle and have a shower and sleep peacefully and just know that I'm not reliant on the weather for my food.
I'm not growing a crop or harvesting anything myself.
I can go to a shop and buy what I need.
Realising that I am separate from the seasons,
I feel quite bereft in many ways which is why going out into nature is so important and marking this quarter festival in the Celtic calendar,
Imog,
For me is really important.
It's a time to recognise the passing of the seasons and to be out here in nature and feel gratitude of this deeper intelligence that is all around us and is us.
Nature is us and marking and being grateful for this intelligence,
Deep intelligence of nature,
This connection to nature,
This oneness with nature and recognising that it is here and that it is time to feel grateful.
My request to you as you listen to this is to notice this within yourself.
Notice the rising sap of spring,
The tipping point,
The transition within you and also mark the transition and tipping point in nature as winter loosens her grip ever more and we make our way towards spring.
