Sam Harrison / The river awe

What a great name!  I live right next to the Awe and walk down there most days.  Recently with the rain we’ve had it was in spate - it rose at least a meter and was roaring down to the sea in a huge unstopable flow.  Watching the river was mesmerising and dizzying, and it filled me with energy.  It is back to its normal state now, and i went down it yesterday in my canoe, accompanied by dippers, looking at the marks high on the banks where it had been.

I have been thinking a lot about the flow of life, letting go, and it seems that rivers have been making their presence felt a lot in the last month.  I’ve been reflecting on letting things go through me (perhaps throwing in a new current), rather than me stopping them, trying to hold them back.  Part of it has to do with the constant onward flow of energy and ecology - it would be painful and pointless to resist the awe in full flood.

Returning home for me threw up a new realisation: working away so much in the wilds, i always struggle coming home, and i’ve come to realise that my day dreams about living in the places i work are partly about resisting that process of ‘leaving behind.’  I am committed to Taynuilt, the place where i live, but i realise that i have been leaving a lot of myself in the places where i work, and not really letting them go.

Reading through my research notes, and everyone’s blogs prior to reengageing with the group and the project next week has been great.  I felt like i was taking up the threads again reading everyones words, and seeing all the pictures.  What was clear to me as well, was the inexorable flow of the process - how far we have floated together.  And where will we fetch up?