Love List : February

shaped by story | dark pavements | chill, yellow light

Read Chasing Fog // Order a signed copy of Chasing Fog

It was a sunny morning in February. My friends and I clambered down a flight of stone steps onto the beach and stripped to our swimming costumes. Sand was cool beneath the soles of our feet as we ran laughing into the sea. It was our first ever swim together — a mermaid moment.

All at once, amongst the waves we spotted it, head bobbing just metres away: a seal. For a few minutes we swam parallel, us and the seal, sharing the sea on a sparkling morning. It was an instance of what Mary Oliver called ‘the witchery of living’: the world, she wrote, ‘is more than the beating of a single heart/ it’s praising.’ Praising — I think — can mean many things. It can look like a swim with a seal.

At the end of the day, walking back along the sand, we stopped to stare at the sky. Soft, pale, ballet slipper pink, its warm glow was reflected in the stillness of the sea. The sun had dipped away below the cliffs and there, suspended above the opposite headland, we saw the pale circle of a round full moon.

Shell-pink clouds brightened, and became so rosy that the sea, too was blushing — until all warmth melted away and the sky faded to azure. Over the headland, the shining silver locket moon rose and rose until it hung high, its reflection casting a luminous path over the bay up to the edge of the sand. I was not cold, but I shivered — my face touched by the glow.

Returning home, I looked up the time on my moon calendar In the exact moment the Snow Moon became full, we had been there: under the sky, beside the sea. We hadn’t known, and yet we had been waiting for the moon to rise.

I felt it again — a shiver across my skin — the witchery of living.

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Next month, I’m hosting a spring day retreat at a gorgeous venue near Oxford with

Tanya Lynch

of Ease Retreats. Our focus is Finding Your Voice. There will be delicious food; friendly company; two masterclasses with me; space to rest, think and write; and a goodie bag to take home. Tanya’s shared a beautiful post about our retreat, which you can read here. There are still a few spaces available and I’d love for you to join us!

Here’s what I’ve been reading and loving this month: