Today I've been driving around Cornish edges. Where the Atlantic touches land. It was the opposite weather wise that I'd hoped for, cloudy not clear, wet not dry...and the isobars were tight! The seas were restless and stroppy. But I'd come a long way and now had the time to watch and wait, to see if the weather cleared.
And actually, as I got accustomed to the muted, the lovely washed out layers of landscape, I was surprised by it. The skies were every shade of mauve/grey/ mustard/indigo/peach...and then that momentary elusive transparent baby blue, a flash of the true colour of the sky, behind the crazy patchwork of cloud.
The rain we have been under for so many weeks seems to have revealed a kind of wise, old beauty in the land, the sea and sky. We are so desperate for 'good' weather aren't we? It's such a longing that we miss whats under our nose, some awesome colours and a freshly exposed composition in the landscape... It really feels as if the rain has washed away whats been visible to reveal what's hiding beneath.
And the sea. Maybe my eyes, in just 24 hours, have become accustomed to the light, the Haar mist, the visible wind! The depth of saturated colour in the sea I watch from my friends house, is changing constantly. It looks alive, restless and fervent.
As I drive up from Lands End, around the Cape to St Ives Bay, then on up to Chapel Porth and St Agnes, a journey I have done a lot in the last few years, I was thinking about 'desire paths'... The unintended, pedestrian short cuts that over time become permanent footpaths. Perhaps I am creating my very own 'imagined' desire path here on the Cornish edges. Of course it's meaningless to anyone else really, but it has it's purpose for me. It's my short cut when I really need access to the source of the inspiration for my painting. Not living here is tricky sometimes. I need that desire path! And today as I trod 'the path' again, I was surprised by the way the weather revealed a fresh track of inspiration.
I guess it prompted me to remember that there is always something in the landscape waiting to surprise us... We just have to be there to see it. To be positioned to see whats there. It bubbles up into my thinking that many things in my life work in a similar way. That idea of being in the present moment. Positioning myself to see with clarity what really matters. Finding beauty in the ordinary. Not minding the rain because it reveals another way of seeing. Stepping off the concrete path and treading a new one, all on my own! And the idea of being positioned to see the unseen too, for example, what does faith means on a day by day level. The stuff of life can clutter the view of what is sometimes difficult to see. How can I access that rich source of meaning and depth when life is flying by?
Being on a three day trek to the Cornish edges is showing me something I've seen before. But like the surprise of the land and sea seen in different weather and light, it's reminding me that in every area of my life I mustn't forget to remember the Surprise.
