TIME- THAT TRICKY OLD THING PART 2

A LONG POST SO IF YOU’D RATHER LISTEN, AUDIO FORMAT BELOW:

It’s 4.57 am 5th January 2024. According to who? Who knows, or well actually, some of us do know. The victors from the last battles always get to set the tone and the time and our calendars according to their desired playbook. Great, if your calendars are set to work for you and not against you and we can all move forwards in a rhythmic flow but for the last 2 years in particular, there has been a January movement that has put to serious test the very question of our Gregorian Calendar and its vitality and worth

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t make such a point of dissecting the calendars and I’m not going to go too deep into this here as with anything in life, the only constant is change and back and forth we go through this evolving flow of exactly that so I’m not too stressed out with the concept of it. That’s easy enough for me to say though for this is a topic I’ve had some years exploring both analytically and intuitively as way back when when my body and mind started calling me to retreat from the outside world in, I learned to reset my ‘BODY CLOCK’ to become a tiktok device that was more in tune with nature and the natural world around me. A DECADE in the making was this fine tuning of my body clock. tiktok tiktok….Can’t sleep – Find the cedarwood and chamomile. Can’t wake up – Pop the peppermint and go for a brisk walk. Hungry – Chicken broth. Thirsty – Green tea. Stressed – Hug a tree. Sad – Hug a person. Lonely – Read a book. Stretch as the sun rises and child pose as the sun sets. Listen to the sound of the river and birds. Smell the fields (I am a self confessed weirdo that loves cow poo) Even start to make your own salves and balms out of cow stuff (not poo) and olive oil . Again, throw in some chamomile and cedarwood, maybe some frankincense to hide the wrinkles

So you see, when you slowly but surely start to reset your body clock to one that mimics nature, you start to become averse to the one set about for you where the minutes and the seconds tick by like the sound of an old matron towering over you with a hardy wooden bat, slapping in hand while she waits for you to obey or get the wallop. Smack smack smack smack the time goes by with a marching brutal fury, every second a tense breath hold to get right what we’ve come here to do according to the one that set the clocks. Fail and you’re done for. Why so severe? Why so tough? Why can’t it slow down and be gentle to us or let us be gentle in the moments in between dongs?

Ah, because the victor needs he’s needs met so you can’t slow down. ‘NO REST FOR THE WICKED’ – A phrase that was originally expressed as ‘no peace for the wicked’ and refers to the eternal torment of Hell that awaited sinners possibly referring to those of us that can’t keep up with the expectation of the chimes but also very possibly referring to those that sin against the calling of the natural clock we were gifted from the Gods and if we fail to see the dangers of the clock set for us, a tormenting hell awaits those that fail to attune to the natural order within ourselves and instead out of ignorance settle miserably for one of dark demise

My great great Grandfather, Bernhard Wendel came from the Black Forest in Germany. The homeland of the cuckoo clock. A tradition deeply embedded in Bavarian culture and one that tells a tale of a wind up clock that would hourly chime the cuckoo call. There is absolute beauty in this clock, Traditionally and authentically it would be made out of linden wood. It would also fashion other handmade craft instruments such as deer antlers, horns, leaves, acorns, guns and pine cones and the weights are made of cast iron. All settings mechanically designed to operate on a 1-8 day cycle. Some would even offer scenes of people chopping wood, dancing or spinning wool on wheels. Scenes of collective chalet living in the Bavarian hills.

The symbolic meaning of the cuckoo however, is one of interesting consideration, as the cuckoo is very much an ‘it takes a village’ mentality, leaving her own eggs to hatch in the nests of others and removing the eggs of others so that only hers get fed. She is a monumental opportunist that seeks the best possible outcomes for herself and her children from the hard work and efforts of others. Very much in tune with the clock structure that we as humans adhere to in our own mechanical world of ‘clock in – clock out’ – Let’s just also consider that the inner mechanism that allows these clocks to operate and activates the cuckoo is driven by gears and gravity. Ah, that led weight force that keeps us all grounded down to earth and on the path, one foot in front of the other. As we move in motion left right left right the cuckoo every hour pops out and plays her part too and time ticks and tricks along as so. All dolls within dolls within a big clock village within a clock.

But back to the cuckoo. The powerful, deceptive little lady that comes with a lot of attitude, friendly with an upbeat voice. If you hear her in spring, she’ll put a spring in your step and a beat in your heart, gearing you up for new opportunities that lay ahead. She encourages you to not fear the path but to move along supported by the network of your village, but as friendly as she seems remember, she is also the master deceiver taking the nests of others and killing the eggs of those she entrusts to feed her own children. They also mimic the sound of other birds to distract them from the nests giving her time to swoop in and place her eggs and escape unnoticed. She is, just as time would tell a trickster in her own right. Getting others to do her hard work for her while she sits back and watches the clock for her master.

There is also the point to mention that, based on an old child’s rhyme, which depicts the title of the famous Jack Nicholson movie ‘One flew over the cuckoos nest’, the meaning of the title comes from the epigraph that reads “One flew east, one flew west, / One flew over the cuckoo’s nest.” – This has come to mean that flying over the cuckoo’s nest is a way of expressing that someone is crazy. ‘He’s cuckoo’, meaning he’s lost his marbles. Interestingly enough, the later saying also has reference to many forms of birds also but in particular the cuckoo because ‘losing your marbles’ happens when the birds that are interested in stealing shiny objects come and take them from you leaving you wondering where they went and inadvertently driving you mad. Birds nests are filled with shiny treasured stolen from their human victims, the only difference from the cuckoo versus the other notorious thieves is that the cuckoo will steal from the nests of other birds whatever shiny objects they stole themselves making her the very worst kind of thief!

On quite a dark note with regards to the deceptive cuckoo that steals the eggs and nests of others whilst clock watching for her master, there are tales from the black forest that are actually quite similar within our human collective. The tales from the brothers Grimm, in particular Hansel and Gretel speak of the missing children that disappear into the forest only to be met by those that wish to eat them. The calling of the cuckoo would let the predators of children of many kinds know their footing and the forest would then become a devilish playground for those that had dark motives with the lost, innocent wanderers. Hansel and Gretel did escape and found their way home but the forest is no place for the meek and mild who stand no chance against these forest dwelling villains

It’s now 6.36 am and I am about to go and make myself a coffee but as it’s still dark outside I’ll wait a while until it feels like i can crawl out of bed unnoticed. My youngest is asleep next to me and I don’t want to disturb her. I guess the point of this message is to guard your own nests and protect your space so that no deceivers can swoop in and take what’s yours. The funny thing and the reason I couldn’t sleep (I’m usually a sound 7 hour a nighter) is that on January 2nd and out of nowhere, one of my husbands old friends from 16 years ago when we lived back in Barcelona arrived uninvited and unannounced. I like to think of myself as a welcoming person and for the most part I am, especially to family and close friends. Do I welcome the less familiar? Yeah it’s tricky. I’m British. I’m hard wired to put up walls and I do try my best but I am also a very intuitive person that can read the intentions of others and having 2 daughters in my home I will not allow my nest to be weakened or made vulnerable by the cuckoo like behavior of others.

Explain your intentions, be clear, set your TIME AND DATES as we’ve all got a schedule to meet but without that (and has been the case here hence why I cannot sleep) you’re not welcome in my nest. My daughter, mytholover that she is refers to me as Athena. Says I’m a war warrior that you don’t mess with. I’m not so sure? I wouldn’t say I’m brutal but I have a nest to protect and unlike Athena who I believe had no children, nothing is more important to me than the safety and well-being of my babies and I for one do not pass their upbringing over to neighbor nests to take care of. As mentioned at the very start, the rising and falling of self mimicking nature over time is something that I have become so attuned with, seeking the softness in the flow or the rage in the winds. Time to me isn’t the same as it used to be when clock stamping meant you switched off from the natural world around you and swapped it for a mechanical world by which you’re just a piece. A cog in the wheel. A brick in the wall.

I suspect that our uninvited guest is perhaps escaping the clocks of London and is seeking sunshine, refuge and solace away from the ding dong. I get that. Having worked for the best part of a decade in the fields of WORK LIFE BALANCE (3 words I hate the sound of) I know very well the pains that people are experiencing having to give all their time away for pittence in return most of who then thanks to the stress of this lose their marbles and end up flying furiously into cuckoo nests having been deceived and tricked into a lifestyle that ‘hasn’t quite turned out the way it said on the box’ – Ah this maze we live in has been a cunning and most deceptive veil indeed and the only way to lift it and not go mad or lose your marbles as my great great grandfather Bernhard did (he sadly killed himself post war after a long psychiatric battle or so I’m told) is to reset your clock.

YOU ARE THE CLOCK!

Time is on your side so decide what it is you’re going to do with it. Become your own time master. Become your own shiny chimer. Having grown up on the European tales of Brothers Grimm and Has Christian Andersen, the darkness isn’t something that terrifies me too much. I take the tales as a part of our past that perhaps needed to be known in order to make the changes so desperately needed to herald in the light. You only know a forest needs more light within it if you’ve seen how dark it can get. Our history and the tales woven into the very fabric of who we are and what we are can’t only be love and light. We need the darkness too

In our INNER CHILD WORKSHOP, one of the questions asked throughout the 1st week is ‘WHAT WE’RE YOUR BIGGEST FEARS WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER?’ – Mine was always the dark. I was terrified of the dark and sleeping alone so I would always go and get into my sisters bed and I absolutely had to have a light of some kind on. A little glowworm nightlight teddy in the 80’s was all the rage! But I can remember one night when I was about 12 years old and FYI I was at boarding school from the ages of 10-17 so I was always in a dorm with others but still, this particular night, one of the matrons and the only kind one we had said to me “You’re scared of the dark because you are the light and you shine bright in the dark” – It shook through me when she said this because I know it’s true. The brighter you shine, the more visible you become to predators of the night. You stand right out and there’s nowhere to hide!

The Goddess of night, Nyx, FEARED EVEN BY ZEUS is known as she who travels the sky on a chariot drawn by four black horses, wearing only a black cloak so wide that it covers the whole sky. But remember, as she cloaks herself in the dark and ventures out into the fallen light she isn’t asking us to be fearful of it. There are lessons to be learned here as she masters darkness to spread light and to help you see, in your darkest hour, the light at the end of the tunnel. Being connected with the night, she will make it so you don’t fear it anymore. We need sleep in order to rise high throughout the day. We need the dark in order to sleep deeply. That best kind of buried, bottomless slumber where we float down down down……

The light is now lifting. As the pendulum swings from one shade to another and all the colours in-between, I urge you to stop clock watching. Switch off alarms. Rise with the sun and fall with the moon. This life of notifications, alerts and buzzing, tracking ourselves like maniacs will drive us to a literal tormenting hell with no rest for the wicked so stop following the timeline of the wicked and get on board the natural ebb and flow.

I know it’s easier said that done during these strange days we’re living in where it seems we’re dancing between worlds with a foot in each and they’re moving further apart fast fast fast but the balance will come. The timelines will start to feel less severe the more we align ourselves to what makes us feel our most authentic and some how, I just now that all will be ok and there’s nothing to fear.

As for our uninvited guest, let’s see. A new dawn rises

And on that note, I shall leave this here and go seek coffee and toast. But before I go let me ask you, if we had to work according to a calendar with official months, days and hours etc, what do you think it should look like?

12 months and 365 days with a leap year every 4 years?

13 months and 28 days a month like our lunar calendar and our cyclical female bodies?

Where would the 13th month fit in? I guess it would need to be somewhere in between July and August so that Sept Oct Nov and Dec can go back to being our actual 7th 8th 9th and 10th month instead of our 9th 10th 11th and 12th no? And there you have it! A bullshit calendar set up by some Roman that just needed to have extra days for tax purposes……Eeeeeeekk!

SO TO CALENDAR OR NOT TO CALENDAR?

What will the future of time and space look like? The lighter the world gets, the faster and higher we ride! Time to learn to fly folks

GOOD MORNING AND GOOD NIGHT x