A Sensual Winter Walk

A Sensual Winter Walk by Adrian Leighton

I step outside my front door and the chill air envelopes me with surprise. My breathe vaporised like a steaming kettle absorbed into the cold. The brightness of the day has beckoned me to venture on a walk and I choose the canal towpath. Last night’s frost still glitters where the sun has has not touched it with its shiny fingers.

EARTH My boots crunch long the frozen earth yet still with softness protected by the arching trees. I am Insulated from the cold ground by my boots I imagine life when foot and earth were more intimate in relationship. All the ground around and under me is in that quiet winter state of patient waiting. Yet even now the bright greenness of the grass and other vegetation show that life goes on anticipating the Spring to come. Will I see today the first snowdrop or early violet or must I wait for another day? Today I feel welcomed by the soil as I stride along the “goldilocks path” – not too hard, not too wet, just right. There is a suity about walking in harmony with the earth sharing a kindred spirit.

FIRE This afternoon my eyes are set on the path, blinded to all that is around me. The sun shining out of a near cloudless sky, lies heavy and low. I can see only an insistent brightness, in the coldness offering no warmth to my face. I wait for the shadow of trees to look up and around, soon once again to enter the brilliance of the sun. The sun – the bringer of light and warmth but overwhelming in intensity. The great Fire of Life burning at great distance to touch us and all fellow living organism with majestic power. That light that pains my eyes is the every element that offers life to the earth.

AIR Unable to use my eyes to sense and know the world I walk in, what I hear takes over as chief information gatherer. What do I hear?

The air is still, so still the quiet is deafening in a winter silence. Now and then the sound of machinery in the distance. The air is today that invisible bubble which moves with me along the way. The air today in the chill smells of nothing, tastes of nothing, yet holds all I need to breathe and live. The air – the element for so much yet the unseen companion of our daily life.

WATER As I approach a lock the sound of the fall of water rushing down the by-wash fills the silence with its insistent whoosh. It seems in such a rush here to reach its destination; but up above the lock, it flows with quiet unhurried pace with rays of light broken by the filigree branches of the trees glimmer in silver strands. The water its familiar brown colour touched, here and there, with reflected blue from the sky, looks cold and uninviting. The artificial construct of the canal makes it a servant of human ambition and utility. But it is still water like its cousin in the rivers and streams that bubble and gurgle as they freely wind and bend and flow under the banks of the canal. Water another essential to maintain life. A constant fascination for the human mind that takes us to sea, river and pond to simply gaze, be calmed and have a reassurance that all is well.

My path continues lock after lock until I reach the place where I know the early Violets grow, Can I see any flowers today ? No ., too early, I must wait. I look for where the snowdrops blaze forth hope each winter.

No flowers yet but I detect the first green shots.

Feeling the effort of my walk upon my limbs, I reach a place where I can sit and look out over the miles of countryside, Fields, trees, hedgerows, a few houses spotted here and there out to the misty outline of the Sandstone Ridge and beyond to the River Mersey. I am joined by this winter’s Lonesome Swan, CPL5. He guides towards me eager for some treat. But I have none and with a sniff he turns and crosses the water where measured style he reaches his long neck beneath the surface of the water to harvest weed and algae. This is a timeless scene echoing centuries of life all here for me to know and enjoy through the four ancient elements of alchemist’s Golden dream – Earth, Air, Fire and Water. The elements which through the marvel of photosynthesis gives life to all on earth. A process begun 2 Billion years ago by a micro-organism called a Cyanobacteria, whose fossil has recent been found in the outback of Australia. This little beauty set in motion the Great Oxidation Event that changed this planet into a place where diverse forms of life could flourish. This includes all within my eyesight and me and you.

I apologise if you thought my title might lead to a racier story but I can so easily dismiss the value of the my senses in a thought driven world.