Wintering

“There are gaps in the mesh of the everyday world, and sometimes they open up and you fall through them into Somewhere Else. Somewhere Else runs at a different pace to the here and now, where everyone else carries on. Somewhere Else is where ghosts live, concealed from view and only glimpsed by people in the real world. Somewhere Else exists at a delay, so that you can’t quite keep pace. Perhaps I was already teetering on the brink of Somewhere Else anyway; but now I fell through, as simply and discreetly as dust sifting between the floorboards.”

~ extract from the book Wintering, by Katherine May

Somewhere Else is a terribly painful place to be, but also a humblingly beautiful one in it’s own strange way. Somewhere Else has brought us to our knees, but also to our best selves as parents, as partners, as siblings… as family. Somewhere Else has shown me some of the noblest souls, young and old, that I have ever encountered. Somewhere Else is a constant reminder to notice everything around me with humbling gratitude. And yet, how easy it is to forget that lesson, and to need to be taught it all over again, and again, and again.

Now, as the first snowdrops begin to emerge from the sleepy winter soil, we begin to catch a glimpse of a possible end to this long Winter of ours, the possibility of the first signs of Spring. Spring will come with it’s own new set of challenges, no doubt, but it is a comfort in itself just to feel the warmth of it coming. I know that Somewhere Else is a place that will always be a part of me now, a part of you, a part of us. It’s wise teachings will forever remain with us, though I also know, of course, that we will need to be reminded of them again, and again, and again.

Season of Motherhood is part of the Artifact Motherhood project, just one image and a small snippet of what this season of motherhood looks like for each one of us.

Artifact Motherhood is a collaboration of female artists from around the world, coming together to share our stories of the joys and struggles in our journeys of motherhood through our writings and our photographs.

At the end of this article, you will find a link to the next artist and her take on motherhood in this season. You will be able to follow the blog loop from one artist to the next until you return full circle back to me.

To learn more about Artifact Motherhood, you can follow this link.

You can also see my last post for this project here.

Please go to the next wonderful artist Leila Balin to see her take on motherhood this month.