My happily fortuitous Covid confinement in the Yorkshire Dales has reacquainted me with the narrow lanes and passing places that characterise this beautiful area. The narrow lanes of today are tarmaced ‘old ways’ originally used by horses, carts and coaches. With very little traffic and before enclosure, passing another traveller was easy, you pulled off, stepped back from what was usually a dusty, often rutted track and let the other pass, maybe even passing the time of day. With the advent of tarmac these spaces were formalised into the passing places we see today.
It got me thinking 🤔, isn’t the journey of life just a road like this ? At times we travellers are carried along at what feels like breakneck speed by hustle and bustle, the pressures of modern life. But what if we started to use the passing places to pause and step off the road, even just for a short period. How many of us actually know they are there to ease the journey ? Do we even notice them ? From my own experience I know I spent far too many years hurtling along the journey of life, mindlessly reacting to what was happening around me. Just surviving.
I am intrigued by the possibilities of these places to create positive safe spaces in everyday life. Let me elaborate, we all know the word ‘ecstasy’ don’t we, but do we really know what it means ? It’s maybe not what you are expecting, but stay with me. In classical Greek ‘ecstasy’ means to remove one’s mind and or body from its normal place of function. A state of awareness of a non ordinary mental state. An opportunity to pause, step away from the journey and rejuvenate. This altered state of consciousness is wonderfully characterised by diminished awareness or even a total lack of awareness of ones current surroundings. Bliss. My invitation to you is to pull over into your own mental ‘passing place’, pause, look inside yourself for calm and clarity, feel the sun on your face. It’s ecstasy 😊.
Blog by Tina Gale – Mid-life coach