Exploring the Edge...

   Borderlands are especially important in Celtic Spirituality.  The place where two ways of being touch are deemed sacred.  Edges, between light and shadow, water and land, sand and grass, are all around us everyday.  This one was just 50 feet from my back door.

   The winter landscape allows these borderlands to be especially vivid.  Their elegant simplicity can be striking.  There is a decided zen feeling to this one I thought.  Minimalism personified.

   It was the twig, frozen in the snow that was particularly appealing for me.  Blown off in the recent high winds, the tiny bud ends will never spring into life now...their potential gone.  Yet the reflected light in the deep shadows speaks of hope and renewal.  Beneath this blue and white quilt of frozen snow are all the bulbs I planted in the autumn.  They are there...waiting.  This reminds me of a Rumi quote...

Don't think the garden loses its ecstasy

in winter.  It's quiet, but the roots are

down there riotous.

   Here is a link to another post I did last year on borderlands....

Dig Deeper:

And I recommend Esther d Waal's wonderful little (and it is indeed tiny!) book, To Pause at the Threshold: Reflections on Living on the Border.  I took it on my Threshold Pilgrimage last year and it is a valuable study of these border places.  You might also like to re-read my posts from my trip to Ireland and Scotland here.  You will have to go to "Older Posts" after the first few...there are 30 posts in total!  Pour yourself a cup of tea!