philosophicals

The first few days at the river, my mind filled with a quite extraordinary peace.

This seems to tie in with notions of mental healing that I have long advocated for those dealing with trauma.

A present experience of something beautiful or something that touches the heart or even just something the person is really interested in, can reduce the power of the memories that are causing hurt in an ongoing way.

The present experience reperspectivises the mind.

It is no longer dwelling on pain but on joy, freedom, praise of God, possibility.

This happened to me midst rain and shine, enfolded in the twists and turns of the riverbank, blessed by the sights and sounds of the everyday countryside.

The joy of those days almost immediately freed my mind from vexatious contemplations.

So the theory on reperspectivisation actually works in this instance.

This evening I plucked a few flowers on the bank and as I slipped suddenly and barely avoided precipitating myself headfirst into the river, I thought briefly and ruefully of the woman from Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady. I'd always considered her a right eejit for getting drowned while collecting flowers in a storm. Now I could imagine her watching me clinging to the bank and saying with exquisite Victorian courtesy: "Oh my Lord Heelers! Who's the eejit now?"

She must have been laughing fit to burst as a herd of bullocks chased me and the dogs home across the fields through the gathering dark. 

We made record time from the river to the house.

You know there's nothing like drumming hoofbeats getting ever closer in the dark to lend you wings.

Ah.

A herd of charging cattle that you can't even see, like joy, praise, belief, and beauty, can most effectively reperspectivise the mind, lifting its focus from all former upsets, and raising it to the translucent realisation that life for all its seeming faults is still the best possible option.