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" Seek the truth and run from

those who claim to have found it "

after André Gide

Hope and the Maiden Moon

March 12th, 2010

Another guest blog post:

Hope and the Maiden Moon – Maria Ede-Weaving

Early evening, as the light began to fade, I stood in Borthwood Copse at Queen’s Bower on the Isle of Wight. This ancient woodland is home to sturdy old oaks with deep rutted bark and branches that curl and twist into the distinctive, crimped appearance of long-lived trees.   At the heart of the Copse is also a beautiful beech cathedral: a spacious grove of elegant trees whose aging trunks have not so much thickened as soared. There is a noticeable abundance of holly, the green conspicuous amongst so much winter bareness.

Standing upon a deep drift of leaves, the antlered mesh of oaks above me, I watched the crescent moon brighten as the darkness deepened. The evening star, Venus, kept close company, its brilliance framed by the forest canopy.

Walking back along the green lane down towards the wetlands in the valley, the golden layer of light in the west was tightly pressed against the horizon, weighed down by a bank of cloud; the world took on an otherworldly light, sung into being by a blackbird. Crossing the boardwalk across the water meadows, I entered the steep woodland enclosure of Borthwood Lynch, a haven for red squirrel. By now the darkness had fallen. I love being in the woods as night comes. I feel safe; enclosed and contained in a world that – despite my inadequate senses – feels welcoming and known. Walking along the ledge of the path – aware of the ground falling sharply away on one side and rising on the other – I felt, just briefly, that I could navigate anything that life sent me.

This sense of renewed confidence and connection to life is writ large across the sky each month; whenever I catch sight of the Maiden Moon for the first time, I say a prayer of thankfulness for her gift of courage and freedom, for her reminder that all things can begin again. That fragile crescent never fails to fill me with joy and hope.

Walking down from the Mead towards the old railway path that cuts through the Yar River valley, I noticed the watery channels that meander through the fields catching the last dim light of day. I was drawn in my mind to the current upheaval and suffering that is being played out all around our planet –  inexorably it seems – in war; natural disasters; social, economic and environmental meltdown and it struck me that there is a great poignancy in the new moons of winter. When life appears caught in stasis, the tender light of a Maiden Moon never lets us forget that the possibilities of change present themselves to us all. We have to be vigilant, looking in all the right places, paying some attention to timing also. So often I miss her first appearance because I forget to look for her, or cloud might obscure her presence.  In our forgetfulness, in the sometimes overwhelming demands of living, it is easy to lose sight of faith and hope.

Stood in the magical half light of Borthwood, brought sharply into the present – into my body and being – by the bitter cold, and with the moon grinning down upon me, I said a prayer of hope for this bright, sliver of a new born decade.

8 Responses to “Hope and the Maiden Moon”

  1. This was the most beautiful and touching piece I have read in a very long time. Thank you so much! And I will carry this hope in my heart.

  2. sensitive and uplifting; reading this I felt almost present there myself and afterwards more positive for the future!

  3. Thank you Maria a most beautiful piece of writing, you took me with you into the woods … I look forward to reading more

  4. Quality that Maria. A “reminder that all thing can begin again”. Indeed. Thank you veru much.

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