Nature's Pause/Paws

Aug 25
4 min read

Updated: Aug 25

Sketched Phrenology head on a parchment background

There are times when Nature leads us into prayer. Times when there is stillness, quiet and peace. Times when magic is not only in the air but can be reached out and touched; a liminal space. Today is one of those times.

Summer has breathed her last and Autumn has yet to inhale. The current warm sunny days may be trying to fool us otherwise but the plants show us. Nature's pause is where possibility hangs in the air and this was palpable today. As I sat in the medicine garden it was unusually quiet. It was a time for the Nature spirits and humans seemed to know this, consciously or otherwise. No lawnmowers, strimmers, jet washers or hedge trimmers. The air was humid like Summer with a slight crispness of Autumn. As I fed the birds, Wee B came for her breakfast, and later her lunch and then her dinner.

Wee B is a neighbour's cat and her humans live across the road. She has been visiting the garden for the past few years but recently she has pretty much been living in the garden. She is black and white with huge paws and a large fluffy tail. She is quite nervy of humans but has assigned herself the role of Defender of the Garden - other cats get a growl and a hiss and are seen off pretty quickly. G, the timid ginger boy, turns and runs. Jeff, the local bruiser, chances his arm but is quickly seen off too. Tam the tabby doesn't get a look in.

I started offering Wee B little treats and, as any cat person will know, this was the bell ring to be her butler. I have three cats of my own - all indoor cats, for various reasons - and they all view her with calm interest through the window, and vice versa. A few weeks ago I was chatting with Wee B's human and he told me that, after sudden loss and grief, the family are moving away from Scotland.

I am very fond of Wee B. A couple of years ago I bought a Cosy Cabin for her to use when the Winter weather was unforgiving and she couldn't get into her house. I could not bear to see her shivering under the hedges, trying to stay dry. She only started using it a few weeks ago and, on occasion, I will see her emerge from it in the early morning when I come to feed the birds and have my morning coffee. Wee B's humans are making the house move in slow and steady stages, readying the new home for the full move. They are moving from the suburbs to a rural home surrounded by farms and fields and they will be moving permanently in the next couple of weeks. During these times of preparation, a friend visits to check on their house and see to Wee B. Sometimes their timings mean that they miss each other and Wee B doesn't get access to her food, or it is too late in the day to seek shelter at home. Wee B is a wanderer and calls to bring her home are often heard at 10pm.

Recently Wee B has been getting three meals a day at VOLVA HQ and she thanks me with eye kisses. I have yet to touch her - she is very timid - but there is no breaching of boundaries here, she can just be. No creature should be coerced into offering anything they do not wish in exchange for kindness. When I heard she was moving away, I tried to hide my disappointment as I have come to love Wee B. But everything moves, everything changes and a life of possibility awaits her.

Schrodinger's Cat is a thought experiment - a rather cruel one - where there is a hypothetical cat trapped in a box with a plate of poison. We cannot see inside the box and so we do not know what is happening in the box. We do not know whether the cat is dead or alive so the cat is considered simultaneously both dead and alive. That is, until we open the box.

Liminal spaces occur during seasonal shifts. There is nothing quite assured, nothing quite yet fully determined. It is a world where all possibilities exist at the same time. This can be rather disconcerting for us humans as, to be truly in the magic, we must let go and just feel.

Autumn is both a season of harvest and of transition. It affords us pause, a time to release the fruits from the trees, and from ourselves; surrender to sustain.

Wee B does not know what awaits her in new lands. She may face adversity and battles; perhaps in the farmlands there are more foxes and predators and territorial felines. She may meet a life of abundance and freedom; welcomed by new generous neighbours that will help keep her belly full and more mice than she can physically chase. But, for now, all things exist and everything is possible. Wee B may know that there is a shift happening - and she does - but perhaps not what awaits.

If we make ourselves comfortable in the unknown, we can embrace a deep knowing that whatever will come - whether wrapped in beauty or pain - they are offerings that we can accept with grace.

I know one thing for sure - the falling away has begun. And as beautiful as they are, the Autumn leaves will not fill that wee empty space in the garden. But perhaps this will allow G, the timid ginger, to find his courageous heart.

Slán leat, Wee B. May the road rise with you.

Andrea

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