When time and shoes became lost
- Jen Blaxall.
- Jun 23
- 2 min read
Returning to work after a much-needed week off with my husband reaffirms the things I do daily in my role as a nature therapist. We spent some time in North Devon in a beautifully secluded space among fields, wild hedges, and big skies, and although we made plans to do so much, we only left the site once.
We walked barefoot for 5 days and lay on the grass. We watched the swallows and dragonflies across the long grassy meadow by day and watched the sunset and bats by dusk. We talked of our dreams, we laughed, we rekindled memories, and although we have never forgotten why we love each other so much, it was suddenly our full focus as we slept when tired and ate when hungry as time and shoes quickly became lost.
On the day it was time to leave, I had to find my shoes and my phone, which hadn't even been considered for the past 5 days. For the first time since arriving, I took a brush to my hair, which had been drying naturally from showers and hot tub, sun-kissed and flower-laden.
Shoes back on and time checked, we drove away, refreshed, rejuvenated, and determined to cling onto that shift in priorities. We stopped at a pub on the way home for lunch. The first time we had seen, heard, and interacted with people in the past 6 days, and despite the lives of others going on around us, Phil held my hand and we sat in silence knowing that whatever we are doing or who we are with, the essence of us is together - dreaming, evolving - and holding each other's hearts in our own.
Since our return, people ask, what did we do while away? They perceive it as absolutely nothing, whereas we see it as absolutely everything, as there is so much to find in stillness, and time in nature is never wasted.
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