Welcome to Catching Light. It's wonderful to have you here and to share something of myself with you. I guess the best place to start is with my love of words, which began with a mother and father who loved to read, and a house full of books. As a deeply introverted and shy child, books offered me a safe place to explore the landscape of my inner world. Visits to the library were a highlight of any week, and I was often up way past bedtime, hiding stories under the covers when I was supposed to be asleep. 

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I loved my years of school, loved the rhythm of each day, and delighted in the opportunities for learning, friendship and creative expression. My parents loved to be creative and encouraged us to draw, paint, sing and make music. My father loved to adventure in wild places, and to this day I am happiest in remote places, under dark skies at night, or walking a path that winds deeper into mountains or forests. I love the ocean, especially being in the waves, feeling its cold saltiness on my skin. I like to hike and to climb, and enjoy the physical challenges these present. I am crazy about horses and a piece of my heart is always with my beloved equine at the paddock not far from my home. 

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I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister, niece and friend. I work as a reflexologist in a small therapy space here in my garden at home, and I still delight in creative pursuits - painting, knitting, gardening, and of course writing. Words, stories, poetry, songs - these are a compass by which I navigate, and a safe place in which to unravel, so that I can re-member myself. I have been writing for years, as part of both a writer's circle and a poetry group. 

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During the early days of the Covid-19 lockdowns, just after my father died, and my world felt like it was breaking, writing became an essential practice, one that anchored and held me. I was able to enter into the raw and tender spaces inside, spaces I was scared to go. The page was a haven, as was nature - ordinary and familiar places full of unexpected beauty. I discovered a new intimacy with the trees, birds, flowers and skies of my everyday world. I let my life get smaller, and found a new spaciousness of soul. 

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I turn to the natural world as to breath, and feel very much as Wordsworth did, in this fragment from his beautiful poem, Tintern Abbey.

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Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear,—both what they half create,
And what perceive; well pleased to recognise
In nature and the language of the sense
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.

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