We’ve had a busy engaged time since the dawning of 2022 and so Clare thought it may be good to share some of the poems that have been guiding her into early Spring.

Also a couple of updates- the Forest Room has had a little lift and is now brimming with very early buds and foliage. The space has been a blessing as some mornings here in Hebden have featured very heavy downpours, so we have practised inside occasionally.

We are also branching out (!) into some creative play with Mindful Mark Making and a Sonic Immersion! Clare has an extensive track record in the arts… so it was only a matter of time!

Watch out for our rebrand all to be announced soon!

Enjoy the images and poems and we hope to see you on one of our offerings soon.

Start Close In by David Whyte (excerpt)

Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take.

Start with the ground you know, the pale ground beneath your feet, your own way of starting the conversation.

Start with your own question, give up on other people’s questions, don’t let them smother something simple.

To find another’s voice, follow your own voice, wait until that voice becomes a private ear listening to another.

Start right now take a small step you can call your own don’t follow someone else’s heroics, be humble and focused, start close in, don’t mistake that other for your own.

Time to be Slow  John O’Donohue

This is the time to be slow, lie low to the wall until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let the wire brush of doubt scrape from your heart all sense of yourself and your hesitant light.

If you remain generous, time will come good; and you will find your feet again on fresh pastures of promise, where the air will be kind And blushed with beginning.