We Can Adjust The Sails

Back at the start of 2020, before any of us had heard of the coronavirus, and when the year ahead felt like a wonderful blank canvas waiting to be painted… Phil penciled a summer solstice adventure into our calendar. He’d long wanted us to get up before the dawn chorus, to witness the dark turning to light, on the longest day. We’ve enjoyed hundreds of sunsets together over the years, but never once watched a summer sunrise. We’re early birds, but not that early! 😉 However this would be the year. It was in the diary, so it was definitely going to happen. 😛

But then the coronavirus swept the world. And, like everyone else, all our plans and hopes for the first half of the year were quickly quashed, crossed out, aborted. The holidays were cancelled, the sponsored bike ride postponed, the meet ups and the day trips and the adventures abandoned. Well all… except one. We could still celebrate the summer solstice.

So on Saturday, whilst the rest of the world was still snoring away, our little family of three scootered to the top of a hill at our local bumpy country park… and waited. And amazingly, wonderfully, thankfully, Mother Nature was on our side. The blanket of clouds covering the entire horizon, parted just as the awaking sun started her morning show. It was beautiful. The sky glowed orange and pink and red as the burning ball inched slowly upwards. We cheered and cuddled and toasted the new day with our imaginary glasses of champagne (we’d left the real -non alcoholic- stuff in the fridge by mistake! 😛 ). And fellow revelers on adjoining hills did exactly the same. A shared moment of unity and joy. Then, almost as quickly as the spectacle began, it was over. The clouds and mist rolled back in. We drove slowly home with happy hearts… trying to dodge the rabbits and hares who were now prancing on the road having been awoken by nature’s alarm clock! Magical.

And to add further glittery sparkles to our adventure, it was our first trip out since lockdown. Our first visit away from the local villages and fields. Our first longer car journey. And it didn’t feel scary at all. On one hand it felt kinda normal, kinda everyday, almost like the last fifteen weeks were just imagined. But on the other hand, it felt exhilarating and exciting to be once again out in the world. To be driving along country roads, and through villages and hamlets, we hadn’t seen in months. It was a taster of the future. A teaser of life ahead. A tiny glimmer of hope that now lockdown is easing and the battle is being won, there can -once again- be adventures. 2020 isn’t over yet.