This morning I had to scrape ice from the windscreen of the car before I could drive to work, and the trees and fields were wrapped in fog. There is something quite magical about the way mist and fog change the world. Sounds are muffled, boundaries blurred, a new horizon is plotted as the world beyond a certain distance appears to simply vanish. A misty, foggy day makes me want to play mental games of 'what if?' with myself. What if the wider world really has vanished? What is this new island set adrift in a blurry sea? Where does the sky end and the land begin? What is real?
Fog renders the world a liminal space, a crossing place between the mundane and the magical. The air we breathe is simultaneously air and water. The world is there as usual and mysteriously hidden at the same time. We are walking on the land and in the sky at the same time!
I love this poem by Edward Storey, which manages to convey the ephemeral magic of fog. Those last two lines! "While in the village, children sleep/never to know they slept in sky". How gorgeously magical!
Winter Blessings and Beauties
Walking on the Land, Walking in the Sky
On the next foggy or misty day, try to get out for a walk to experience and fully appreciate the unique magic of the phenomenon. Imagine the new boundaries set by the fog are permanent. What would the word be like then? Try to hold the paradoxes and contradictions of fog in your mind. Know that you are walking in the sky at the same time you are walking on the land. Feel the blessings of earth, air and water surrounding you.
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