Allow for the magic
Nature shows us how
October has been a full flush month of magic. I only noticed because I’ve been outside for so much of it. From camping in Devon to dipping in the sea daily, I’ve had every cause to be soaking in all the cues from nature as the seasons shift.
All those Halloween icons that we see plastered on paper cups and lawn decorations are out there at the end of the road, like real life magic.
I’ve seen bats flying around the belfry of a local church, a toad pausing on the sludgy mud path, a scattered cloud of rooks above an old manor house, cobwebs laced with dewy pearls on a foggy morning.
Nature connection has always felt important, but tapping into the imagined magic of it was something framed as dangerous in my church-going childhood. I was taught to fear the spooky.
But as I sat under my downy layers on that campsite in Devon, I had the feeling of everyday magic in me, a delight in being a small sliver of all those misty moody days. A feeling that comes from imagining and being still in nature and allowing ourselves to not know everything.
Speech therapy is a profession explicitly focused on scientific rationale, objective observations and quantifiable findings. And also, this can sit alongside a playfulness and imagining, as we try to view the world from a child’s perspective and dream of all they might become.
Halloween needn’t be about the costumes or the trick or treat. It can also be about going outside just as the light dies and looking for the tiny shadowy flash of a bat out on his evening gnat-munching mission. Or saying hi to the crow that squawks at you in the car park. And imagining his reply.
Allow for the magic ✨
Bryony Rust,
SaLT by the Sea
PS. 💝 A hearty book recommendation for this time of year: A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll. A very readable YA story, set in modern day Scotland and exploring the history of the witch trials. It’s a gorgeous exploration of neurodiversity, authenticity and taking action on the things we care about.