Setting Sunday #4 November 5th 2023
Have you seen my hat?
The bangs of fireworks are more sporadic than last night…and becoming less as the evening continues. And we are now in the darkest part of the year. Did you welcome it in with a piece of writing?
The Dark is Rising
Last week I logged on to the British Library online and saw the incredible writer Susan Cooper being interviewed by writer Natalie Haynes as part of the launch of the British Library’s latest exhibition, Fantasy – Realms of the Imagination. Sadly, I can’t post a link to it here at the moment as the British Library’s web site has been down for several days after an apparent cyber attack.
This conversation was to also mark the 50th anniversary of her cult children’s book, The Dark is Rising. If you haven’t read it I thoroughly recommend it – it is spellbinding. I’m about to start listening to the 2022 radio adaptation of the book by Robert Macfarlane and Simon McBurney. I somehow missed it last year so am looking forward to listening in. It’s available via BBC Sounds and described as:
“A young boy’s time-travelling fight against ancient evil. This dramatisation of Susan Cooper’s cult novel is a magical journey into the supernatural.”
In the interview Susan Cooper talked about Light and Dark in the novel, and how she wrote about them, describing Light / Dark as Good / Evil, having some of the same properties, and having one of the main characters state that “there is something of each in every man.”
There is something of this, although no attached metaphors for Good vs Evil, in poet and environmentalist Wendell Berry’s poem To Know the Dark, which I always think about at this time of year:
To Know the Dark
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
Setting Intentions
I set an intention this week to get up in the dark at 6am – I haven’t done it at all! So I’ll try again this week. It’s to create the time for writing consistently, so it’s important, but I’m finding it hard to get up.
One thing I have done though this week, is to start running again, slowly, around my local estate. I took a break from it after being ill on and off during September and October. My body seemed to need a lot more rest, so I stopped for a couple of months but today was my third run of the week. It feels great to get back out and move. I’m no athlete, quite the opposite, but I originally did the Couch to 5k back in 2012 and more or less ever since have been trotting around wherever I am for any length of time.
While out running I saw a crochet witch’s hat on top of a post box (as you do), one of three apparently – specially made for Halloween. So sweet and so creative.
Writing prompt
Use this photo to write – imagine a witch losing her hat and someone finding it. What would happen next?
Please let me know what your intentions are for this week – big, small, creative or practical – I would love to hear from you.
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Take care and have a fantastic week.
Lucy x