August - strength

Helen Hallows
Aug 31, 2017
2 min read

Art is a way of life, a calling, and as such it is a lifestyle. Much of our lives have been shaped around the ideas of linear accomplishment, studying, doing things in the right order to achieve a set goal. Art scuppers those ideas. It's less tangible, and although we can find ways of creating in certain ways, it doesn't really have a beginning, a middle and an end. It can be exhausting when the urge to create hits and you have to fulfil that call. and there is a duty to serve that calling, to eat well, sleep, and go see the world and bottle up the inspiration.

Summer is my season, when I feel most myself. I love the energy and freedom of longer days. I'm fortunate to have a teacher for a husband so we have time to explore and dream. This summer we went to Snowdonia for a week of feeling the elements. We wanted to be outside, to feel life.

Summers of my childhood were spent in mid Wales and as soon as we were in Snowdon, I was taken back to the soundtrack of those holidays, the rush of water, the bleet of sheep. Mr H is more of a walker than I am but inspired by the YHA magazine we decided that the children were old enough to climb Snowdon and the challenge began! I didn't really think they could do it, or that I could, to be frank. but in four hours we had reached the top, basked in cloud. The sense of achievement was amazing!

I realised that I had the strength to do it. The scenery was breathtaking, the senses enlivened, the legs ached! In the run up to the summer I had felt life revolved around the computer and dreamed of the magic of mossy glades and waterfalls, the atmosphere of fairy grottoes. I found all that in Wales.

In reaching the summit I realised that I had answered a longing. I also respected my own abilities and that I had set a goal and accomplished it. Instead of saying, 'I can't' I said 'I CAN'. And what I brought down the mountain, was a plan to walk more, to leave the computer behind more, to escape and explore more. But also to be bolder, to believe in myself.