Happy Beltane and ‘Into the RAW FIRE’…
May 1st is typically associated with the Celtic/Pagan festival of Beltane. Also known as the Fire Festival, Beltane celebrates the mid-point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, when the growth of new plants and crops is in full swing. We are moving past early spring and towards summer, with all its associated productivity!! Now is the time for increasing levels of energy and activity, and with only THREE MONTHS left to go until the FIRST EVER Welsh Fruit Festival, NOW IS THE TIME for us to really pick up the pace, get into gear, and ACTUALLY BUY those tickets we have been thinking about all winter!! ;-)
I have been doing a short online course about running and selling retreats, and one of the things I have been encouraged to do is switch up the website landing page (do check it out via the link below), and also to bring a bit more of myself personally into the event I am busy creating. Don’t panic… this won’t change the essentially ‘fruit festival’ nature of the thing, but it does mean that I am getting more clarity on my own offering within that space, and we have a somewhat (at first glance anyway) paradoxical theme (which you may ponder on or not as you see fit!!) of ‘Into the RAW FIRE’…
As a poet I love a good paradox. The best poems always emerge at intersections, or places of contradiction and mystery. The image attached to this post is of our festival mascot Dylan (the cheeky fruity dragon, whose favourite fruit is dragon fruit!!), named after Welsh poet Dylan Thomas of ‘Do not go gentle’ fame, standing on the mountains of Eryri (Snowdonia) at sunrise. I took the original photograph on my way to work one morning, and this is the mountain range I can see from the back of the hospital where I work. It was winter, and there was snow on the peaks, and the incredible sky reminded me of Tolkien’s The Hobbit, in which a brave band of travellers head towards the Lonely Mountain in search of Smaug.
We too, as we embark on our journey towards raw, face a sometimes lonely mountain. As we release our attachments to burning our food in the flames, we must oftentimes encounter the fire of our own emotions, passions, loves, limitations and all manner of joys and challenges that lie on the road ahead. When we let go of food as comfort, it is not uncommon to struggle with the ‘rawness’ of our true feelings. Relationships can be tested, old identities have to be stripped away, and new ones need to be allowed to rise from the ashes
The prospect can feel very intimidating. I get it. The temptation to run back to our familiar Hobbit-hole and say to ourselves ‘hey, I’m better off here in my safe little hole just living out my familiar life for as long as God or Nature or Destiny allows me to’ is strong.
For me, the idea of entering the fire is related to the idea of being forged by the flames, so it’s about making an active choice to place ourselves in a situation of challenge so that we can emerge as better, shinier versions of ourselves at the end of it. It is my hope and intention that both U-Turn Health and the Welsh Fruit Festival will offer you opportunities for gentle challenge: whether that be physical challenge or a challenge to your thinking, in a safe, held space. For some people, the festival is a holiday and a party. For others it is a time for reflection and renewal. Still others find they access some very difficult emotions, and depending on your situation that can be a necessary part of the process of dietary change. For most people, there will be a combination of aspects at different times, and there will be times and spaces for all of them…