{"id":13472,"date":"2023-06-05T13:06:56","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T12:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/?p=13472"},"modified":"2023-12-21T12:07:25","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T12:07:25","slug":"falling-in-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/resources\/falling-in-love","title":{"rendered":"Falling In Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-13473 lazyloaded\" src=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/oak-leaves-sun-rays-600x400.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/oak-leaves-sun-rays-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/oak-leaves-sun-rays.jpg 608w\" alt=\", .\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/oak-leaves-sun-rays-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/oak-leaves-sun-rays.jpg 608w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/oak-leaves-sun-rays-600x400.jpg\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" data- title=\"\"><\/p>\r\n<p><em>by John King, reposted from his Blog<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/muddyfeet.blog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>Muddy Feet: Meeting Nature on Nature\u2019s Terms<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p>You might find this a surprising heading for a blog about Druidry and the natural world but in fact\u00a0<em>Falling in Love<\/em><strong><em>,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is what so often happens. Some of you may have seen the article in The Guardian on the 3rd April 2023 entitled\u00a0<em>A New Start After 60<\/em>, which featured what happened to me after a rather bitter divorce and how I found my way into the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. Yes, I fell in love with a druid.<\/p>\r\n<p>How does this relate to my life now and this blog?<\/p>\r\n<p>I\u2019ve written before about moving into this house and immediately starting to bathe in the river that forms the eastern boundary. I was prepared to make my self vulnerable to the cold and at times turbulant waters on a daily basis.<\/p>\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-13474 lazyloaded\" src=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mini-falls-600x375.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mini-falls-600x375.jpg 600w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mini-falls-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mini-falls-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mini-falls-2048x1280.jpg 2048w\" alt=\", .\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mini-falls-600x375.jpg 600w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mini-falls-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mini-falls-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mini-falls-2048x1280.jpg 2048w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/mini-falls-600x375.jpg\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" data- title=\"\">In the process I found that my relationship with the water deepened. Over a period it became apparent to me that if I wanted a similar relationship with the land through which the river flows then I would have to open myself to it in the way that I had to the water. This is where the concept of\u00a0<em>Meeting Nature on Nature\u2019s Terms\u00a0<\/em>came from.<\/p>\r\n<p>What I found was that my relationship with the land and the water actually became what my wife refers to as a love affair. I dont think this is unusual because as druids one of the commonalities is that we all love the land and nature. We also see our selves as part of nature, but the the question arises.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>How can we love nature, be part of nature and not love ourself?<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p>I would suggest that it is a difficult question for many to answer.<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-13475 lazyloaded\" src=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ardnamurchan-oak-600x450.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ardnamurchan-oak-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ardnamurchan-oak-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ardnamurchan-oak.jpg 1024w\" alt=\", .\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ardnamurchan-oak-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ardnamurchan-oak-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ardnamurchan-oak.jpg 1024w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ardnamurchan-oak-600x450.jpg\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" data- title=\"\">When I consider that question for myself I can say that in the process of falling in love with the land I have fallen in love with myself. I\u2019ve found myself much more accepting of who I am, an old man of 73 far beyond the first flush of youth who is prepared to expose his thoughts in an attempt to let the acceptance of myself and my authenticity shine through.<\/p>\r\n<p>In the meantime I continue with my intimate engagement with all that the natural world offers and continue to merge into the land. Many blessings.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13478 lazyloaded\" src=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/red-squirrel-ardnamurchan.jpg\" alt=\", .\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" data-src=\"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/red-squirrel-ardnamurchan.jpg\" data- title=\"\"><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by John King, reposted from his Blog\u00a0Muddy Feet: Meeting Nature on Nature\u2019s Terms You might find this a surprising heading for a blog about Druidry and the natural world but in fact\u00a0Falling in Love,\u00a0is what so often happens. Some of you may have seen the article in The Guardian on the 3rd April 2023 entitled\u00a0A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":13473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Order of Bards, Ovates &amp; Druids","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/druidry.org","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13472"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16034,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13472\/revisions\/16034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/druidry.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}