FIRE

The retreat is closed until April and we have only resourcefulness as our tool of survival in the winter months. November has been a positive portent - the mildest ever, with temperatures around 15 degrees. So the woodstock is untouched. It's possible the 6 cubic metres of wood will see us through at this rate, though the logs are fast burners, poplar I think, rather than the slow burn of oak. The woodstock was bartered in exchange for some roof work. Some of the logs need splitting to fit the stove.

The artichokes are ready. We made a honey sauce and peeled down to the heart. I am sure that artichokes like these, that taste of the earth itself, are as good as truffles. The last pumpkin was as sweet as melon, and diced into a curry. The walnuts are like sweets too. The apple juice is a sugar syrup this year.

But apart from a few herbs the garden is dead.

We can lose sight of the simple pleasures in each day, if we project our worries into an unknowable future ... and though I cannot say now whether we will have food at the end of the month, or be warm at xmas, I can say with certainty that it has been like this for a decade, and that each month provides all we need and more ...

... but to be part of nature is to experience the wonders of foraging from month to month like any other creature, be it in the forest, the garden or the market place, where the Turks sell explosive chilli peppers and cheap potatoes ...

Know that this is life, and never let an uncertain future spoil a good meal !

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Do you believe in magic? Perhaps your answer depends on what I mean by magic. Do I mean conjuring a rabbit our of a hat by slight of hand? Or do I mean the magic of miracles, like walking on water, or curing the sick with prayer? Well, it's none of the above. I don't believe in that kind of magic at all. The kind of magic I am talking about happens all the time - and you are the magician.

The rabbit in the hat is a metaphor for something appearing out of nothing, rather like the way our universe appeared out of nothing. All human thought, ideas and beliefs appear out of nowhere. We conjure them into existence. We create thoughts from nothing. Creating something out of nothing is not just the work of artists, who take an idea or a feeling and make it into something tangible and real, like a painting or a sculpture or a song, but it is the profession of us all. Whether you like it or not, you are fundamentally an artist and the fact that you call yourself an accountant or shopkeeper is an insult to your talents. All acts of creation are magical, in so far as they make something out of nothing and we are creating constantly - in the thoughts we have, the interactions we partake in, and in the very act of living itself.

You are an artist, get used to the idea. Don't shrink from being as great as the stars.

The real question is whether or not you wish to share this amazing ability to quite literally create something out of nothing with those around you in a positive and conscious way. The world is not as physical as it seems. Rather it is a sea of thoughts, feelings and ideas that all of us interpret in individual ways. Once we understand this, we can become master of our destiny.