Although this is only my fourth post it’s likely that you will have realised that I am obsessed with our burn. My wife sometimes refers to it as “The other woman” as I’m always in her embrace. So it seems a suitable time to explain a bit more about the practicalities of this relationship.

In the previous posts I’ve included pictures of our burn, the Scottish word for river, it rises in the hill country behind our property and the catchment area is approximately 8 square kilometres. The area is predominantly peat bog and rock and starting as a series of rills these begin to gather into what becomes the river line. Just north of our house it runs through a gorge about 20 meters deep to exit into shallow water by the house then cascades down another 10 metres or so to finally run into the sea at Loch Sunart.

There is a small dam 500 meters above the house and the pipes run from here. It provides all our needs for living and there are about 16 other dwellings spread over about 1.5 kilometres of single track road that also take their water from the same source so its abundance is shared around. The total distances from source to sea as the crow would fly is 4 kilometres and the drop is 400 metres so as you will see it’s steep. The only animals roaming the wild hills are deer and a few wild goats, as we have no fear of pollution we simply filter the particles out of the water and then use it in the house without further treatment. It’s truly wild water and tastes so different to the water from a municipal source. I’m sure the difference is reflected in our microbiome.

For the last six winters and five summers I have bathed at least once during the day and every time I enter the water its different. Because of the steepness it responds quickly to rainfall or the lack and whilst this morning it was so wild I could not enter at my usual place and had to use a more sheltered location, yesterday I was searching out a pool that was deep enough to sit in.

This cold immersion practise is becoming more mainstream, if you’ll pardon the pun, but whilst it is increasingly likely that there are physical and mental health benefits my motivation is really, what to me seems like a spiritual connection. It comes back to the point I have made previously about being vulnerable being prepared to risk rejection and hurt and this is what I believe life is about. Not simply keeping to our safe little bubble but being prepaerd to reach beyond that. Even by writing this blog I’m exposing my most intimate thoughts and feelings for you to enjoy, critise or reject, but that is the point.

I leave you with a question? how prepared are you to allowing yourself to be vulnerable?