Beltain is one of my favourite times of the year, the other is Samhain which coincidentally is opposite to Beltain on the wheel of the year calendar.

Here on the west coast of Scotland after a cold and wet winter we had a few days of sunshine towards the end of April and spring arrived almost overnight, the spring flowers seemed to burst from their winter rest and the trees started to bud.

Half a lifetime ago I got involved with a Theravada Buddhist monastic order and as I gradually learnt to sit still and observe my thoughts and feelings I had a strong desire to deepen my practice. The chance came when I was given the option to participate in silent group retreats in which we were not expected to speak or to make eye contact with our fellow retreatants. Over a couple of years I did a number of them, beginning with three days and then up to fifteen days. These protracted times effectively alone with just my thoughts for company were hugely relevant and offered insights that changed my life. As my experience grew I was privileged to be invited to go on solo retreats by the community and enjoyed these immensely. Spending a week alone in a hut in the woods with a daily meal being left on the edge of the wood was such a wonderful opportunity.

I’ve now been practising meditation for more than thirty years in various forms but my life circumstances in recent years have not really been conducive to extended retreat opportunities. Since building my retreat hut it has been my intention to actually have an extended stay there and beginning on Beltain eve I started a five day silent time. I am blessed with a supportive wife and each day she left me a hot meal part way up our very long garden and I had snacks and drink making facilities so it was not an austere time but I was completely removed from day to day disturbances. I don’t want to sound smug but it was a lovely time and coupled with reasonable weather I was able to be outside a lot.

If you look on my Ancestors post you will see that the hut is located high above the river and in fact is on a level with the lowest branches of the oak trees that grow from the banks. Just looking out I was able to spend time watching the oak leaves unfurl and what I noticed was that many of them had a great deal of flower this year. Will it be a year when all the oaks in this area produce a lot of acorns? This is known as a mast year. It’s magical how they communicate with each other to produce a heavy crop at the same time over a wide area. There is an obvious advantage in this as it increases the chances of some seed being left to geminate after the wild animals have eaten their fill. I see this phenomenon as just another example of how everything is connected.

I didn’t go into the retreat with any expectations but I did receive some gifts, I got two new songs and also a new direction with an idea that I have been gestating for some time. Maybe I’ll share that in a later post.

Do you ever have a chance to simply be alone and how do you react to the situation?