Wed 10th Sept – Grisedale Tarn
Richard writes:
Grisedale seemed pretty desolate when we got there – like taking a dip in a lake on another planet – Neptune for instance. Grisedale – means valley of wild pigs? – none that we could see unless they meant us – it didn’t take long for the wild pigs to get in the water and swim across.
More reflection – the sense of journey, of 'pilgrimage to a certain state of mind' has been building, and the intensity of each lake-crossing experience has become more distilled – Paul asks how the day has been enlarged – and we both thought about this in our own way – “a frog in a well cannot discuss the ocean and a summer insect cannot talk of ice and snow’ – we have ‘crossed the great water’ and know something of our insignificance – this knowledge may have enlarged the discussion – and made the day more significant.
Paul meticulously built a small rock sculpture on the way down by a stream – as we left it to its fate at the hands of the elements or people, I felt that chapter, that unrepeatable phase of the journey, suddenly slip into the past tense – the question for me then is – is home any closer?
The quote about the frog is from 'The Book of Chuang Tzu'.
