wallowing in the willow
on REM Zoe Lara (in India) (India), 03/Jun/2009 12:17, 34 days ago
It has been a catastrophic and cathartic few days, and I have only just emerged from the last in a series of all-nighters to pull my work-dizzy head out into the sunshine. I let a research paper pile up until it jumped on top of me, then spend the last week downing late-nite cappucinos and furiously popping caffeine pills to meet a series of deadlines. I finished triumphantly at 5am this morning, and collapsed on my bed.I had a little pause yesterday, between one deadline and another, that filled my day with sunshine. Ryan, the Oxford discoverer, stumbled upon a clearing a few weeks ago that neither of us knew existed. Round the back of St Cat's college, through a sea of nettles and forest is an old willow tree, next to quiet river where punters pass by. I stumbled there yesterday after handing in my first essay, lay down in the grass and listened to the leaves rustling under its boughs. There's something enormously comforting about the grass and the way that the leaves lean down and touch it. It was a beautiful breezy hammock, and I slept for two happy hours in its shade before waking up to feel the drops of weeping willow on my face.I'll post a picture when I next go back there.