My weekend with Fat Tony & Raynor Winn

Two people who faced change...and a cheeky mention of Gillian Anderson

Hello friends,

Today is Easter Monday.  I hope you’ve had a super long weekend. 

As we approach the end of the four day break I wonder, are you relaxed and ready to reflect or will the busyness of Easter activities mean this blog seeps into the ether?

My weekend has been pretty low key, other than a wonderful experience of ‘collective effervescence’ (more on that another time) at Fat Tony's Full Fat Festival on Friday. Fat Tony, a DJ who survived a drug and alcohol fuelled 80s, got clean and is now a major feature on the clubbing scene again. The Full Fat Festival was basically an old school dance session from 12noon to 8pm! Home and in bed by 9.30pm, perfect partying for me these days.  A combination of friends, dancing and classic tunes.  Does it get any better?

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Weekend shenanigans aside, today I want to introduce you to Raynor Winn, a woman who also faced and dealt with change. Her books, The Salt Path and The Wild Silence really moved me.  Maybe you have read them?

Ray’s writing and personal story reflects some of the themes I am exploring in 1000Weeks; ageing, loss, reflection, inertia, action, discovery, adventure, finding purpose, reinvention, and grit (ok, I haven’t spoken about grit, yet).

The Salt Path, being made into a film as we speak with the luminous Gillian Anderson playing Ray, tells the true story of Ray and her husband Moth. They find themselves homeless after a failed business deal whilst at the same time facing the insidious consequences of Moth’s degenerative neurone disease diagnosis. Having rejected the suffocating alternatives, they decide to walk the South West Coast Path. Stretching from Minehead to Poole Harbour, they walk the 630 mile path with little money, their belongings in rucksacks, wild camping.  If you have not read it, do. 

The sequel, The Wild Silence in 2020, is a beautiful and eloquent depiction of life before and after the South West Coast Path.  Ray weaves the emotions evoked by the death of her mother with flashbacks to her younger years, meeting Moth and the search for meaning and belonging when faced with ‘normal’ life post walk. No home, no money and a slowly fading husband.  Her prose is a delight.  It is however one passage, in the closing pages of the book that really spoke to me:

“Don’t ‘be careful on the stairs’, run up them, fast as you can, with no fear of clocks ticking or time passing.  Nothing can be measured in time, only change, and change is always withing our grasp, always simply a matter of choice.”

Isn’t that beautiful?  And what a metaphor for life, wherever you find yourself.

What does this passage say to you?  What choices are you making? What change are you resisting?

Drop me a line, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Until next week,

Ruth x