A Saturday Reset in the Welsh Hills
I had a very sophisticated plan for Saturday: get out of the house, find a view and stop thinking about the laundry basket as though it were a personal enemy.
By nine, I’d packed a flask, a sandwich, two emergency biscuits and a notebook. The notebook was ambitious. I pictured myself sitting somewhere beautiful, writing profound thoughts about autumn and possibly becoming the sort of person who remembers to bring a pen.
I did not bring a pen.
I did, however, bring three lip balms. Why? Excellent question. Apparently my subconscious had decided the Welsh hills were a high-risk environment for chapped lips.
The drive was lovely. Trees were shedding their copper leaves, the lanes were quiet and I had a whole conversation with the radio because the presenter said something ridiculous. I can’t remember what it was, only that I won the argument.
When I finally stopped at a viewpoint, the wind immediately rearranged my hair into a style best described as ‘startled hedge’. My sandwich wrapper tried to leave without me, and the flask lid rolled beneath the passenger seat.
For a moment I considered going straight home. Then I looked up.
There were hills fading into the distance, a pale strip of water below and that soft November light that makes everything look as though someone has turned down the volume on the world.
I sat there with my tea and did something almost unheard of: nothing.
No list. No errands. No mental inventory of the fridge. I didn’t even take a photograph immediately, which for me is practically a spiritual breakthrough.
Eventually I found the flask lid, rescued the wrapper and ate my slightly squashed sandwich. Nothing dramatic had happened, yet I felt wonderfully restored.
Perhaps a reset doesn’t need a grand plan, an expensive retreat or a notebook full of wisdom.
Sometimes it’s just giving yourself permission to go somewhere lovely and be a person for an hour, rather than a walking to-do list.
Although next time I’m packing a pen instead of a third lip balm.
Where do you go when you need to hear yourself think again?
