It had been a slow walk back from the fields surrounding the Great Smials, some herbs could be collected during normal hours... others had to be picked at the right time in order to work. Moon wort was no different, but was a pain at times to collect.
"At dark of night tis best lass, if ye want the full strength of the herb fer yer use"
Gammer Annis had said all those years ago, and it was true. As much as it had annoyed the young lass she'd been in those days, who couldn't understand what did it matter where the sun was when you picked a herb? a herb was a herb.... wasn't it?
But time proved the old ones right, and so she had followed where they'd lead.
The years had passed, oh so quickly at times, two husbands.... now long gone and dust.... but so alive in her mind still.. sometimes when she was walking the Shire, she'd see them in the hillside, in the joy of the flowers and the flowing of the river... ar... the river... bairns lost to number, some grown to adulthood with families now of their own... others still in time...never aging.. as was the way of life.
And here she was, walking the hills heading back to Waymeet, and her cozy caravan and waiting cat.
The night was starting to tinge with the colour of pre-dawn, as she made her way down the road. Passing the sleeping bounder, curled into the hedge, his cloak wrapped around him. She smiled and whispered a blessing over his head before she carried on. Hiding a yawn - for it had been a long night searching for the herbs needed - Nannie looked to the brightening sky and altered her path to reach the highest ground.
Standing above the small gathering that was Waymeet, she turned towards the rising sun and waited. In her hands rested some flower petals, pulled from her pocket. Taking the steepled hat from her head, she waited bare of brow for the first glimmer of new light.
The first rays of the new born day reached over the hill and she saluted in welcome, as she'd been taught all those years before and the words tripped from her tongue as they did each new day:
"
LISTEN to the exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day! For it is Life, The very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the Varieties And Realities of your Existence;
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived
Makes every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every To-morrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn."
Throwing the flower petals into the air, she bowed towards the rising sun and smiled.
A new day had begun!
