A closed door can sometimes make you notice a landscape you were too busy passing by
When the Land Rover Failed Its MOT
Sometimes a breakdown can open up a new direction
Quite literally, in my case!
My Land Rover failed its MOT. Not quietly or gracefully either, it failed in spectacular style on 17 items,
2 years in a row!
At the time, it was frustrating, my Land Rover was how I got to my favourite places along the coast. I could drive further, explore more, and reach the spots I already knew I loved.
But suddenly, the car wasn’t going anywhere.
So I started walking.
Instead of driving to my favourite coastal spots, I began exploring the coastline much closer to home. And as I walked, I started to notice things I had probably driven past many times before.
The rocks.
The colours.
The textures.
The shapes.
Erosion had been quietly working on these rocks for years, shaping and exposing layers and patterns that were different every time I looked.
And then came the storms.
Walking the coastline after a storm became especially exciting. The sea had rearranged things overnight, revealing colours and patterns that hadn’t been visible before. Sometimes I felt as though I was seeing them for the very first time — because I was.
There was something about that which stayed with me.
I had been forced to stop doing things the way I normally did them, and that change had made me look more closely at what was right in front of me.
What I had initially seen as an inconvenience had given me a completely different way of seeing the landscape.
It made me think about how often we assume we need to get somewhere else to find something worthwhile, when sometimes a change of direction simply asks us to pay more attention to where we already are.
A closed door can sometimes make you notice a landscape you were too busy passing by.
Those walks became part of the inspiration for my book, Elemental.
I’m not sure Elemental would ever have happened in quite the same way if that Land Rover had passed its MOT.
Which makes me smile now.
Because occasionally, what feels like a spectacular setback can turn out to be the thing that changes what you notice, where you look, and ultimately where you go
Mel
Me in the photo, in my happy place, on the Porthcadjack beach, Cornwall, which inspired the first part of the book Elemental. Don't be fooled my the Canon camera, my old i-phone also took some of the photos too.
Calm in The Frame
