Snail 🗞️ Slow News Day #68

Hey,

To stand beneath the autumn sky and watch a centimetre-long snail pirouette underwater, clinging to a fallen leaf…

This. This is to know one’s place in the world.

To think: I came all this way — 5 hours up the country, 1 more hour across it — to a vast, flagship nature reserve, its marshes and wetlands surrounding me and the muffled roar of endless traffic in the middle distance. I came all this way to crouch, awestruck, at the wet wooden edge of this pond and watch this snail.

It, a tiny blue-grey glimmer in a vast pool. I, a tiny huddled form in the acres of Wildlife Trust land. Those acres invisible in the rugged mass of our island. Our island a dot on our planet.

A grain of rice on a gallery floor.

A life so vast and improbable.

A tiny snail, swirling serenely in filtered rays of weak autumn light.

I seek these moments out, but I never find them when I do. They only ever appear when I stop looking, when I need reminding most.

It’s funny, what we look for and what we find. I’m definitely in a turbulent period right now. Lots has gone on, lots is still shifting underfoot, and I know there’s more to come. I think you're aware of that — I've been imagining that this newsletter has taken a bit of a deep and depressing turn recently. That's been my reality, at some points, and it's been the thing I've needed to talk about most. Thanks for sticking with me.

Anyway, right when I needed it, I stared into the still waters of that pond and found my peace.

I’m not a religious man, but I get why others are. Maybe this is my religion — the smallness, the wholeness — the sacrosanctity of every tiny thing. Is it so much that to face it would freeze me? Or is it an unparalleled wonder, to be celebrated and admired?

To have that quiet reminder of the smallness of it all was what I needed, there and then. I’m grateful for it and I’m holding onto it — that floating, arcing snail on its leaf. Its power stuck somewhere in me, still twisting, turning, tumbling. Serene and silent in its motion.

Thanks, tiny friend.

Slow down guide

Need a little help moving slower?

Ease your way out of Friday afternoon with this newsletter, a nice cup of something, and a little background music. Steal my setup if you aren't sure where to start.

After I press send, you’ll be happy to hear that this email comes with a fresh pot of North Star’s Birthday Blend. 10 years of impact and careful operation in a crowded and complicated category is a wonderful achievement. This roast is a solid daily driver. Darker notes, not so fruity or wild and jazzy. A good malty, chocolatey base with a kind of red wine note at its peak. Good work — let’s hope for 10 more years of the same.

And with that fresh pot comes a free CD! Wow, like an age-appropriate throwback to the good old days of gifts in cereal boxes. The (imaginary, purely digital) disk in question is Sadurn’s special power — it’s tender, sad without being hopeless, and feels a bit like a blanket being gently wrapped around my shoulders. I love it and I hope you do, too.

so it’s ok what I’m feeling, it’s alright if I’m crying / and maybe there’s some good coming although I cannot find it

Take it easy,