Time’s dance dallies, Dragging here, spinning there. Pinball potent—flashing, ringing, Bouncing, pinging…
These are the opening lines to the first poem in my poetry anthology Time and Emotion published in 2006.
The book was published at the end of probably the worst and most turbulent half decade of my (Steve’s) life. In December 2000 my wife of that time died from cancer. This left me floundering in a cauldron of loss and confusion and the months that ensued felt as if I were a pinball, bouncing and pinging from one situation to another, unable to find any peace that made sense; unable to control time or my emotions to run my life with any meaning. But three things happened.:
- I learned that writing about my feelings, getting them out on paper, helped enormously— that’s where the poems came from.
- I embarked on a 20 day course of learning spread over 6 months, which taught me to understand more about my life and how to change what stopped me moving on
- I met and married Mary.
Along that journey, which you can follow if you read my book, I encountered a multitude of highs and lows, a juxtaposed maelstrom of events that, from the comfort of my life right now, I can hardly believe. I called that time This Fantastic State of Being which is the title of the fourth poem in the book. It is also where the name of our company that owns Soar Valley Life comes from Fantastic State Limited.
The learning I have gained in my life since 2000 has been fantastic too. After the first level of learning I wanted to know more, so I followed on to a master practitioner course and then a coach training course. That in turn led to me being appointed as an accredited coach, a member of The International Coaching Federation and member of the resource team helping others learn and change their lives for the better. And, even after that, I took a two year course in Creative writing at Loughborough University gettig an MA in 2009.
I could look at my last twenty or so years and deduce that the best learning starts from a place of pain and hardship. Fables, riddles and parables are legion with paradoxes where good comes from bad. As a child I was fascinated with the picture of the lion with the bees buzzing around it on the Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup can and the slogan “Out of the strong came forth sweetness.”
Could it be that those who leave us in our lives, leave us with some of their talents, time and emotion? With their love to carry us on?
But, of course all this takes place over time and takes time, a privilege indeed and one that is denied to many. I have been lucky to have had the time. The clock pictured above is a desk clock that was found in the rubble after the collapse of the Twin Towers in September 2001. It stopped at exactly the moment of impact of the first aircraft—one infinitesimally small fraction of a moment that gave rise to literally billions of emotions. Look at the time on the clock if the minute hand wasn’t bent the time would be eleven minutes to nine with the second hand pointing to eleven! This photo is on the front cover of Time & Emotion.
As our world slowly finds it’s way out of all the covid turmoil of the last year and a half, let’s hope that the learning for all of humanity moves us forward, together, at peace; embracing the changes that will have to be for life to return safely and positively. Let the love of those that we have lost live on in us.
Time’s Dance slows with each line through sixty seconds worth of distance run, to the last place
…where there is no time,
no enemy,
Time steals all beauty
All… except this.
Steve & Mary Johns
PS: The book Time and Emotion is available to purchase at £10 plus p & p.
Email: editor@soarvalleylife.co.uk
