The Prelude:
'Spots of time'
There are in our existence spots of time,
Which with distinct pre-eminence retain
A renovating Virtue,
whence,... our minds
Are nourished and invisibly repaired
(Book XI, ls 258-278)
These lines of Wordsworth come back to me quite strongly in my reflective mood. I have probably personalised the meaning to give special attention to those 'spots of time' in my life that I often return to. Hence, I must apologise for my loose non literary reading of Wordsworth which I have interpreted in my own way.
The "spots" are usually positive places/times in the main. The place/experience/moment are often ' renovating' or I would say ' re-energising'. Other names I know can be given eg a colour place, positive focus,your mental cave, your workshed, your favourite place or whatever to suggest a place or time which gave something special. It is about remembering a time which lifted your spirit.
It is not for me an escape to the past or a wishful desire to return to the past but a ' spot of time' which indeed does nourish and restore the spirit.
Wordsworth says in The Prelude that such 'spots' are scattered everywhere.
I have a few such "spots"Wordsworth reflects in a similar way at the end of
‘Waiting for Horses’:
All these were spectacles and sounds to which
I often would repair, and thence would drink
As at a fountain. And I do not doubt
That in this later time, when storm and rain
Beat on my roof at midnight, or by day
When I am in the woods, unknown to me
The workings of my spirit thence are brought
Yes, we all have those nourishing 'spots of time', don't we? In bed at night, to help me get to sleep, I pretty well always think of some of the healing, restorative times and places which have been important in my life: magic locations from childhood, scenes from walks, days on the Camino... It works every time and I'm soon asleep.
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