So come the storms in winter,/ and then the birds in spring again

as Sandy Denny sang and already Christmas is a month gone, easter eggs have been in the shops for at least a fortnight and friends are starting to talk about summer holidays. How does time seem to pass so much faster the older you get? I learnt this week, that one theory is that it’s all to do with experiences and perception. The more information your mind processes, the slower time seems to pass. When we are young and our brains are encountering and processing new experiences every day, time seems to move more slowly as we accommodate all the new things. When we are older and following much the same routine every day, our brains lump together similar events, so it makes it appear that time goes quicker. Time speeds up with increasing age because we have fewer new experiences and our perception is less vivid.

My thoughts kept coming back to this and how so much of a day or week can slip away when you’re doing the same things and how we can stop time speeding up (in our perceptions) by bringing new experiences into our lives. Also how the most interesting people are often those who carry on trying new things as they get older, keep reading, keep exploring, keep questioning. I think it’s also one of the reasons it’s so important as poets to keep reading new poems, trying different authors, pushing yourself beyond the familiar and comfortable, try to keep finding new ways of expressing ourselves.

There’s always a lot going on in the poetry scene, whether in person or online and there are quite a few interesting poetry events coming up in the next few months, so there’s no excuse not to keep our brains active. I’ll be restarting the poetry events at the Farmers Arms community pub in Lowick Green starting with an open mic on Thursday 27th February 6.30-8pm, followed by readings, workshops and more open mics throughout the spring. Details are here on their website: https://lakedistrictfarmersarms.com/event-category/workshops-courses/

I’ll also be reading at the Words by the Water Festival in Keswick on the 15th March with three other wonderful Cumbriam poets Kelly Davies, Kerry Derbishire and Elizabeth Stott https://www.theatrebythelake.com/event/kerry-darbishire-kelly-davis-ilse-pedlar-elizabeth-scott-four-cumbrian-poets/

So come and join me in some new experiences and let’s all keep our brains experiencing new things and stop time flying past so quickly!