The Witches

Many years ago I did a walk with some people to commemorate the burning of women as witches. I don’t want to even imagine what they would have done to me back in those days. Or maybe I would’ve managed play along and hide all of my magic. That would be even worse 

As we sat in the pub afterwards and I was so broke that I could just about order some chips with curry sauce (ah the student days) and one of my friends told me about the shell grotto in Margate. I don’t quite remember how but I made it there some days later. I think I walked around for ages before. I exhausted myself out and my most awful place I’ve ever had a seizure ended up being in the shell grotto. I made it up a flight of stairs from the cave to the museum at least although that was still below the ground. Looking back that flight of stairs I did climb probably cost me many tens of minutes of recovery time but I couldn’t bring myself to collapse in that beautiful place. I remember the paramedics and how it took them a little while to believe me

But we made it all up in the ambulance afterwards and they drove me to Margate train station 

I remember the witches so well. There were pictures on the wall in the grotto. Of women holding seances in there during world war 2. I never forgot those witches.

Later On

I went back to Canterbury and my seizures exploded like never before. They stayed at that level for years and years and years and took until November 2024 to stop being near constant. I just went a month without one but sadly I had a small one today. It always really sucks. And breaks my heart. As I lay on the floor today I thought out those witches. 

I thought about what happened next. In January 2024 I went back to the shell grotto in Margate and to those altars and secret meditation rooms under the ground. My dad left me alone there to have some quiet time for a few minutes. I was both drunk and hungover - I am not a drinker - but I had discussed something very rough the night before and I just couldn’t take it. I saw those witches there again

I felt those witches. I made a wish

I made a wish to stay in renewable energy forever 

A week later I lost my job. And everyone told me I wouldn’t get another renewable energy job. And here I am now

Sometimes, it’s worth listening to the witches

I wouldn’t take back that almost decade long aggravation of seizures. Although it was hell on earth - what was causing them was worse. Had I not let them run their course I would never have recovered from the horrible thing that was causing them

Sometimes, it’s worth listening to the witches 

The witches

Thank you 

The wind farms on the beach in Brighton