“If you know the way broadly you will see it within everything.” Miyamoto Musashi.
Many might not notice a link between the Tower of London and the Yukon. When you travel you see the world through a different lens. The more you travel, the more detailed this lens becomes, and the more links you make throughout your life.
You may notice common threads that wind through different cultures. Marvel at similar patterns that weave through countries that at first glance seem different. It widens your perspective and captures your interest. The link to a raven might not seem obvious at first.
Sometimes the links can be small and fleeting. Others are more prominent and meaningful. I found myself thinking of a similarity that surprised me. I moved from London to a small town in the Yukon called Beaver Creek in the autumn of 2021. It was such a big change for me, as you can imagine! Although I adapted better than I thought, sometimes I still felt that tug for home. I was now living a completely different life.
Ravens in the Yukon
I went from working at a desk in London to a hotel/gas station requiring physical work. Checking the petrol levels in the gas tanks? I never knew you had to do that manually! I would stand outside dipping a wooden stick much taller than me into these tanks, surrounded by snow. Freezing my London butt off. Shovelling snow was also a new experience, and that works up quite a sweat. But there was a beauty to it and an accompanying sense of pride with every new skill that I learned. I talk more about this in my article My first winter in the Yukon.
One afternoon, I was standing outside the place where I worked, watching the ravens hop around the car park. This tugged at something within me, and it took me a moment to make the connection; One of the last places I visited in London before coming to Canada was the Tower of London. Known for its ravens who reside there. Here they roamed free, able to fly wherever they liked. They would hang around trying to find food. The noises they were able to imitate were astonishing. It took me days to figure out that it wasn’t a car alarm I was sometimes hearing, but these ravens!
Here I was, now living in a community of 80 people, remembering an experience when I lived among 10 million people. The Yukon is a wild and isolated territory. I would have to drive five hours to the nearest town of Whitehorse to get groceries once a month. In London, there is everything you could want right on your doorstep. The differences were stark, yet I found myself finding this link between something new and home. It was comforting.
I’ve had a couple of incidents with them in Whitehorse, Yukon. Never leave any food in the back of your open truck, but I have the memory of a goldfish… Then come back out to find they’ve had a peck at my groceries! I must have looked like such an amateur, a city girl forgetting such a simple rule! The raven became the official bird of the Yukon in October 1986 and is called Crow by the First Nations.
Ravens in the Tower of London
The Tower of London currently has nine ravens residing there and has done so since the 1600s. There are a few differing stories on how they got there, and what will happen if they fly away! One is that King Charles II declared that if the ravens ever leave, the kingdom and Tower will fall. And so they are a staple, a stable sign that can be relied upon when people visit the Tower.
On the day that I visited the Tower of London, despite being there before, it was still exciting to explore. To see history come to life and learn the bloody history of it all. It’s like something from a fantasy book come to life. Places like the Tower of London did indeed inspire many dramatic stories. The ravens here stand regal and wise and seem to be regarding you intently when they lay eyes on you. It’s easy to see how intelligent these birds are, and how they are the source of many myths and beliefs.
I loved being a tourist in my city. I found quite a few unusual ‘hidden’ things in London to explore, which you can read about here.
Ravens are still in the wild in England, of course. Ravens themselves are incredibly smart animals with great memories and problem-solving skills. They can even imitate human speech. They are deeply embedded in mythology around the world and are sometimes thought of as evil omens. But they can feel empathy for each other and they mate for life. Not so sinister, eh?
The lesson?
Well, not everything is as it seems! Take a moment to stop and think about your experiences and see if you can make connections. It’s surprising and interesting to find out there’s a lot to think about. It might help you from feeling homesick when you travel. Whether it’s something like the ravens in the Tower of London and the Yukon, or a cultural similarity. It’s wherever your imagination can take you.
