Healing Heart

Just when the

caterpillar

thought the

world was over,

it became

a butterfly.

Both Sides Now

Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way

But now its just another show
You leave em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away

I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It's loves illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say I love you right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way

But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well somethings lost, but somethings gained
In living every day

I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

- Joni Mitchell -

Head Heart Hand

It was reassuring to listen to Professor Alastair McIntosh this week. We perceive the world in similar ways. In response to issues like climate change he says 'hold the vision and don't dislocate yourself from the society you are trying to effect change'. He didn't think dropping out to some far off place was the solution, instead he suggested there was a need to take up the challenge and find holistic ways to integrate head, heart and hand and to engage people around you.

There are different ways of understanding head, heart, hand. Some see it as knowledge and the reasoning of the head, such as science, technology, economics, politics; combined with courage of the heart, sometimes known as the psyche, as in psychological to mean spirit; allied to the activism of the hand. The head, heart, hand motto came from the Arts and Crafts movement; 'Head' for creativity and imagination, 'Hand' for skill and craft, 'Heart' for honesty and for love.

Alastair's presentation was about climate change, his argument being that politics, technology and economics represented by the head, cannot solve the problem we face on its own. We also need to engage the heart and the hand. By doing this we will build relationships with empathy that feel good. By tackling climate change in this way, joining politics with spirit and action we make it personal and we journey within. If we stay at the level of the head we will keep consuming and remain apathetic to the world around us and the emptiness this creates will never be removed.

This thesis echoes that of reconnecting mythos and logos. Logos represents facts, reason and science. Mythos represents the deeper structure of reality and holds this deep reality of the universe together. By reconnecting with the mystical each person can connect themselves at the soul level to all that is around them. We then understand that the harm or exploitation we do to others we are ultimately doing to ourselves. And in there lies the key to a new reality, to the building of new relationships with the other and to change.