Oh hawthorn tree

Oh hawthorn tree
 Oh hawthorn tree

Bringer of protection
Sounding bell of May

Proud guardian of the moors
Signifier of edges to the other world
Host to ancient families of lichen

Your knowledge spikes the unwary
Your shining fruits give nourishment to the needy

Striking upwards Medusa like from the earth below
Your one-legged resilience offers its brilliance
Your skin maps the journeys yet to be taken
Green messenger of a thousand fertility rituals
Catcher and sender of full moon dreamings

Oh hawthorn tree
 How I love you so!

Somethings never change and yet the spinning gyrations of life can make us dizzy beyond belief

Remember your focus is YOU
Your brilliance and beauty shines on.
To do anything less would be a loss to the world
Be lifted by the jewels that hang in the sky at night
Be held by the out reached arms of the crab apple tree
Be comforted by the gentle eyes of a new born moor pony
who looks into the depths of your soul and knows you
Nothing changes your belonging and place
in the family of all things.
This is your true love.
The light of which never diminishes.

Announcing your place in the family of things.

It's been a tough week.
One full of misunderstandings, hurt, anxiety.
The future seems less certain again.
Everything is different and nothing has changed.
Tonight is a grande full moon bringing all its beauty, glory and power.

In this week of tumult the words of Mary Oliver have found there way to me and provided solace. For that alone I am grateful. And for the wisdom I am humbled.

In Mary Oliver's own voice ... Wild Geese



And for those who like to read the words ...

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Mary Oliver, Dream Work, Grove Atlantic Inc., 1986 & 
New and Selected Poems, Beacon Press, 1992.

The oneness ...

I came across this small youtube clip of Eckhart Tolle.

Feeling the one in the depth of yourself and recognising it all around, in everyone :)

To be in the present moment.

Yes!

Infotoxicification

I am not sure if INFOTOXIFICATION is a real word, new word or a made up word. Just now, when I googled it, I found results for INFOTOXIC and INFOTOXICITY; described as a consequence of modern lifestyles connecting to information and multimedia technologies with insufficient time spent in natural environments. Information is so readily available and there is plenty of it on any subject you can think of at the press of a button. It's quite seductive. And in away digital supplies of information can replace memory and thinking. And yet is too much of a good thing bad for you? What happens when we have an excess of information?

Alan Logan the co-author of Your Brain on Nature says, it's time to unplug ourselves from technology. "Even when individuals enter green space, they are often not really 'there' in the mindful sense -- texting, incoming messages, and eyes fixated upon smart phones take the brain elsewhere. In many ways we are drowning in a sea of 'infotoxicity' and entertainment media."

There are many evidence based health and wellbeing benefits for disconnecting ourselves from technology and reconnecting ourselves with nature, plants and animals. For example, it helps to support our positive mental health and outlook, it creates emotional strength, slows us down and brings us back into our bodies, it helps to remind us of our animal selves and serves to open us to a reverence for the natural world.

The other side of this technological picture is what happens when we spend too much time in front of a screen. I know for myself I lose concentration levels, I get mentally tired, my physical conditioning declines due to long periods of inactivity, my thought processes lack depth and flit about at an increasing rate of speed getting lost on the lanes and byways of the digital highway. I can begin a search with great intent and purpose and yet with in a short period of time have lost connection with my original inquiry and be pursuing some fascinating and yet mindless cul-de-sac of curiosity. All in all as much as I appreciate and don't want to live without my laptop or mobile phone I now would like to have extended periods without them. Is this possible? Would I experience withdrawal symptoms? Would this feel like a sort of info-detoxification for my mind and body?

I don't know the answer to these questions. I am curious to find out. Can I build in digital/IT free hours in my day and week? Watch this space.

Don't make me angry ...

This and other drawings of owls to describe different owl senarios makes me smile. I am such a huge fan of the wisdom owls bring into our lives. This image reminds me not to take myself, and sometime life for that matter, too seriously.