To Be of the Earth

 

“To be of the Earth is to know
the restlessness of being a seed
the darkness of being planted
the struggle toward the light
the pain of growth into the light
the joy of bursting and bearing fruit
the love of being food for someone
the scattering of your seeds
the decay of the seasons
the mystery of death and
the miracle of birth.”

― John Soos

Risk

And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to Blossom.

Anaïs Nin

Parenthood

Becoming a parent later in life has many blessings. Little people carry an emotional directness, warmth and joy that is unsurpassed. To be in their orbit brings much to be inspired by and grateful for and yet, I have encountered some very unexpected consequences. Here is the rub, bringing up a child in our modern disconnected fragmented world is isolating and lonely. Should I have seen this coming - possibly, however, living into the experience has been more shocking and disheartening than I imagined.

Being an introvert I am ok with alone time. In fact for me it is essential. The mothering experience of aloneness has a different quality. It is represented in the restrictions integrating childcare with other social and work activities. I feel I have compartmentalised life activities to such an extent that it has become very difficult to cross over or blend them.

Young children need attention. Their interests are relatively simple and often repetitive. For someone like myself who needs creativity and spontaneity this is not impossible to fulfil with a little person onboard. I have found it is more of a challenge to bring others into this scenario. Other adult company can be sparse. Sometimes it is much easier to stay at home in familiar surroundings. This compromise comes at a price.

Mostly it is restricting in terms of what opportunities are available. I can hear people saying, 'but surely this is your own framing of the circumstances?' I am less convinced. Cafes and restaurants are too often unequipped for small children with short concentration spans. The British weather when at its best is perfect for outdoor play and roaming, especially for someone like myself who has chosen to live in a rural environment. On the not so clement days, which there are plenty, the restrictions can kick in. Where to go on the driving cold rainy days when there is low provision for family fun at affordable prices? This mission is like questing for the end of the rainbow.

I sometimes wonder what parenting must be like in more traditional societies. Is it any more equitable? I often ask people who have more experience or knowledge of traditional peoples how they parent. I am told that older children care for younger children. The village brings up the young. It is not solely the domain of the immediate parents. The role of elders, aunts, uncles, family friends and older children are much greater and more present. Whereas in our more segregated distant modern communities this ever wider support system rarely exists.

I am now being given an insight into how many many other people, mostly women, thrust into the unpaid, undervalued, invisible position of caring must feel. It is not that I do not want to be a care-giver. What's in question is the impact this has because of the restrictions, invisibility and generally lack of economic recognition that comes with this vital social contribution. I appreciate I am late to this realisation, nevertheless, I am here now and feeling the discomfort and inequity.

I have recently told my wife - no more. I am not prepared to live like this or feel like this. Something has to change and change pretty quick. How can parents care if they don't feel cared for in return? Reciprocity is an essential cycle that needs to be honoured and recognised.

I do not have any answers to this modern parenting predicament. That would be too hubristic, quick and knee-jerk a response. This issue is far to deeply rooted in our societal system to be addressed by a few tweaks here and there. Inequality in any form is unjust and unfair and runs deep. Instead I am wanting to voice how it feels and join the many others flagging up that this exists.

As an Introvert I have a moment like this on a Daily basis - seriously!

What a day ...

Show-up, do my thing, work on my stuff and step into my own power. GGGGrrrrrrrr.

Kindness

I have a roof over my head and that of my family.
We have food on our table.
We live in relative safety.
I have some opportunities to work.
This is as good as it gets.
This is privilege.
I know that.
And yet I look out my window and I encounter people and stories
that tell me we are in very turbulent, unsettled and uncertain times.
Acceptable relations between men and women are being reset.
The nature of power dynamics are being reconsidered.
Fundamental questions like 'what does it mean to be human?' are being asked.
This is what transformation looks like, feels like, tastes like, smells like and sounds like.
Maybe every generation from the beginning of time goes through this experience,
believing their moment in time is the one, the turning point.
And yet I think there is something tangibly different going on here.
The reason being is their is a collective mystery being confronted.
And what is our stance in these times?
Do we become reactionary?
Do we retract ourselves back into known territory?
Or can we offer kindness to a stranger?
Can we turn and face the  unknown and step forward?
These are questions and gestures we are going to become more intimate with.
Might I suggest more kindness.
More kindness to ourselves and more kindness to others,
especially the outsiders, the homeless and the unwanted.


KINDNESS* by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

*From Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Copyright © 1995 by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Laniakea: Home in Perspective

I have my issues with Facebook, but it is not all doom and gloom and negative on the news page. Last night I came across a link that took me to a short video showing our latest understanding of the map of the universe. Not only does it give me a greater perspective to place my tiny steps. It also described a larger scale occurrence of the allurement phenomenon.

I have been told by an astro-physicist friend that the images we often see of outer space are visual presentations given to mathematical and other data. It may or may not actual look like this. Nevertheless there is to me real beauty in the dimensions and architecture of our universe. And I love that there are real open questions about its purpose and size. It could be finite. It could be infinite. Either way the quantities we are dealing with are so huge it is questionable to what extent we can actual process the numbers. We can place values next to the data but really what meaning does this have?

However, there are also qualities present. There is movement and intentions at play and this maybe something we can more readily connect with for these same dynamics are occurring in and around us all the time. Allurement, repulsion and the push and pull of tides are something we can see and feel.

If the matrix of the universe is a fractal one. If this is one consciousness expressing itself. Then we are a microcosm of the macrocosm. Coming home is a constant process of return. Maybe it is in the design (dance) of the universe to move away and to come home like a pendulum swinging. Maybe nothing is meant to be static or a absolute constant. Even rock moves, just very very slowly most of the time. This would suggest coming home is a dance too. We must keep moving, conversing, dancing, interacting, participating to be in relationship with everything, including ourselves and what we call home or a sense of belonging.

Even when we sleep, our physical bodies may seem still, but our minds are active. Our dreams take us to untold places. There are some peoples who believe that our dreaming life is the more real world and our waking life is the more unreal.

In Lak'ech Ala K'in

In Mayan tradition, there is a greeting that goes, 'In Lak'ech Ala K'in'. It's traditional meaning has been translated as 'I am another yourself' or' I am you, and you are me'.

This reminds me of Satish Kumar's book titled 'You are therefore I am', which is a modern day response or reworking of the well known quote of Descarte from the 17th century which stated, 'Cogito ergo sum' (I think therefore I am). This quote by Rene Descarte is attributed to be a symbolic representation of the rationale scientific project separating human kind from everything else living and non-living.

What Satish in his modern idiom and the Mayan's in their traditional ways are doing is reminding us that we are inseparable for one another, from everything. Fundamentally we are part of a web of life and deeply and intrinsically interconnected. What we do to one we do to all. What we do to someone else we are doing to ourselves. Inherent within this notion is held a perennial appreciation of bonding, connectivity and oneness. With this subtlety of knowing every intention, thought, action and deed might more likely be cooperative and regenerative rather than carry any notion of competition, lack or harm.

In Lak'ech Ala K'in

Mitakuye Oyasin

Namaste

Samhain

Beware when you honor an artist.

You are praising danger.

You are holding out your hand

to the dead and the unborn.

You are counting on what cannot be counted.

The poet's measures serve anarchic joy.

The story-teller tells one story: freedom.

Above all beware of honoring women artists.

For the housewife will fill the house with lions

and in with the grandmother

come bears, wild horses, great horned owls, coyotes.

- Ursula LeGuin -

River running free you know how I feel.

Birds flying high you know how I feel Sun in the sky you know how I feel Breeze driftin' on by you know how I feel It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life For me And I'm feeling good Fish in the sea you know how I feel River running free you know how I feel Blossom on the tree you know how I feel It's a new dawn It's a new day It's a new life For me And I'm feeling good Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don't you know Butterflies all havin' fun you know what I mean Sleep in peace when day is done That's what I mean And this old world is a new world And a bold world For me Stars when you shine you know how I feel Scent of the pine you know how I feel Oh freedom is mine And I know how I feel

National Poetry Day (28 Sept)

The story of us is the authentic story

Here are some very wise and timely words on story-telling. The distinction is not so much between fiction and non-fiction as our rationally educated western mind makes. The distinction is more between an authentic and an inauthentic story. Wow.

An inauthentic story is about you. Whereas an authentic story is about us. In the times we live where the system is in sort of end game death spiral we need medicine from our stories. A medicine we need now is stories about me and you. Stories that involve us. Stories that build bridge, make community, bring us together as one and in all our diversity, beauty and disquiet.

Thank you Barry Lopez for telling it like it is.

When I get sick ...

I love and totally agree with the sentiments above and yet when a virus encompasses me the ability to be aesthetically arrested ebbs slowly away until one day I can begin questioning the meaning of life entirely.

It's too easy to take ones health for granted and to sometimes not fully appreciate or empathise with others not in full health. It's amazing how a lose of ones energy for an extended period of time not only has its obvious physical effects it can also grind down ones confidence and self-esteem.

Gradually life gets whittled down to the essentials. Friends are one by one left at the curb. Fun stuff no longer feels fun. A strange kind of boredom sets in. All because the umpff of life has deflated. The fuel dial is on the E for empty.

Negatives seem the size of an immovable house and positives the size of a gnat by comparison. Perspective floats off in a tiny leaky boat.

Time passes. Seasons change. All will be well again one day. But sadly not soon enough when I feel this rubbish. I am over feeling like a damp rag.

Bring on the something different.  Bring on the rainbows and glitter showers. Let full spectrum colour return with a power surge to boost.

May it be so ...

I write this to remind myself that black clouds are not forever and yet when they hover over head the task of Sisyphus looms large.

What if ...?

Listening recently to a regular Youtuber and astrologer Steve Judd he posed a question, "What if you could eliminate one type of prejudice, what would it be?"

One of his clients replied, "Let's get rid of 'Identity Politics'. You're either a human being or you are not. Everything else is power grabbing socially engineered claptrap."

Interesting response. I like the sentiment. Although I could possible go one step further and suggest, 'you're either a living being or not'. All life is to be honoured and respected, not only human life.

Life is beautiful. All we need do is look around. That might seem contradictory in a world full of pain and suffering. And yet in all that is bleak and dark their is a seed of hope and light. That's what stops the toxic stuff from overwhelming us. The tide always turns.

Becoming Indigenous

You are indigenous. It is your birth right. You belong even if you don't always feel that way. For some us it is difficult to remember this and to know how our ancestors stayed in relationship to the elements, seasons, land and old ones who have gone before. In the creeping homogeneity that culture serves up there is a place in our hearts that asks of us not to forget who we really are and where we come from. 

Becoming Indigenous is first and foremost a call. A deeply resonant invitation that like birdsong at dawn, speaks beauty to your soul. You will know if this programme is for you by many, often non-rational, signs that will keep returning to tap you on the shoulder and whisper in your ear … now is the time, this is for you, do it.

Becoming Indigenous is an immersion in the traditional ways of ritual, ceremony and divination which all peoples have used and some of us have forgotten. The purpose of these traditional ways is to connect us to place and people, namely our ancestors – the old ones. In doing so we become more whole, more rounded, more kind and generous human beings.

The programme is intentionally personal and experiential. We are like modern day explorers relearning and remembering how to weave ourselves into the web of life. This is not to decry the contribution, value and usefulness of technology and science. We are not advocating a rejection or rebuttal of the life many of us lead in cities and towns around the world. What we are suggesting is there is so much more to being human than is currently on offer through social norms, conventional education and institutional religion.

Becoming Indigenous should serve to expand our notion of life and humanness and draw us into the magic, wonder and mystery to be found beyond the frontiers of our intellectual rational knowing. There is so much more to us than our thoughts. We have a huge creative potential, vast intuitive capacities and deep wells of emotion to expand ourselves into. We have dreams and archetypes and stories that embrace us if only we took that time to notice.

If you are seeking to be among people who have not let go of the old ways and wish to sit in circle with them and share in their practices, stories and rituals – then this is a caravan for you, hook up your camel and join us. We make no gestures towards outcomes or destinations for we know not where we will end up ourselves. What we offer is deep companionship, rich conversation, meaningful exchange and dedicated experienced co-travellers as guides.

What will be revealed is also not in our power to predict or control. However, we have gallant, brave and wise elders available to send a ray of light into dark corners, to sing out melodies and tunes that catch our tears and provide stories to nourish us along the road. You do not travel alone.

Over the coming days, as you notice the sun dipping below the horizon, or the raven dropping a feather from its wing, or the salmon leaping above the glistening river, or the wind sending out an unexpected wave through the long grass remember that life is trying to tell you something and that something may just be ‘don’t forget us, we have something to say’. Our hearts know this to be true. That is why we seek to belong and to be connected to our land and our people. That is why we are becoming indigenous.

For more information click on Becoming Indigenous Programme Schumacher College (September 2017 - July 2018). 

Immersion

Painting: Immersion by Ornella Imber

What lies beneath the beneath,
Flowing in the river I cannot see?
From which well did I spring?
I wish I could return there now,
To that place again
And dress it with garlands of flowers.
How do I begin to say thank you
For the life I was given?
Sacrifices made which I know not,
Without which I could not be here.
A blackbirds song will never sound so sweet
unless some recompense is lain down.
It is not magic that I am here,
That anyone of us is here.
Like starlight glistening in a darkened sky,
Our lives are meant to shine.
From the midst of forgotten dreams
A measure of honey is offered to those gone before.
The old one I cannot see,
Their tears fall upon me like bejewelled rain drops.
A reminder of our unceasing unbroken connection.
I will not let go.
My grip is assured, even when storms of doubt rage.
For I am hewn from granite rock.

Anxiety

I am being tempered by the fire of life

My anxiety has reared its dragon like head again. Tendrils of smoke ascending upwards from its nostrils in satisfaction. This sends off shards of negative thoughts and feelings. Shame for succumbing to defeat. The inability to overcome this seeming innocuous obstacle. The sense of belittlement grows with a very unpalatable story of weakness whizzing around my head. Eye contact becomes painful. Nervous laughter when admitting how I am dodging my responsibilities and what to some appears like an amazing opportunity. All of which is a huge knock to my self esteem and confidence. A perfect storm of crushing negativity. I don't like myself or life that much on days like this.

What to do?

I used to employ the classic British response of the stiff upper lip. That is to say, tough it out. A little like holding your breath under water. In order to do that, at its most extreme, it require a disassociation from what is happening, resulting in a disconnection from the emotions swelling up inside. I would sometimes do my best to hide and avoid horror inducing experiences.

Feeling safe and being safe is ok

Finding effective and healthy ways to do this is not so obvious, at least for me it isn't. Admitting to being overwhelmed seems to only serve to exacerbate the problem. Now I am wanting to find more consistent and effective ways to take care of myself during periods of anxiety. Maybe even to anticipate and alleviate the full extent of what this malaise can drag in its wake.

I feel like a small child again taking baby steps in learning how to be kind to myself, to acquire the self knowledge of how to be ok in the big bad world out there. There must be some advantages to being sensitive. Heavens knows, right now, I would like to know what they are. I don't want to live through life teflon coated or numbed out by allopathic medicines. Nor do I want to be debilitated by the upscale and complex impacts of modern living.

From The Centre

At the centre is life
Water is Life
In all its forms
Next to water lies Fire
And Earth and Air
Conjoined by Spirit and Soul

Place life on your alter
Bring your offerings and your prayers
Lay down your worries and troubles
Say yes to the possible, to the holy

Take a moment and from here walk
Walk out destination unknown
Your are a pilgrim to life
For once be called and guided
Let a place choose you
And when chosen bow your head

Bow your head to beauty
Beauty is all around you
Unbounded behold its golden healing glow
Let beauty embrace your heart
And seep into every cell of your body

Only listen and be still
Let in that which is yours
Yours alone to hear and know
This sound, this cry of the Earth
Is your song
The one you were born with.

Exciting Times

To quote someone I have not met in person but whom I follow on Youtube;

"These are very exciting times, but they do need us to think in a different kind of way!" - Dave Erasmus.

Quite.

Inequality.

Brexit.

Climate Change.

Invisible.

Interwebs.

Trump.

Creativity.

Terror, fear and violence of any kind.

Democracy.

Corbyn.

Immigrant.

Uncertainty.

Putin.

Imagination.

North Korea.

Generosity.

Asylum Seekers.

Relationships.

Corruption.

Mass Extinction.

Food Banks.

Community.

Offshore Tax Evasion.

Freedom.

Story.

Wholeness.

Dignified and the Efficient.

Kindness.

Authenticity.

Possibility.

Potential.

Change.

Connection.

Community

A few years back I had the unexpected and previously unsought experience of living in an intentional temporary community. It was intentional in that people chose to be there and contribute to its care for weeks or months and occasionally in my case years. It was temporary because the flow and movement of members was high.

I was drawn to the haven like qualities this sanctuary offered up to me. Little did I foresee or know in advance what this experience would really provide.

It is rare in our contractual and transactional societies to find as an adult a place to live and serve which does not involve the exchange of money in either direction. To be unleashed and freed from the influence of financial necessities allowed for a more natural and unfettered state of being. Of course there is free will. I did have a choice as to whether I followed through on the suggested tasks I completed each day. And I could, if I wished, go over and above this suggested contribution in other less directed ways. What this led to was behaviour and actions that in any other settings I would not have countenanced and yet in a caring intentional community is was satisfying and rewarding to offer support for the benefit of others. Often these others were people I would not know or maybe meet.

What I gained was this deep sense of giving for the benefit of a greater whole and yes I got a strong feeling of appreciation in a generalised sense from this whole. What was unexpected and unique was to have this flow of appreciation be unmediated by money. I was not being bought. I was not prostituting my time and skills. I was gifting my time and contribution to others.

It could be argued I was getting a reward of sorts because my board and lodgings were covered in this process. There is something in this argument, especially if someone had no other means by which to place a roof over their heads and food on the table. That was luckily not my circumstances. I could leave whenever I wanted to and I had a place to go to and the means to feed myself. So what compelled me to stay so long?

I found when money was removed I could fundamentally relax in mind and body in ways I had not been able to achieve before. My contribution was not being judged by the market place. The work I completed each day was received in quite a different spirit. I could therefore stop worrying if what I was doing was good enough. My turning up and being available to help was enough. Difference was celebrated and understood. No one person would do the same tasks in exactly the same way.

When money was removed I only wanted and took what I needed. There was not the necessity to store excess because of the shared pot available equally to all in the community.

I began to understand what it is truly like to serve without there being some financial gain involved.

To live in a community is healing and a privilege. There are so many of life's activities, rituals and celebrations that become more profound when offered and/ or received in a community context.

As the quote above declares, nothing in nature lives for itself. I know what this means having had the experience I had living in an intentional community. I am not sure I would truly know what this means if I had not done so.

What is it women want?

A much asked question that doesn't always have an obvious answer. Story-tellers and mythologists might point you in one direction. Psychologists and therapists another.

Here's my contribution;

Lost Innocence

The graves of tiny children killed in conflicts all over the world are a daily reminder of the futility of war and violence.

  

Spring Equinox

A host of golden daffodils can only mean one thing - oh yes - it's Spring Equinox. Being spring the weather does not know what to do with itself. One minute the sun is shining and the skies are blue. The next it's as if the lights have gone out, thunderous dark clouds pass over head and rain, hail and ice descend from above. In between rainbows appear with their own brand of uplifting magic. Suffice to say it's very mixed weather.

Life has been intense, full, turbulent of late. Hence the distinct lack of blogs.

Too much going on all over the shop. I feel like the characters in The Incredibles with immensely extendable limbs that stretch off into the distance.

What has shown up are the archetypes. I am trying to get my head around the directions, the elements and the archetypes. When forces are internally and externally conflictual and flipping and divisive it is time to pay attention to what wants to be heard. This is old and ancestral.

Fire and Water as polarities can come together. But if not done with care the fizz, bang, pop and cracking can get fierce. Not a place to hang-out in for too long.

It's time to move my body, reconnect and remember.
It's time to light a fire and be by water and learn.

Advise for those living at the edges outside the mainstream

Rumi says to those who live at the fertile and also highly uncertain edges of life;

We must become ignorant
Of all we've been taught,
And, be instead, bewildered.

Run from what's profitable and comfortable
If you drink those liqueurs, you'll spill
The spring water of your real life.

Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.

I have tried prudent planning
Long enough, from now
On, I'll live mad.

Rest assured if your actions or ideas are being derided by the status quo you maybe onto something worth following. Trust your intuition and feelings. Now is a time to bring forth from mysterious places. In itself this requires not knowing what is to come or where it is to come from. As paradoxical as this may seem it is nevertheless necessary to set out and seek a new.

Found

I can't begin to tell you how long I have been searching for this poem. I first came across the poetry of Kevin Gilbert about eight years ago. By chance I came across the poem 'Unity' while meandering the shelves of the Schumacher College library. Books have a habit of finding people (well me) when in that space.

A few years ago the library was reclassified and rearranged afterwards when I looked for the book I could not find it anywhere. Eventually I gave up gravely worried it had been purged during the revamp. There was no hand written index card. There was no presence of it in the poetry section.

Then last year when on a wild camping night my friend Daisy unexpectedly produced the book. We were sat around the camp fire with the moon shining down fro above that night and it felt right to be reading poetry aloud. And there is was Unity. Wow. That moment in itself felt like magic enough.

Fast forward to today. Blue Monday as the second working Monday of the new year is also know. Not always a high point in anyones week, month or year. I am inspired to look for a book in the WL (World Literature) section of the library  ... and there it was Kevin Gilbert 'Black from the Edge'. What? I go back to the index deck and look, no index card. After years of searching there it is, seemingly out of nowhere reappearing on the book shelves agin. It feels like another piece of magic. Thank You Magic.

Here's the poem.

if only this were real

To Lower The Bar or Not To Lower The Bar

One of my teachers starts morning sessions with the five minute poem. After listening to some inspiring poems we are invited to simply write. What comes from these five minutes is often jaw droppingly incredible. And yet as Martin will say to help those of us nervous to share our scribbles, 'let's lower the bar'. There is a celebration in the poems we offer to the group being awkward, bad or at best just terrible. It's not about the quality of the writing. It is about the act of writing itself. How refreshing and human to allow a welcome space for everything to be ok.

Martin is want to share the story of William Stafford who when asked how does he write such amazing poetry, answers write everyday and lower your expectations.

It's like people who daily vlog on youtube, when you can filter and edit what people see there is the tendency to control and show only the good stuff in their lives, or at least not reveal anything you don't want others to see. Poets publish what they want you to read. We don't see the writing or editing process. Nor do we see those poems that remain in the locked study room draw.

I have decided to let myself off the hook, lower the bar and just write my blog and hit the publish button - come what may. My hope is that at some point in the future with lots of writing experience under my belt combined with a reduction in self consciousness, that my writing will become much closer to what it is I am trying to express.

I have noticed that when I try too hard or push too much my writing is awkward and clunky. Automatic writing still contains a lot of random stuff and to be honest dross, but maybe there will be the occasional sentence or two that I am proud of.

Let's see ...

Presence in 2017

The word presence means 'to exist in a place'. It is the art of being. Not so much about the past or the future, but of the moment. My interest in presence has been sparked by a quote from the phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty. He suggests that consciousness 'does not give me truth like geometry but presences' [quoted in Stang, 2009). Is this saying, I wonder, that consciousness gives us experiences;  such that awareness comes in a form of presences?

In our world where science is the dominant philosophy facts and truth are objectively trusted and what's more valued above qualities of feeling, imagination and intuition. This can place personal experiences and ordinary daily life into a lowly category. If you imagine most if not nearly all people live in the everyday no wonder self esteem and wellbeing is taking a hammering in our modern life.

Presence invites a different stance if you will. It asks us to become open and aware to our experiences. All of our experiences, the explained and the unexplained. To value the ordinary in our lives. Doing the daily chores. Waking up to a brand new day. Reaching out the simple hand of friendship to those in need. Attending to the school run, the shopping, or the journey home from work. Knocking on the door of our neighbours to check-in.

In the race to the top of an invisible (arguably nonexistent) ladder how often do we stop to take in the awe of the beauty around us? The enjoyment in making a simple meal for our family and friends. Going for a walk to the nearby river where we live. Or stopping to watch the sunset.

How fantastic it is to witness and be a part of such everyday awesome experiences and not feel the need to classify them as special in order to validate ourselves or what happened.

That's my wish for 2017. To be able to take in and celebrate the ordinariness of my life. To see the gift in the everyday. And to see how that stance of being in the presence shapes and moulds my life and relationships.

It starts today on Sunday 01 January with the joy of rain. Yes rain can be enjoyed, for water is sacred, it is life itself. Without it I would not be here, nor much of anything else I can see from my window. Yet in the United Kingdom where I live rain is not always seen in this way. Water is not often scarce. If anything due to climate change water has become a powerful force resulting in seasonal flooding. However, for many in other parts of the world water is becoming increasingly hard to find. Rain is seen as the foreteller of change and a blessing to be appreciated. I am therefore fortunate today to be able to watch the water fall from the clouds above.