Stories ...

“Stories are compasses and architecture, we navigate by them, we build our sanctuaries and our prisons out of them, and to be without a story is to be lost in the vastness of a world that spreads in all directions like arctic tundra or sea ice.”

― Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby

When Totnes Gets Too Much

It happens ... there are times when Totnes can become a little too much to take. It's a small town after all! Privacy, what's that? Intensity, maxed out! There's only so many crystal healing wheat grass juice cleanses to be had in a day. When a Totnesian is having one of those moments where the world goes wwwwoooooaaaaahhhhhhhh - this is what happens ... (all I am saying is - I now know what twin towns are for).

Bags packed, coat on and heading for the wardrobe. Time to take a break from one reality and to step into a new dimension - yes to that!

A Good Book

A couple of days ago a new book landed on my doorstep. One of life's pleasures is the anticipation of a good book, why? Well I think this image sums it up ...

and the book in question on this day ... let me share with you a brilliant writer and a portal definitely worth stepping through ...

 

... this is a book for those who have dreamed of stepping into one of the oldest stories originating from Europe, told around countless firesides and passed on from one generation to the next since memory began. Here's your opportunity to delve deeply into the mystery and the magic with Martin Shaw.

The Taoist Maybe Story

"There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years.

One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.

 "Maybe," the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed.

"Maybe," replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. 

"Maybe," answered the farmer. 

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. 

"Maybe," said the farmer."

Sunday Morning Last Week

What happens when gratitude is stuck inside?

Blocked like a constipated goose
Eyes bulging
   Skin tighter than an unplayed drum
 Senses prickling and sensitive
     Alert to the brooding expectation and glare of damnation

And still no gracious movement
 No head bow
  No softening of the heart

Fires of rage rise up
  For what?
    For what?
      For what you may ask?

 To guard the edges of existence
   To keep a sense of experience
To stop the march of the unthinking

THAT IS WHY!
  That is why the gratitude is unannounced
    not unfelt, simply silent and within.

Beltane

It's May
It's Beltane
Get wild
Light fires and leap them
Walkout in bare feet and feel the morning dew
Gather wild flowers; primrose, garlic, bluebells
Marigold, gorse, hazel and cowslips to name a few
Dance naked in the woods
Roll about, get covered in mud
Be wild, be free
Run towards the roar
It's May
It's Beltane

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.

Pointing at the moon

Last Sunday I watched the moonrise over my town. It was a mighty full moon. Powerful. It shone its golden brilliance as it rose over the rooftops. Quite surprising as typically I'd expect to see a silvery sheen from the moon. On this night it was truly golden like the sun. A memorable and breathtakingly awesome sight.

Prior to the moon's appearance I'd been digging over the allotment preparing for spring and seedling planting to come. On a patch nearby two older guys had dug out a new seating area, shaped a willow arbor as a back-rest, built a small fire and smudged their new site with sage - they then sat down to drum in the new moon. Classical behaviours to be found in this part of the country. Nothing out of the ordinary, two very welcoming souls. Before heading home we visited bringing two heart shaped stones as gifts for their new seating shrine and sat a while talking about the land and the rising moon.

The full moon was super powerful this month. My sleep was fitful over the days of its arrival and passing. My dreams vivid and intense. I'd awake and glance out the darkened window until I caught a sight of the glistening moon hanging up high as it arced the night sky. It had a real magnetic pull. Drawing my attention and locking my gaze. I imagine if I didn't look away quickly I would easily become transfixed.

The moon is so often a strong icon and object of identification. We point up at the moon in all its splendour. Due to it's size and position there's no confusing this ball of atoms with other stars or planets orbiting above us. We write poems and stories about the moon. I have fond memories of walking my nephew round the garden in the dusk of evening and with enormous fun and excitement we'd point up at the sky shouting 'where's the man in the moon?' It's such a magical mesmerising symbol in the sky. The moon is the moon. There is no other. There are many planets and stars glistening in the night sky, yet we orbit only one sun and one moon orbits Earth.

I, like many of us, know the names to label such phenomenon in our lives. I can point at the moon to draw attention to it ... but my pointed finger is not to be confused with the actual moon. The word for moon is not to be confused with what the moon is. Would the moon exist if there wasn't a name for it or someone to see it?

Why am I getting all philosophical ... because it is too easy to place the importance on the message, the logos, the word rather than the phenomenon or the experience itself. Being a part of something, feeling connected, being in relationship is the link between the being and the doing. You can't have one without the other. To separate them is an artifice that serves to disconnect us from ourselves, one another and ultimately the whole. It is in the distraction of the finger pointing that we become wrapped up in labels, words and concepts forgetting that it's all an illusion. It may hold the appearance of reality and yet it should not be confused with the real deal - the life of living, loving and experiencing the oneness and inseparability of everything.