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Planting seeds

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 A beautiful, bright, intelligent young girl was given a patch of overgrown land, it was hers to do with what she wanted, but it came with no instructions and she had absolutely no idea where to begin. Drowning in the overwhelm of responsibility she couldn’t see past the enormity of the task before her, fear rendering her imagination powerless.   She couldn’t think, let alone dream. So, she set about doing what she thought was right, she began to clear the land.   Perhaps once the tangled mess of overgrown brambles and grasses had gone, she would be able to envisage what to do with her gift. Cutting and pulling and digging and turning till her land was bare, ‘Perhaps now is the time to decide what to plant?’ she thought, but just as she was about to begin, she noticed that the soil wasn’t fine enough, it was filled with stones and little rocks, and she so wanted everything to be perfect - that was, after all, what she had been taught to aim for - and so she picked up the riddle a
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Amazing Grace

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Tomorrow is my 15th wedding anniversary, it's also the summer solstice, otherwise known as midsummer or Litha, and a fortnight since my dad died.  At the same time as my world has momentarily fallen off it's axis, the Earth is continuing to spin on hers as we reach the mid point on our journey around the sun.  The past two weeks have coincided with a heatwave, the main implication of which is that I have had to walk the dogs early, very early, 5am early which, as I struggle to find time later in the day for any form of siesta, is adding to my feelings of numbness and slightly zombified state - a sort of suspended reality which helps keep the feelings of overwhelm at bay, but apparently does little to help a writer mid afternoon.  They have also become without a question of a doubt my favourite part of the day.   I love the solitude, the light, the cooler air, and the opportunity to spot some of the more elusive creatures that share the land with me: a fox; the owl; and (as yet)
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Balance

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I am increasingly of the opinion that we go through life both leaving threads to find our way home, and shooting arrows into the future for us to find at a later date. And so it is, that a woman I met and worked with briefly 7 years ago sent me an email at the end of last year regarding an open call for creative writing around the topic of ‘caves’ for a magazine to accompany the ‘Hollow Earth’ exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery. I’ve never actually been inside a cave, oh wait, I have once, in New Zealand, some sort of black water rafting experience, the ‘black’ referring to the fact that we couldn’t see as we floated down an underground river in an inner tube.   Wow, I want a thread to connect me back to her! She was so much more adventurous/foolhardy (delete as you see fit) than the version of myself I am currently inhabiting!   (Oooh and a quick Google search has brought it all back, including the magical glow worms on the roof of the cave that were beyond the reach
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Gratitude

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I was expecting a holiday to my spiritual home at the end of May to throw me a little off course, but I had no idea that I’d be blown sideways and only just be finding my way back onto the writing path some seven months later.  What I don’t know yet, is if this signifies a return to the (let’s face it - not particularly well) beaten track or if our paths are crossing momentarily. But for whilst I am feeling the desire to write, I’m just going with it, no further questions asked. For the past twelve months I have been following the Celtic Wheel of the Year, from winter solstice to winter solstice – one full trip around the sun – stopping off at regular intervals along the way to catch the sunrise, connect with friends and the seasons, talk to my tree, reflect on the weeks just past and set intentions for the ones about to come.  These celebrations have brought some of my favourite moments of the year and removed the oncoming dread of Hogmanay and the mind games I inevitably play where
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Mattering

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I am living through a period of my life where I am probably the most resourced that I have ever been, in terms of learning new things and, at the same time, building a support network of people to help me in that learning.  People with brilliant minds who are turning out to be exceptionally gracious in both the sharing of their own knowledge and the passing on of other people's in the form of written and spoken word. My daily walks are increasingly in the company of great thinkers imparting their wisdom through my headphones and my reading list is expanding beyond anything that I will ever find time to read - the pile of books brought several months ago by 'Santa' steadily gathering dust upon the shelf.  Having my mind stretched is exciting, exhausting and sometimes surprising, as the person I have learnt the most from this week, is my son.   Faced with an unenviable situation, in which it would have been easier to remain silent, he took a stand against something he inheren
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Re-Enchantment

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The Post Heroic Journey is about the stories we would tell to ourselves and to other people if we thought that our purpose in life, our reason for being here, was neither to save nor destroy the world but actually to learn to live more beautifully in the world that we have, more meaningfully, more richly, more sustainably. Sharon Blackie I am on a voyage of discovery.  Just as my desire to hibernate in the winter might actually be a 'thing', so too, it turns out, is the feeling I had when Jodie Whittaker was cast as Dr Who.   Uh-oh! I can feel the hackles rising - so I'll be quick to point out that I'm more than happy for Dr Who to be a woman, I do think it is hugely important for both girls and boys to see female role models, and, as I've never watched an episode with her in it, has absolutely nothing to do with her take on the role - instead it is a sense that whilst making some very valid points, it is missing some too.  I want more for women than to be cast in t
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Sparks

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If you want to re-think how we're going to approach this crisis of climate change, it seems to me that the way we've been doing things, or the way we imagine we can change things is not working.  So, the avenues for picturing what could work, we have to establish these, we have to create the spaces where that can occur.  Gal Beckerman   This, in a nutshell, is the premise behind the Thrutopia Masterclass that I am so fortunate to have found my way onto.  Dystopian futures, due to the amount written about them, are easily imagined and can evoke the reaction of  'might as well enjoy ourselves now'.  Utopian futures are so far out of reach and increasingly unbelievable.  Thrutopias on the other hand are, in the words of Professor Rupert Reed who coined the phrase, about how to live and love and vision and carve out a future, through pressed times that will endure. Thus it was that a week last Sunday I found myself begin an adventure with a hundred or so other creatives bu
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