Emily Peel Yates / A good place to start

Its only 6 weeks since we all became friends in Knoydart but it feels like so much longer. Such a close bond formed in a long weekend. Then we have all been rushing around madly in our real lives and now here we are back together again. We all headed to Glen Tilt from across Scotland meeting up as we got nearer. Getting more and more excited until we were all on the train together at Perth and then into the mini-bus at Pitlochry. The autumn colours dominating the landscape more and more as we neared our destination. Even the driver was so keen to share the beauty with us he managed to drive into a ditch whilst pointing out a waterfall.

I’m quite anxious as well as excited though. This time together is so out of the norm of rushing around, deadlines, targets, outputs, relationships, responsibilities. It is such a privilege to have been given permission to slow down and reflect but it’s a big mental shift.

 A simple question when we all meet- how have you all been since Knoydart? I feel overwhelmed

So, it’s out with the big pad of paper and the coloured pens. People want to know what we are hoping to achieve, are we going to make a difference? How then? It so lucky to have freedom and licence to explore and express our passions. All those conversations, you longed for. Strong themes of commonality emerge for the problems of social and environmental injustice but can such a “self-indulgent” process as this go any way to improving anything? Trauma keeps coming up, trauma that needs to be acknowledged before progress can be made. There is a feeling of real change in the group, some more dramatic than others, often subtle but it’s mostly about self. It’s a good place to start.