Posts tagged with "blog"

Songs of NC Revolution

It's all connected, it's all intertwined

Our last weekend workshop has passed. Discussions about models of social change (plus co-creating our own idea!), plus a five hour solo from dawn in the bitter but beautiful cold, combined to deliver another challenging and uplifting experience - physically, intellectually and emotionally.  However, as soon as it was over, “life” took hold, especially my working life, and I was full of concern that it would be days before I would have time to blog.

But as I started my journey to London for a couple of days, I switched my iPod onto random, and this was the song that filled the space between my ears. Talk about synchronicity… I will blog about the weekend soon, but I just wanted to get this up, as it really made an impact: stopped me in my tracks in fact. Plus, it ensured I managed to “take with me” my NC experience as I went from meeting to meeting - trying to “encounter each moment before it had passed..” I’d love to hear you ideas about NC songs - what would be our soundtrack?

“You ceased to mow the lawn 10 years ago, you just want to see how your garden would grow.

You abandoned the pruning shears and welcomed each weed. You permitted the soil to select its own seed.

But it would be unfair to assume you don’t care, for you pay great attention to all that goes there.

But you simply abstained from a plan or design, you just let it all hang out and take it’s own time.

You just let it all hang out and take it’s own time.

And you follow the thread, in the book that you’ve read

Or in something that someone you heard somewhere said.

You say it’s all connected, it’s all intertwined.

You just let it all hang out and take it’s own time.

You just let it all hang out and take it’s own time.

Well you don’t move too fast, you make it all last - you encounter each moment before it has passed.

And you say walking slow in this world is no crime.

You just let it all hang out and take it’s own time.

You just let it all hang out and take it’s own time.”

Karine Polwart: Take Its Own Time

Mutually exclusive resolutions?

It’s the first day of 2009, so I thought one of my resolutions should be to blog more often. So far, so good…

It’s strange - things have slowed down on the blogging front since Glen Tilt, for all of us, not just me. I came away from Perthshire with a long list of things I wanted to write about, and since then we have all been encouraged with ideas and questions, particularly in relation to the festive period: has NC made us think about Christmas and consumerism differently? What can we do to make it more sustainable? Etc, etc. But, it’s been hard - harder to write than I thought. So of course, the questions running through my head haven’t been those big ones, but instead trying to analyse the blogging block.

Aside from the fundamental worry that anything I have to say isn’t of the remotest interest to anyone outside of our small group, there is a sense of being stuck, but I just haven’t been able to articulate it. So, during this holiday period, I’ve tried really hard to focus, and think about what it means.

It finally struck me today, when I was talking about new year resolutions over lunch - the answer to the question “What are your hopes for 2009″ was that the one thing that I really want is to get “it” back, but I don’t know how.

“It” is the incredible sense of elation that I - we all - felt after Knoydart and Glen Tilt (the former especially). Impossible to put into words, but it was a sense of pieces clicking into place, a calmness mixed with euphoria. Since then, I’ve written about my wondering how to “bring that back” - how to bring the wilderness into my life more, and that is what is proving so incredibly hard. I’m beginning to think that doing so  - given the way in which my lifestyle and I are currently constructed so that they completely mitigate against me spending more time in the wild - is mutually exclusive. It’s been tough enough managing to find the time to go for a walk on the beach during this holiday, never mind when I’m working. Family, home, commitments, my own motivation - they all make it difficult. Then again, I say the same thing about going to the gym more..

But, encouragingly, some things have changed - there has been a fundamental shift. Previously, I think I did my recycling duties and environmental worrying more out of a sense of intellectualism rather than anything else. I was being told I had to worry about it, and that I was a good citizen if I did my bit, so I did. Now, I’m doing it because I WANT to, because it’s important, because it matters - it matters very much indeed.

And I do want to get out more. Put simply, when I do, I feel better. Just an hour on a beach in the late afternoon winter sunshine was enough to make me feel calmer amd more relaxed. So,  maybe that is enough. I’m unlikely to ever do the Knoydart thing again - though never say never - but maybe if I manage, even just once a month, a walk on the beach or a trip to a forest, that will keep the connection alive, as well as keep the passion to make sure I’m one of the ones who tread lightly burning every day.

TALK TO ME PEOPLE!

But the bigger question is what am I hoping for from this blog? It’s a pretty big topic, saving the planet, so where do you start? Bit like eating an elephant I suppose – one bite at a time. This is just the start of a conversation and over the next six months the themes and ideas will emerge – and the challenges at a micro and macro level both personally and globally. I’d like it to be a conversation that is shared with people I know and those that I haven’t met yet. All contributions welcome – responses, questions, dissent and musings – feel free. Open discourse is the name of the game. I’m not doing this because I think I have any answers to these big questions – quite the opposite in fact. But I am clear the time has passed when we can just pretend it isn’t happening and hope someone else will fix it – there is no someone else – it’s down to us.

There is no order

Those of you who are concerned with structure and order may have realised that the blogs are not always 100% accurate in terms of days for uploading.   There is a reason for that…the broadband promised on Knoydart for this purpose has turned out to be a satelite phone line in a cold shed at the bottom of the garden.  Hence we have not been able to upload as we go or write directly into a computer.  And we’ve been pretty busy outside!  However, I’m sure that order and date accuracy is not the top priority on people’s minds here.  These are stories told with heart and soul.   Restricting them and re-ordering them feels pretty irrelevent. 

Do please send us comments if you have time!

The whole time has been an absolute privilege - a wonderful place, amazing nature, fascinating people talking honestly about big, important ideas with a lot of courage and so many different processes and layers of meaning going on at the same time that I’m slightly lost for words…

Boy, are we here!

So…we’re here. Boy are we here. It’s an amazing place, no question – so far beyond anything I have ever experienced before. And my boots have lost their shine already…

Am in a bit of a quandary about this blog. Spent a lot of time – too much probably – trying to think of how to begin. The temptation is to record all we have done, diary-like, but I don’t really think that is the point of the exercise. It’s all about reflection, on what we have seen, heard, done, discussed, debated and laughed over. There’s a thing I’m pleased about – there’s plenty of laughs – which may come as a bit of a surprise to those outside the eco-movement: news just in folks – they have a sense of humour too, even though they know the end of the world is nigh!!

 Actually, that flippancy seems inappropriate – disrespectful almost to this place and this experience. The sense I have most at the moment is privilege – I feel so privileged to be able to be here and participate in this. Whether it was sitting in a tepee, gazing out across the shoreline, water and mountains through the heat-haze of the fire; or walking alongside a burn, trickling under an intense green canopy of breathtakingly beautiful trees; or discussing Maslows Hierarchy of Needs and modern western consumerism – it’s been intense and powerful.

 So – do I know REALLY what this is all about yet? Maybe a glimmer. The disconnect from the earth that we have, focussing simply on consuming more to fulfil and sustain us, rather that tuning in and paying attention to our real needs – few of which are authentically met by “products”. This is a tough one for me personally – note my very first blog – but I take comfort in the fact that, in my love of all things Dolce & Gabbana, I’m perfectly aware I’m shallow!! Seriously – none of this argument is new to me, or anything I take issue with. The key question is: why don’t I do more to address it? What can I do – personally and without compromise – to make that shift? And - horror of horrors - will it mean giving up Christian Laboutin? Answers on a postcard, please, or just hit the comment button below, seeing as how we’re saving resources…