What does your core tell you about the current way of living?
How does environmental and human distress, impact on your daily consciousness?
Do you get out of bed each day and continue the same old same old that no longer satisfies any but your basic income needs but too panicked to realise any alternatives? Are you living your life in fear or joy?
If you tick yes, to any of the above, what are you doing to navigate the pitfalls of continuing on the same path versus those of changing to a more holistic approach?
Can you envisage an alternative route that still pays those unavoidable bills, brings you joy, fulfils and covers your basic needs without the stress of the tick tock world we live in?
Take a moment… slow down and listen to birds calling, trees rustling bare branches… can you smell late winter scents… breath… or can you only hear traffic and smell car fumes?
I’ve been talking to trees
they reply
in rustling commentary
Listening to birds
along the promontory
They whisper and scream
but the message is the same
Go to the hills
find the silence
…leave the noise again
Where will you be
when the earth makes her escape
Where will you live
with earth’s shuddering earthquake
What good is a sterile life
fed from supermarket stores
What will you eat
when they have closed their doors
You cannot eat
your botox lips
or taloned fingertips
You cannot feed your soul
stale bread and chips
Take stock as winds change
What do the trees whisper
…do you listen
to their wisdom of old
Where will you be
when solar winds set you free
safe in your bed
…or outside in the cold
I woke up this morning recalling vividly a long dream I had last night. I was walking the boundaries of our land, trailing delicate long sticks, one in each hand. In my left was Willow and in my right, Alder. I was humming a tune that I don’t consciously know or remember, but it still resonates with me as if I know it well from somewhere deep inside.
Moisture rose from the ground in the grooves the sticks were making as I trailed them behind me. Our land disappeared into the mist, a canopy forming like a dome over and below it. I woke feeling nurtured and protected from the everyday madness of the world.
What does your core tell you about this current way of living, so many cling to and yet so many are lost and entangled in, some, without truly knowing why?
What does your future dreaming consist of?
What can you do, even on the smallest scale, to create a sense of community and unity with neighbours, family and friends?
We dream… we all dream, sadly mostly of ‘one day when,’ with little appreciation of today, this moment and the fact that we’re here, alive, sentient and uniquely individual. We can become disheartened, forget that we can make a difference wherever we are on this beautiful earth home simply by needing/wanting less… not playing into the hands of the 1%.
What I refer to here isn’t about pottering in a garden or even taking a stroll in the park, rather more, finding a deeply rooted connection with all that is and looking at why we left or as many seem to think based on religious stories, kicked out of the garden for being naughty… well right now we are more than naughty and not just in the biblical sense, because the world that sustains us is diminished and creatures who have as much right to be in this proverbial garden as us, are dying out in droves and we are apparently blind!
Where
do you go
when the enormity
the tragedy
gives you no space
to breath
I wish at times
I was at one
with the breeze
…not the winds of war
knocking at every door
…without exception
No, this breeze
mischievous
wild
grants hope
without perfection
Simply raw
asking for nothing
giving more
than the tangled framework
of twisted minds
playing at kings and heroes
in a countdown
of digital ones and zeros
…stealing the light of souls
as the world rolls
leaking corruption
into oblivion
No
this breeze lifts me
away from the gloom
no sense of doom
filtering light and life
through the room
expounding courage
for others who need
yet, the 1%,
aware of their deeds
we all must confront
Stand up
let there be
no escape for them
…or thus
on that playful breeze
there will be
no escape for me
…for us
It’s not about hoarding as some have said about self sufficiency, rather about not having to dash to the shops for things we have no idea of re their origin, treatment (sprays and gassing) or road miles/fuel consumption but the feeling of satisfaction, when you know exactly where your produce is coming from.
If every person did just a little, we could feed the world.
So while I craft away at my art and the next book that’s very slowly taking form, and winter vegetables are harvest ready in the greenhouse, I think of the rat race life once led and commiserate with those caught on the proverbial treadmill. In order to leave said rat race behind, one has to want more in terms of peace and freedom but less in terms of status, things and more, more, more of everything.
We lack for nothing, despite high rates and the general cost of items we simply cannot grow or make ourselves, but then they’re not the throw away kind of things… not prestigious, not empty and sterile but full of life, (we party too), community and simplicity…
When did we decide we didn’t need nature?
I know there are many like-minded people “out there,” I speak to them daily and see the regular posts of information on climate conditions, which means nobody can claim ignorance and yet, governments approved more coal and gas harvesting, more old growth forest pillaging and as a result many creatures have lost their home territories and we feel we have the right to this… the end result may well be that we will lose ours!
AND DON’T GET ME STARTED ON DATA CENTRES!!!! Yes that’s me yelling, then.
Well… that got that off my chest but, that said, does anyone else feel as if there is no return from the horror of the world right now… and I won’t get started on the war, madness and mayhem?
I ask you again… when did we decide we didn’t need nature?
When did we disconnect from her energy and bounty. When did we believe her resources were infinite and that we could plunder them endlessly? When did we allow bees to die for the convenience of being fed by conglomerates rather than farmers, gardeners, local produce merchants or from our own back yards?
When did food, created practically in science labs, become more important than the growing of food in a garden or wild crafted gently from the environment in season. Yet, everything, absolutely everything comes from nature. Even man made creations have their foundation in her and she is the only planet we know of where we can survive… so why are we destroying our unique, crazy paradise when there is no Planet B?
Start slowly… deeply analyse your needs. What are you waiting for that delays taking those first steps?
You don’t need a squillion acres of land to begin a journey of rediscovering what our ancestors always knew and with today’s kitchen and garden books/videos and a few simple aids, we can quickly become garden and kitchen pros. At least enough to fill a pantry with healthy fare, enough to share.
A small garden, a verandah or balcony, a little greenhouse, or even a kitchen bench is a place to begin a new journey of discovery.
Yes, we planned ahead by observing the trends evident to all and we made the time earlier on (despite raising four children and working full time for many years), yet here we are, dedicated to the natural world, enjoying our life with no need for influencers, dedicated only to their own self image and sales quotas.
Dare to dream the future… dare to dream there will be a bright one for your children, grandchildren… great grandchildren…
Walk softly… edit the dream when it no longer describes your purpose… blessed Imbolc or Lughnasadh… Awen /|\
Penny
Photography, art and verse, copyright ©️ Penny Reilly all rights reserved.
Penny Reilly Artist Beyond the Gate 
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