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There’s no better time than now to practice resilience and regeneration and although the current abnormal and sometimes short sighted, poorly advised responses by some world governments are causing huge disruption to businesses and people’s live’s all around the world, we need to remind ourselves that as a species we have remained courageous and resilient throughout, surviving almost every major global event!

Possible panic from the fearmongering could more than likely get you killed because of the related unhealthy stress that comes with it?!

I am in no way suggesting we just completely ignore the fact that there is something definetly amiss but there has always been many adversities to overcome and we do this by sticking together through community support and contributing.

We as a species can be too quick to jump to conclusions, sometimes much to our detriment, especially in this digital age so prone to transient flux and the next best thing or the latest juicy sordid detail of some celebrity under the ever watchful public camera!
All this knee jerk reactionary behaviour that doesn’t do any of us any good!

If we all practice common sense, don’t panic and above all else take the time to consider that current political agendas could be the perfect opportunity to take a step back and observe our lives, our behaviour and outlook on life, our attitude to those around us and our often too reactionary modes of conversing we might begin to make some small positive changes to our own lives before pointing the finger and trying to place our responsibilities on someone else?

Perhaps now is the perfect opportunity to reflect on consumption?
Responding responsibly rather than in a reactionary manner. (Response-ability)
Contributing to community rather than consuming, joining that community group you’ve been talking about for years but never got around to.
Starting up a CIC or other form of charity or community group that will benefit you and all your neighbours? It doesn’t even have to be anything major!

From personal experience I can certainly vouch for my own mishaps at aiming too high and only ending up with major disappointment. My favourite mantra of this decade:

“Dream Big, Start Small!”

Spring is supposedly here!? April 2020

You can hear it in the trees and see it in the first flush of snow drops and tete -a-tetes and the soft fresh vibrant green of newly unfurling leaves!

Have you got out in your garden yet?

I know the weather hasn’t been great since about October 2019 but we have had the odd good day here and there and if this blasted wind would just move along swiftly now, we might feel a bit more of the sun’s warmth on our backs as we nurture and prepare the earth for new seedlings and young plants?And besides, every day is good, doesn’t have to have the weather dictate one’s view of the world on any given day now does it? It’s what we make of it that makes all the difference!

March 15th 2020:
My potatoes have scrutinised me now for long enough from the cold white window sill! So it’s time they were laid to rest in the ground so a new family can grow from them and feed us for another year. I’m glad I got out in the garden today! It’s felt like an age since I actually communed with the earth!

It’s been some time since I smelled the evocative dank earthy smell of freshly turned compost that will give new life to another generation of “spuds”, fingers crossed? 😉

Do you create your own compost?

It’s hugely satisfying and doubly rewarding, knowing that what is generally considered waste by some can actually contribute to the cycle of life once again, keeping the energy flowing instead of stagnating!
A stark reminder of the fragile balance held between life and death and how they are so deeply interlinked, entwined and interdependent.

And on that note I’d like to draw you attention to some of my own garden practices.
Although nothing new, I’ve made the decision to embrace a bit of “chaos” in my garden! When I use the word “chaos” I really mean order.
And by order, I mean the order we can observe in every facet and every cell of nature. (For many years I’ve scowled at the humungus beech in our back yard as it takes away all the summer sun, there are many upsides to it though and I am sure if you use your imagination you will come up with most if not all of them!?)

To the naked eye it mostly seems like chaos right? Yet somehow it all just seems to work.

Even though in some sense, our gardens may seem far removed from the apparent chaos of nature, with our artificial lawns, our pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, our concrete pavers and sanitised playbark and cheap plastic solar lights from China which generally don’t survive the year, we can still get out in them and enjoy them. Especially now that it’s starting to show signs of warming up.

We can still get out and spend some time looking at things, observing nature if we make a small effort to invite it in.

Doesn’t take much –
leave a small pile of twigs and/or logs at the back of the border where it won’t be an eyesore or if you really want to get creative, make a feature out of a log pile!?

Or if you really have some time to kill, like now if you’re self isolating why not give this a bash?

..Ahem…er…or maybe something smaller first?

All I can say is I’ve had an absolute blast writing this entry and I hope you have all enjoyed reading it? I’ll leave you with this lesson learnt from Permaculture Design:

The Problem can also be the solution.