I’m embracing the slow life more these days. It’s a way of existing I’ve felt a great affinity with for some years. When we lived in Mold I was the U.K. project officer for Cittaslow UK for a time (Cittaslow being Italian for Slow Town where the idea originated). Just in our small town we planted community orchards and put on festivals ❤. It’s not a movement that’s taken off so much in the U.K. and I would break my…
I’ve never been this far north before and although we’ve come during a particularly charmed summer season, I’m in awe at the beautiful, seemingly delicate plants that grow here. Even in this inhospitable place on the edge of a cliff that is mostly battered by wind and rain or salted sea water, these plants thrive. Tiny birds (twite?) whip across the sky like bonfire ashes and I can’t imagine how such fragile-looking creatures survive these summers, nevermind winters. I’m also…
The weather has changed today. It’s much cooler than it was, less sunny. It has made me think about change: how we embrace or resist it. How sometimes it can be so good for you and at other times it’s exactly what is not needed. In the past I’ve needed to stay still, to root in one place in order to grow and change slowly, like a tree. I needed those times so that I could be around the same…
Parked next to this beautiful Alder tree on the northwest coast of Scotland for a couple of days I feel her rooting into my consciousness and dreams. I am trying to be more mindful of thoughts when around certain trees: what emotions am I experiencing? What memories are surfacing? What fragments of conversations/films/books/songs/poems are needling at the mind? Dreams have been turbulent but I cannot remember any details – I know this is also something that needs work. I am…
I’ve started documenting a daily connection with nature over on the OUTSIDER Instagram account (#dailyconnectionwithnature). It’s not always going to be something huge and life-changing but it is about pausing at least once a day to immerse in nature, and by taking time to record these moments I’m encouraged to meditate more on what these connections might mean. As we already walk the dogs in the woods every day this isn’t about that, it’s about exploring one step further, making…