I‘ve been thinking of the ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ mindset a lot lately, but honestly – I don’t think most women are afraid. Fuck. We give birth, or don’t. Which is equally as brave. We hold communities together, or set out solo across the world. We love so fucking hard for so many people without fear. What holds us back, what keeps us ‘in our place’ is guilt. Guilt that we shouldn’t be: so loud, so large,…
I feel there’s not enough easily accessible information about being in the outdoors and women’s periods/moons/cycles. A recent exchange made me realise that instead of expecting male writers to include words detailing it, outdoor women could write more openly about it all. I was inspired to write this after reading an article ‘How To Shit in the Woods’ on the Gather Outdoors website, which I highly recommend for its practical, environmental approach to, well, shitting in the woods. If you…
I turned 43 this year. I’d read that mid-forties is a difficult time as it’s when the ageing process becomes more noticeable. Ha. Fuck that. This year I’m learning to surf, spent a week living on my own in the van in a forest in Slovenia, and learned to love & trust myself more than I ever have done in the past. Maybe to some these aren’t massive achievements. We’re not the same – all needing different things from life…
Sophie McKeand as one voice in an ocean, she holds no power you shape her, fold wave / within wave. when contained by hydro-dams, or stifled in water butts her energy is stagnated potential sluiced through the gutter press & out into a wild night her mouth is wicked you source her surface for erotic inspiration hold her accountable for awkward erections pressure memories underground until the earth frAct/ures once she was a goddess formless / in form, your ancestors worshipped her free & unfettered.…
EVERYTHING YOU DREAM OF IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF FEAR. What are you waiting for? A regret-filled life is nothing to be proud of. Maybe this poem says that in a dark way. Maybe it should be more inspirational & cheery but honestly, there’s nothing cheery about unfulfilled potential. If other people cannot see your vision it doesn’t mean you’re wrong, it’s that they’re not you. Be brave. Whatever it is just start taking small steps towards it every…
Spending a lot of time with the women in my family on this return journey. Healing a lot of old wounds. We are a loud & lairy cohort. In the past I’ve both loved & hated this. I’ve tried to run from it; pretended to be someone else. And then there’s this point where I’ve shapeshifted through all of it; evolved away & then back towards myself, towards us. Nobody knows me like these women, nobody has stood up for…
Today, on the day the holly king takes over from the oak king to preside over the waning half of the year, our daughter Rhiannon turns 23. I thought to teach her so much about life but really it is she who taught me, about motherhood, about love & friendship. Twenty three years was another life ago. Every day I woke and wanted to be a better person, was inspired by her to fully understand the capacity of love so…
Since being on the road, so many inspiring women have appeared in my life: women with unapologetic wrinkles, women with ‘too-loud’ laughs utterly unashamed to take up space; mothers, grandmothers, aunts (whether literal or in a more metaphorical sense); all creative, earth-focussed women who have appeared like magic to offer friendship or support or just a generous ear; women who are just quietly working away to make their part of the world a better place to be.…
Still thinking about grandmothers. About how this age changes a woman. How it has changed me since my grandson Arthur was born (swipe left). These shifts in consciousness feel nothing less than miraculous, & here I exist in this liminal space, being both grandmother & granddaughter. Time stretches out behind & before me like elastic. I can feel it thrum through the centre of my heart. The changes that have happened in the world since nana Ruth was born (see…