Seeds for Thought: an Ecopsychology Blog

Coming to Our Senses

Just a heads up about a book that seems to really resonate with Joanna Macy-style teachings...

Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World through Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn

No, it's not about just sending out "good energy" and sitting back and doing nothing! It's about living, really living, your life as if it actually mattered: to you, your loved ones, your community, the world... Because, as we know, it DOES!

Only have just finished the introduction, but so far, so very good. :)

Maybe

Having just completed a move from England to Wales, am exhausted. Understandably. But having CFS/ME makes me think, makes me wonder.

Could we CFS/MEers survive an energy crash? Of course, you know I mean a societal energy crash, not a personal one.

Having thought I'd be moving from a typical terraced cottage into a caravan (sharing the nearby house's bathroom, kitchen and washing machine) as a stop gap before moving into a yurt... am starting to question the feasibility of that lifestyle. Feeling very lucky to have space for all my things, (pared down though they are from recent sorting for other destinations). Lucky to have a kitchen right here. To have the bathroom, washing machine. To having working central heating and electricity...

Preparing for the Big Move

Writing about our week will hopefully be slightly easier when we’re actually together...

I spent most of the time hearing: "How exciting!" "Wow: that's so different!" "And you'll have broadband??!"

At a sustainability conference... Talk, talk, talk.

Meanwhile, Howard has been all do, do, do – as he got decidedly STUCK IN. Literally. And his muscles ache. His patience tested...

He arrived in Lincolnshire on Tuesday... helped collect the new hens from down the street (at one point had five in his hands!). Not entirely comfortable with grabbing them, frightening them... They’ve been arranging their pecking order... And all the girls seem a bit interested in Waldo, the local cockerel, from afar... Waldo is still desperate to get in there.

on being hippy happy

We are moving to rural Lincolnshire next month... and on our NEW BLOG we cite our reasons for doing so: peak oil and climate change. But I didn't explain it well enough because I've left out the whole happiness factor.

Getting "back to the land" has intrinsic value. Being a part of the cycles, having the weather as part of your daily plan, hearing the wind from the caravan or yurt in a different way than you would experience it in a house... Ditto for the rain.

Not being tempted by shops and cafes and pubs. Really having to want to go somewhere in order to get there.

Freedom and space to ride my bicycle. The sea just two miles away.

Knowing precisely the origin of my food. Even the chicken.

Taking advantage of daylight. The seasons right under me, around me, through me.

at the pub

They are sitting outside, drinking under the cherry blossoms in the beer garden. It is warm.

My granddaughter did not blame me for the floods or the social violence. She knew that it was just unfortunate that I did nothing to prevent them: I was just being clumsy and stupid – It could've happened to anyone.

There is no fight in me unless there is an enemy. There is no enemy outside of me, so there is no fight in me.

If I tell you about climate change,
.....you turn your head toward the sun, basking.