Learning from the forest I recently watched a documentary called Intelligent Trees, featuring the work of the Canadian professor of forsest ecology, Suzanne Simard, and the German radical forester, Peter Wohlleben. The intelligence of trees is extraordinary, but it is also a deeply foreign language—we have to proceed by metaphor rather than imposing anthropomorphising language […]
Uncategorized
The art of receptivity
Over the last few blogs I’ve been considering the threefold values of inspiration, intuition and invocation. In all of these values there is a balance of the the contractive and the expansive. We go within, we get out of our own way and we allow the unconscious to make those links that no amount of […]
Why writers need to value their writing to live their values
Each year (running from the season of Imbolc) I try to give my blogs a broad theme to explore an area of how our creative lives and the whole of our live’s journey intersect. I believe any artistic practice can be transformative—writing, sculpture, quilting, composing music, gardening, crafting herbal remedies… The list could go on. […]
Why writers need to be kith
‘Does it enhance connection? In a world in which companies like Monsanto can successfully sue farmers because seed from a neighbouring farm was carried by wind or bees into their crop so they are deemed to have ‘stolen’ Monsanto’s copyrighted property, the whole notion of connection is under serious threat. Cross pollination, a natural connection, […]
Writing from hawthorn, elder, heart
On a bright, cold morning in September I found myself sitting by the Seine in Paris. The trees were still lush and green, but the rustle of leaves in the brisk little wind was a dry rattle like grain in a rain-stick. It had been a long, arid summer. Across France wildfires were still burning, […]
Writing the seasons of grief
We live in a culture that is not good at dealing with grief, a culture that often finds loss too much to handle. And yet the world is a constant cycle of loss and gain, of death and life. Every year, every season, every day we have profound and compelling metaphors of change, love and […]