So my intention for 2025 is to commit thoughts and ambitions to paper. To hone my focus and share the insights that I perceive from mother earth and the collective consciousness. It is a step towards embodying my authentic self, being more open and honest with myself and others. It is the first new year’s resolution I have made for about 20 years and typically for me, it comes later than convention dictates as it is the 6th January. But one step towards authenticity is to work to our own timetable rather than working rigidly to the calendar created by the others. We all have our own rhythm and pace. I will be working towards stepping into my own and being ok with that. 

 

Whilst on an online workshop with Manda Scott from the Accidental Gods podcast yesterday, we each thought through and listed anything that was ‘our heart’s greatest joy’ and then we made another list for ‘the world’s greatest need’. After that we observed and noted where these two lists overlapped or intertwined. My lists were much about what we are doing around the estate: healthy soil, increasing biodiversity, interconnected thinking, being compassionate, to name a few of the two long lists. The next step was to recognise how we felt when we focused on each of the three lists and to pay attention to our body’s response. This, for me, was a crystallising moment. When I felt my heart’s list I felt warm but indulging and mildly selfish. When I focused on the earth’s list I felt an element of agitation and slight anxiety. But when I focused on where the lists interconnected, I felt my whole soul open and begin to sing. I felt expansive, grounded and safe. A sense of utopia. 

 

So this is my commitment to 2025… I will focus my attention on the interconnection between what makes my heart sing and what the earth needs: Regenerative agriculture, gratitude, kindness, thoughful/mindful behaviour, biodiversity and awareness of the interconnectedness of all things. I will commit to this via the blog so that I document the process, the highs and lows of a journey towards the unknown, working towards the greater good for all creatures, big and microscopic, who inhabit this estate and beyond. Everything is animate, interconnected and important. For one thing to thrive, we must all thrive. 

 

I begin with gratitude. For being here; for having the opportunity; for learning the sense of stillness to perceive; for those around me who listen; for those who don’t, who challenge me to dig deeper; to those ancestors who offer guidance and support; and most of all to mother earth, Gaia, who relentlessly provides, nourishes and nurtures us all. Thank you from the bottom of my more joyful heart.