The writing course that I have been doing online for the last 7 months, sadly finished this week. I decided last year to enrol onto the course with Animate Earth because every week as I sat down to write this blog, I had the same battle with my inner teenager who constantly told me that I couldn’t write and that I was hopeless at English. Clearly this began at school but her voice had never left me. Thanks to the teachings, lessons, homework and the encouragement of the other scribes who were on it, I have finally lost that inner critic; I still have plenty of others, but that one has, at least, been silenced. The course was about finding the language to better describe our relationship with the natural world whilst deepening and developing our connection to the whole, animate web of life. We are simply part of this web, not the pinnacle, not the darling of creation, just simply a piece of the interconnected whole. It may seem obvious but to many people it is not and the task suggested to us, is to write about our experience to help spread awareness and bring this topic into the consciousness of more people.

We all agreed that we needed to be brave in our expression of how we perceive things to be. We cannot, however, change other people or make them see things the way we do, but by talking and writing openly about our own experiences, we can at least feel as though we are expressing ourselves and the natural world as we perceive it. All change has to begin within oneself and being openly candid about our own truth, is the most genuine path we can walk. It is comforting to know that others are walking this path too. Each in their own way, but knowing they are somewhere along the way is empowering, to say the least.

The challenge is to connect to readers and meet them wherever they are at in their thinking, yet everyone is in such different places I am not sure how to do that. Although as far as I know, everyone feels that things in the world are broken and we are all at a loss as to work out what we do about it. It would seem that all governments, or certainly many, are failing at governing anymore and extremism is growing out of control. Perhaps that is it: we are not in control and never have been, but we were all under the illusion that we were. There appears to be a mass ‘waking up’ and realising that we’ve been hoodwinked and the emotional separation from the natural world has allowed our societies to bring our beloved world to a point of collapse. Spending more time within nature and reestablishing our connectedness to it, is a crucial place to start if we are to awaken the change that is so necessary for our survival. I have found it very useful sitting with the old trees around here. They have immense wisdom and are happy to share it to those willing to listen.

However, If I even attempt to think on a global scale, I can’t begin to fathom what to do and I feel paralysed and hopeless. My solution is to focus on what is actually personally achievable and that is to be honest and open with myself and then share that with others. Perhaps it will help other people to do the same, or maybe it won’t; that is not within my remit but at least my own honesty will help me to live my authentic truth. I will try to make educated choices that aren’t always commercially sensible, but they are the right choice from a broader perspective, ultimately aiming to have long term, win-win solutions for every species concerned. Starting with working to get clean water, healthier, more local food and sharing this space with as much of the web of life as possible.

What exciting times we are born into. There is change afoot and I will be trying to write what I can to create the reality I would like to live in and to leave for the generations that follow. It all starts here. There is just quite a mess to clear up before we get there, but if we each make a small change for the better, we will eventually get to where we are headed. My suggestion is to go and ask the trees, and trust whatever you sense.