​

​

things to remember as this world dies

​

you did not come here to pay bills and die

nor did you come to build the fortunes

of those destroying the Earth

​

Imagine instead

that you came to gather precious things

fallen from the pockets of Ancient Ones

as they fled the desert's march - 

each a reminder of something

they pledged never to forget

​

Things like

how to call birds by name with your whistle

which news to tell the bees

and which to share only with the moon

how to tell a parliament from a conspiracy

a colony from a convocation

​

Things like

Nature has no race or nation, class or creed

except when humans seek to deceive - 

division designed to sever you

from kith and kin and buddha-mind

​

Things like:

the antidote to oppression

is not freedom but belonging

the opposite of domination is communion

the medicine you need

is always outside your door

and there's likely a wise women 

two streets away

to show you how to use it

​

These things were left to help us remember

how each world before has ended

and how death wants to become a door to new life

and how this world wants to take you in her arms

and make of you a lover

and have you listen to the land

talk to the stream

find meaning in the silence of trees

and wisdom on the singing breeze

​

Listen awhile to discover

the right season for all the ten thousand things

the ninety-nine names we use for our own divinity

how to share power

so it cannot be captured by the vain and greedy

how to step into the flow of life

and make of the Earth

a common treasury for all beings

how to map the stars

learn the lesson of each constellation

and still know there is more in heaven and earth

than any of us were ever meant to know

​

So fill your pockets as this world dies

knowing some of it will guide you to the next

and some will fall to the ground

in time to be found

by those who'll bring the world back to life.

​

Chris Taylor

​

​

..............................

​

 

An Imagined Letter from Covid-19 to Humans

 

Stop. Just stop.
It is no longer a request. It is a mandate.
We will help you.
We will bring the supersonic, high speed merry-go-round to a halt
We will stop
the planes
the trains
the schools
the malls
the meetings
the frenetic, furied rush of illusions and “obligations” that keep you from hearing our
single and shared beating heart,
the way we breathe together, in unison.
Our obligation is to each other,
As it has always been, even if, even though, you have forgotten.
We will interrupt this broadcast, the endless cacophonous broadcast of divisions and distractions,
to bring you this long-breaking news:
We are not well.
None of us; all of us are suffering.
Last year, the firestorms that scorched the lungs of the earth
did not give you pause.
Nor the typhoons in Africa, China, Japan.
Nor the fevered climates in Japan and India.
You have not been listening.
It is hard to listen when you are so busy all the time, hustling to uphold the comforts and conveniences that scaffold your lives.
But the foundation is giving way,
buckling under the weight of your needs and desires.
We will help you.
We will bring the firestorms to your body
We will bring the fever to your body
We will bring the burning, searing, and flooding to your lungs
that you might hear:
We are not well.
Despite what you might think or feel, we are not the enemy.
We are Messenger. We are Ally. We are a balancing force.
We are asking you:
To stop, to be still, to listen;
To move beyond your individual concerns and consider the concerns of all;
To be with your ignorance, to find your humility, to relinquish your thinking minds and travel deep into the mind of the heart;
To look up into the sky, streaked with fewer planes, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, smoky, smoggy, rainy? How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy?
To look at a tree, and see it, to notice its condition: how does its health contribute to the health of the sky, to the air you need to be healthy?
To visit a river, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, clean, murky, polluted? How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy? How does its health contribute to the health of the tree, who contributes to the health of the sky, so that you may also be healthy?
Many are afraid now.
Do not demonize your fear, and also, do not let it rule you. Instead, let it speak to you—in your stillness,
listen for its wisdom.
What might it be telling you about what is at work, at issue, at risk, beyond the threats of personal inconvenience and illness?
As the health of a tree, a river, the sky tells you about quality of your own health, what might the quality of your health tell you about the health of the rivers, the trees, the sky, and all of us who share this planet with you?
Stop.
Notice if you are resisting.
Notice what you are resisting.
Ask why.
Stop. Just stop.
Be still.
Listen.
Ask us what we might teach you about illness and healing, about what might be required so that all may be well.
We will help you, if you listen.

 

Kristin Flyntz

​

​

..............................

​

​

A quote I have been holding in mind whilst reshaping my professional life over the last few years.

​

'Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.'

 

Rumi

..

..............................

​

​

In the CPD group I recently facilitated, we explored working therapeutically with nature and the outdoors, exploring what it means to move away from differentiating inner and outer, what it means to approach nature as 'Thou' and not something different and less valuable/important than human animals....

 

'The inner...what is it?'

​

‘The inner… what is it?

  if not the intensified sky,

  hurled through with birds and deep

  with the winds of homecoming.’

 

Rilke

​

..............................

​

​

Because this supports me, in case it supports you

​

Busy with Many Jobs

​

Busy with very urgent jobs

I forgot

one also has

to die

​

irresponsible

I kept neglecting this duty

or performed it

perfunctorily

​

as from tomorrow

things will be different

​

I'll start dying meticulously

wisely optimistically

without wasting time

​

Tadeusz Rozewicz, translated by Adam Czerniawski

​

..............................

​

 

Some words I read in the workshop 'Playing: possibility, transformation and the unexpected' which I facilitated in Edinburgh Gestalt Institute  in August 2017.

​

'They caught all the wild children...'

​

'They caught all the wild children,

and put them in zoos,

They made them do sums

and wear sensible shoes.

They put them to bed

at the wrong time of day,

And made them sit still

when they wanted to play.

They scrubbed them with soap

and they made them eat peas.

They made them behave and

say pardon and please.

They took all their wisdom

and wildness away.

​

That's why there are none

in the forests today.'

​

From 'Wild Child', J. Willis and L. Freytag

​

​

..............................

​

​

Aunt Leaf

​

Needing one, I invented her - 

The great-great-aunt dark as hickory

Called Shining-Leaf or Drifting-Cloud

Or The-Beauty-of-the-NIght.

​

Dear aunt I'd call into the leaves,

and she'd rise up, like an old log in a pool.

and whisper in a language only the two of us knew

the word that meant follow,

​

and we'd travel

cheerful as birds

out of the dusty town and into the trees

where she would change us both into something

quicker - 

two foxed with black feet,

two snakes green as ribbons,

two shimmering fish - and all day we'd travel.

​

At day's end she'd leave me back at my own door

with the rest of my family,

who were kind, but solid as wood

and rarely wandered. While she,

old twist of feathers and birch bark,

would walk in circles wide as rain and then

float back

​

scattering the rags of twilight

on fluttering moth wings;

​

or she'd slouch from the barn like an gray opossum;

​

or she's hang in the milky moonlight

burning like a medallion,

​

this bone dream, this friend I had to have,

this old woman made out of leaves.

​

Mary Oliver

​

..............................

​

​