Visions Of The Future

Are we on the verge of total self-destruction?

It's not hard to get distressed about the state of the world and to feel despairing about the future. In fact I find it a bit strange when people don't have at least a tad of concern about our common future and the planet as a whole. But despair, distress and defeatism can really bring you down, just as every day (unless we live in some kind of insulated bubble) we see or hear of new atrocities, threats, injustices and new depths of personal, societal and planetary destruction.

How do we keep hold of positive visions in the face of relentless and brutal violence as has been happening in the last few weeks to the people in Turkey and in countries around the world wherever people rise against the tyranny of financial, political or religious abuse of power? How do we take steps towards peace when our governments and militaries are intent on leading us into ever worsening conditions of warfare, plans for Syria being the latest? When their cuts and their undemocratic policies lead to further inequality, alienation and social breakdown within our communities?

How do we not give up in the face of insidious, multinational industries such as that of pornography, the global arms trade, animal exploitation or of corporations such as Monsanto.

 

Of course the corporations and governments, the bankers, arms dealers, religious fundamentalists... have visions too. Visions that are driving their actions. Visions that can be traced back to original seedbeds (or test tubes!) and can be unearthed by such investigations as following the money or asking questions like 'In what ways do they benefit?' 'Who profits?' 'What do they need us to believe in order to keep us compliant?' 'How are we feeding their power?' These questions and more can help us discover their vulnerabilities, their stakeholders, their strategies, and the opportunities which may help to bring their structures down, to target their power bases. Their visions are for the control of our future, for the continued accumulation of profit and power into the hands of the few. But we are also increasingly seeing opportunities for ways to take the first step. With the Occupy movements and the immense diversity of protests around the world (often neglected by mainstream media); with the incredible courage of whistleblowers and activists bringing the hidden abuses into the light; with the countless people who dare to imagine and share visions for a different future.

 

I recently went to a workshop in Glastonbury run by Starhawk entitled 'Times of Hope and Chaos'.

We live at a pivotal moment in history, when the tides of hope are rising, but the systems that sustain us, environmental, social and financial, are crumbling all around. How do we navigate through the storm, and bring ourselves and our world to a place of harmony, balance and beauty? We need both the tools of spirit grounding, deep connection and celebration and the skills of organizing and mobilizing vision, passion, courage and commitment. And we need the ideas and principles that can help us shift our culture from an obsession with things to a focus on relationships. (From publicity text)

Over the weekend we discussed the difficulties we can come up against when we're trying to organise for change individually and amongst activist groups, and the strategies which we can use to creatively move through them. We worked on visioning the future. If we want to change the world we need a positive vision of what a different future can look like, rather than the predominant one being constructed by corporate capitalism and projected by mainstream media.

I was particularly struck by one exercise we did which was a visualised trance journey to experience our vision of the future we want to see. We journeyed far into the future where I stepped into my personal vision of a utopian world. I found this fairly easy to do. There were abundant images forming of harmonious living in the mental creation of my ideal world. A place where housing, education, water, food, transport, healthcare, cities, etc. were all designed and powered with respect for peoples, animals and the Earth. Simple eh! Not so surprisingly for me, the 'guide' who was waiting to meet me, turned out to be an old herbalist woman. She gave me the words 'patience', 'persistence', 'kindness'. This future was very like the positive society written about in Starhawk's book The Fifth Sacred Thing which profoundly inspired me when I first read it 20 years ago and of which I'm excited to know is currently being made into a film. Here's the latest trailer for it:



However, the next part of the visualised journey was very different and a lot more difficult. We were asked to step back halfway between this distant future vision and our current world, to experience our halfway-there future. To begin with I found it impossible. The current reality and the future possibility seemed completely disconnected. There seemed to be no path or bridge between them for me to follow and find a vision. They appeared such contrasting opposites that it felt hopeless to attempt to travel between the two on any kind of conceivable path. It felt like there was no ground on which to stand on. Then I remembered it's alright to feel that - to stay with that experience of groundlessness. (I've been helpfully influenced by the teachings of the Buddhist, Pema Chodron, in particular her book 'When Things Fall Apart').

So, once I stopped panicking about not knowing how to get from here to there, a vision of the halfway path began to emerge. It was indeed a place of both chaos and hope, like our current world but much more so. In many ways it looked like the present, but more broken with a stronger sense of confusion and fragmentation. The chaos of old structures breaking up and the hope inherent in new ones struggling into being. I felt lost, disorientated, unsure of my focus. There was a sense of distortion, of hectic pace, of disturbing disintegration and desperate innovation. It felt like many people were moving in different directions as if sped up in a film, almost robotic in their lack of connection with those they were passing. Then there were others who were like points of stillness and moving as in slow motion. There were strong community structures growing up like powerful green shoots through concrete, infused with a wild and passionate energy of freedom and determined resilience. In a nurturing community café space I meet an old woman 'guide' who was silent. Although I couldn't hear any words from her she conveyed a message of 'just hold on', 'stand your ground'. She seemed to represent the need for an anchor point and the strength to remain.

Then in this exercise, we were asked to return to one step away from now. What is the very first step on our journey into the future we want to create?

On this workshop I met up with Marion, a woman who is creating a travelling exhibition of positive visions of the future. She showed me some inspiring bits of film she's been making around festivals asking people about what's important to them. She's collating some wonderful pieces of dreaming to help us take the steps we need towards the future we want to create. The Dream The Future project's website can be found here (although I believe Marion and the exhibition may already be on their travels). A very true quote from the website: "The best way to predict the future is to create it" -unknown.

http://www.dreamthefuture.org.uk/



 



Here's the result of a little brainstorming I did for this project.

I became quite interested in this whole positive visions idea... especially if it means opening a metaphorical window of possibility that we're not all doomed... if it means inspiring ourselves and each other into real meaningful direct action and relationships which could give us even a gnat's pee size chance of changing our current direction for the better... if it means providing a public platform for some voices of sanity... We all need to help to turn the tides of disillusion and despair, because this world, this life, is actually indescribably awesome and it's time we started loving it and daring to create the realities which are waiting to germinate from our wildest most fabulous visions!

So here are several more examples I came across of people expressing their positive visions of the future. I haven't checked them all out or who's behind them yet, but I reckon there could be some good ideas amongst them. We have to be aware of a lot of lovely words which nasty corporations and ineffective institutions like to use to give themselves a greenwash and pretend they're doing something good whilst spinning us a yarn, so doing our research amongst the information overload is an ongoing process! For example, most of us are probably aware of the way words such as 'sustainable' 'peacekeeping' and 'free range' can have hugely different meanings depending on who's using them! Next time the gloom descends, why not explore a few alternatives, or dream up our own. On the other hand, why wait until then?

Imagine the future from WHAT on Vimeo.

Check out the following links for more visions of the future!

WHAT About the Future? (Lots of interesting short films asking the question, mainly in English or French):  https://vimeo.com/whatonline/videos/page:2/sort:date

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-rippberger/visions-for-the-future-go_b_3396725.html

Creative Visions Foundation: http://www.creativevisions.org/get-involved/cap/visions-for-the-future

We Dream The Future (Aimed at 12-22 yr olds): http://www.wedreamthefuture.com/

Winners of BBC Competition of visual visions of the future:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21887443

Er...hmm?! http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/24-visions-of-the-future-that-never-came-to-pass

And because I'm an 80s girl...



'...Whatever we do let's make a pledge to put it right

So we can end the rule of the division

Putting the dream into action..."

 

Stop The Badger Cull! Now!

On Saturday, I joined several thousand people in London marching against the badger cull which is planned to start any night now.

We can still stop the killing!




* Sign the petition: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257

* Contact your MP: http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-your-mp/contacting-your-mp/ This week on Wed 6th June,there is a full Parliamentary debate and vote on the cull. Please urge your MP to vote against the cull.

* Keep informed of the campaign: http://www.teambadger.org.uk/index.html

* Support or join the non-violent direct action to sabotage the cull once it begins. Here are details of local groups who can help to put you in touch with activists: http://www.huntsabs.org.uk/index.php/get-involved/localgroups

* Use social media. There are plenty of Facebook groups to find out about actions and campaign developments - just search 'badger cull'. On Twitter, every Monday 11am-1pm voice your opposition to the cull using the hashtag #badgermonday. Every Tuesday is #PetitionTuesday to publicise the e-petition (share the petition link above)

* Join the next march or action!

* Donate money to the campaign or the saboteurs.

There are lots of different ways we can all participate and coming at it from every angle helps. Together we can make this cull unworkable and unaffordable. Save the badgers!

Mucus Not Maypoles... Naturally Healing A Sinus Infection At Beltane!

Happy Beltane!

Well, the Beltane sun has been shining radiantly today and I've managed to soak up a little of it in my quest to recover from a horrible sinus infection. As I didn't feel up for dancing around maypoles, going for long walks gathering blossoms or making love in the morning dew, I've decided to write this blog post as my way of celebration!

Beltane is about celebration of life, fertility and abundance, of the Earth and all who live from her, the definite Spring and the promise ahead of Summer returning...

Having this illness has propelled me into deep gratitude for the abundance of the Earth, in the healing foods and herbs which are getting me well again. In particular with treating a sinus infection, I've been really stoking the Beltane fires with the heat of garlic, onion, horseradish, cayenne...

And the process of getting well has a lot of fertility going on within it. The synthesis of nutrients and phytochemicals and my own biochemical responses is a real love story creating a healthy living being (me) which can then go forth and multiply my abundant desires and birth all the things in the world I want to! Well, that's the plan J

Warning: Talking of 'abundance', this post will contain the word MUCUS quite a lot of times and possibly even descriptions.

I'm writing a post about this partly because it took a lot of commitment and perseverance and if I ever get sinusitis again, I can come right back here to save myself the work of figuring out what I need! I'm not writing it as a guide for anyone else but if it does help anyone who is looking for a way of avoiding antibiotics for ridding themselves of a severe sinus infection, then that's great!

Of course anyone with a serious health problem should seek the advice of a professional medical practitioner (there are lots of good herbalists around, or even a GP). Sometimes infections can develop a serious complication which needs urgent immediate attention, so it's always worth checking it out with someone if you have any concerns. And as always, do your own research!

Pharmaceutical antibiotics certainly have their place and there's no doubt they can save lives when the time is right and necessary. But their overuse is seriously damaging peoples' health and increasing the resistance  of harmful bacteria to the medicine. We can choose to take back more control of our health and find alternatives which can do a much a more effective and healthy job of supporting our recovery, with none of the damaging side-effects. 

So far the food and herbs are proving effective but I'm also happy to have that prescription on the wall if I need it too. This is, after all, a blog post written from within the process.

Background All my family went down with a really nasty flu-type illness while we were on holiday. It manifested differently for all of us but we all agreed it was horrible and powerful and not your usual run-of-the-mill bug. I managed to get through the holiday drinking licorice tea, Echinacea tincture, elderberry syrup and nettle soup but also did a fair amount of wandering round windy high hills and old cold houses and after my return it seemed to hang on as a sore throat and general tired feeling. The sore throat made it painful to swallow, and there was the feeling of pressure in my head and the sensation of mucus going down the back of my throat a lot of the time. I realised I had blocked sinuses although I could still breathe normally.

YIKES! Mucus oodling out of eye! I was watching Doctor Who on Sunday night with sudden difficulty as my left eye started hurting as if it had eyelashes or something in it, but there were none. Then my vision went quite cloudy and I looked in the mirror to see creamy mucus across the iris and oodling out of the corner of the eye. That was when I realised that my blocked sinuses had got a bit more serious and infected. I wiped it, took some golden seal tincture and went to bed. I didn't have a great night as my head, eye and throat were aching a lot.

Prescription for antibiotics In the morning I woke to find my eye sealed closed and very swollen, as if I'd been punched very hard and it had all puffed up. I got it open by soaking the mucus seal off with a wet tissue, but couldn't open it fully as it was so uncomfortable. I presumed that the eyelid was puffed out as it had so much mucus pooled beneath it but felt a bit unsure about how safe it would be to try and massage it out. I decided to go along to see what the GP would say about it, so that I could make more of an informed decision. The GP said it was a nasty infection and gave me a prescription for antibiotics. (Meanwhile, my mum had spoken to her GP about her constant cough and flu symptoms and had been advised to take paracetamol every four hours and drink lucozade.)

Choices  So, antibiotics or was there another option? I pinned the prescription up on the noticeboard in case at some point I felt it was time to go down that route, and decided to go all out for the natural healing approach. This meant taking time to pay attention to myself and prepare my own treatment. I've got some training and knowledge of natural healing and the use of herbs and nutrition so I needed to pull out from this everything that would help this infection in my head from getting more serious.

Information The following foods and herbs etc. are what I used to bring down the inflammation, reduce the infection and boost my immune system so that within two days I felt I was well on the road to recovery without the need to use antibiotics. This information is not meant in any way as a prescription for anyone else. I'm sharing it because it's what helped me and it may be helpful to others who are searching for ways to avoid antibiotics. Most of the foods and herbs I included are specifically helpful for fighting sinus infections and infections in general.

Fresh fruit  I had a bowl of fruit and natural live soya yoghurt for breakfast (mango, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, grated ginger, grapes, soaked goji berries, cinnamon)...

Salads  I had a big plate of salad for lunch (grated beetroot, green leaves such as rocket, lettuce, dandelion, spinach, chopped up pineapple, tomato, cucumber, celery...) Horseradish & onion concentrate and apple cider vinegar dribbled over the top.

Raw Garlic I had a few raw cloves a day chopped finely into my salad or soup. Update: I also put a garlic poultice on the soles of my feet for a couple of hours at night which helped. I found instructions for this here:
http://www.herbs-hands-healing.co.uk/Ailmentsnew/lung.html

Juices / Smoothies  I had a few different juices and smoothies throughout the day. Here are some that I used.

1) Carrot, apple, lemon and ginger juice with superfood (a mix with spirulina) -  Daily breakfast juice.

2) Wheatgrass, celery, spinach, kale, apple, ginger juice - lunchtime juice, before salad.

3) Beetroot, ginger, sage, cucumber, kale, dandelion leaf, spinach, parsley, orange, apple juice - mid-afternoon

4) Orange, lemon, cucumber, carrot, apple juice, fresh ginger (snack time)

5) Turmeric Smoothie (about 1 tsp turmeric), lemon juice (1 lemon), ginger, banana (half a banana), then add water until tastes right - late morning or afternoon. (Update: I made this later using pineapple (about 1-2 inch slice) and I really preferred the taste as well as getting the anti-inflammatory properties of the pineapple)

Nettle & sinus superfood soup - I had this for dinner a couple of times - onion, leek, garlic, cabbage, kale, potato, nettles, parsley, sage, celery.

Herbal tinctures  My primary tincture is Goldenseal, a powerful herb which works on bacteria and viruses (1tsp 5x daily) - This is a much higher dose than you would find on the bottle but I checked with a herbalist that I could increase to this amount, eyebright (1tsp 3x daily and 3x daily as eyewash), echinacea & thyme, mullein & eucalyptus.

Herbal teas  chamomile, immune blend (see Herbs Hands Healing link below), sage, licorice, fenugreek seed decoction (simmer 1 tsp fenugreek seeds in a cup of water until half the water has evaporated).

Steam inhalations - I did this about three times a day with essential oils chosen from tea tree, eucalyptus, lavender and thyme.

Sinus flush  I'd read all about the neti pot for pouring salted water up one nostril, around the sinuses and out of the other nostril, to help flush out the nastiness. The neti pot looked like a little teapot and as we couldn't find one in the shops I tried something I found in the garden...

But I had concerns about the effectiveness of this, so I got this which seemed to do the job.
I boiled and cooled the water, added the saline solution and also added a teaspoon of colloidal silver for it's anti-microbial properties.

Throat spray  My throat was sore most of the time, so I used sprays of elderberry and also colloidal silver.

Probiotics I had this in live soya yoghurt and also took acidophilus capsules 3 x daily. I'm going to try emptying a capsule and adding it to the sinus flush water too.

Vit C & Zinc Lozenge I got my Vit C mostly from my fruit juices (especially the orange, lemon, grapefruit & ginger one) but it may help to take an additional Vit C supplement. My throat remained sore and painful to swallow for a long time and sucking a zinc lozenge at night(when it was worse) helped along with the herbal tictures. 

Drinking water  I tried drinking 2 litres of pure water daily but probably managed somewhere between 1 and 1 1/2.

Hot/cold compresses on sinus area I didn't get round to doing this much, but it helps with circulation in the sinus area.

Rest  This is the hard bit - stopping all the busyness and stresses, sleeping in bed, sitting in the garden in the sun, looking at the blossom (noticing Stu could do with new socks! - It's good to have things which keep us grounded!).

 
I get my Superfood and herbal tinctures mostly from a company called Herbs Hands Healing. I'm happy to give them a plug here because I trust their integrity and the quality of their products. They're also very helpful when you ring them up to ask advice. Here's a link to their website:

 http://www.herbs-hands-healing.co.uk/

 

Here are a couple of other links that may be useful:

http://agriculturesociety.com/alternative-medicine-and-treatment/how-i-cured-a-raging-sinus-infection-naturally-with-no-drugs/

http://juicerecipes.com/health-conditions/juicing-for-sinus-congestion/

And for all those people who are disappointed that I didn't include lots of MUCUS photo's - I know a certain 8 year old who might be... here's a picture for you...

 

 



Haha... only joking, that's the surface of my beetroot and green leaf juice!

Remembering The Things That Matter. Rest In Peace Bill

In the first early hour of this morning, our friend Bill died.

I got to know Bill through my son who met him in the park a couple of years ago and they became good friends. They'd meet up every morning for 'dog club' which was a meeting of local dog walkers who had become friends. In the past few months Bill was able to make the journey less and less to the park because of illness and so we occasionally visited him round his house or in hospital. He didn't have any family but he had some good friends who loved him a lot.

Bill's death has hit me unexpectedly hard, not only because he has gone, and left a sad hole in our community. Not only because of the very special friendship he shared with my son that has come to an end. It has hit me hard mostly because it has come as a painful wake-up call to how I've let the daily activities and distractions of life obscure what matters most. I can't believe that I needed to learn this lesson yet again.

But the last month Bill has been in hospital and we've been wrapped up in our own lives and just not got round to visiting and keeping in touch as we could have done. We've visited once in that time. A couple of weeks ago, Bill phoned and until this weekend we've still been saying to each other "We must phone Bill..." We'll never know what he was wanting to say to us. I know he would have been hoping for a visit from my son because this always made him so happy. What hurts so bitterly is that we withheld this from him and my son (unintentionally by our lack of awareness), and the opportunities we've missed (for no good reason) to bring support and comfort to someone we cared about in the final weeks of his life. We could have done so much more and we would have wanted to. We could have picked up the phone.

We visited Bill on Easter day in the evening after a neighbour had called to say he was very ill. When we got there he was already unconscious and he never regained consciousness. They say that hearing is the last to go. I hope he could hear my son saying hello and telling him a joke out of the new copy of The Red Crow he'd brought him. My son never got to shock him with his new haircut or share chocolate fingers with him but I hope he knew we were there.

I think it was Nelson Mandela who said the saddest two words in the language are "too late". I most definitely agree.

All that matters at the end is forgiveness, gratitude and love.

 

What hurts most is having missed opportunities for kindness, for communication, for giving and receiving love.

 

 

Dear Bill, thank you. May you journey well and in peace.

 

 

Quick, Don't Blink! A Spring Day!

It's been feeling so much like Winter again recently that when I saw the sun outside this morning there was a sense of urgency to get out in it as quickly as possible, in case it decided to snow or do something really grim again before I could get my boots on. So I hurried my son off the computer, got the dog lead and camera and we were OUT!

Probably the most beautiful place really nearby is the coast walk alongside Milton Common. Last time we came here my son got stuck in the mud and it led to a 999 call and a chat with the coastguard. It had all ended happily (eventually!) without the need for anyone to come out but it did mean losing his boot out there in the mud somewhere. The tide was out this morning and it looked so tempting to just go out and see if we could find it but NO WAY am I going to let those deceptive mudflats trick us again!

I played with my camera and took some pics using minimal colour which perhaps ironically undermined the warm Spring light and bright colours of the day! What was I thinking of? That could be snow and ice on the path! But in another way they emphasise certain details which I like such as the blue sky, the yellow lichen or daffodils, my son and the texture of wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my favourite wrecked boat - every time I see it, I see a big whale tail and then a whale skeleton below. It begs to be sketched or photographed.

There were long deep shadows and my son never misses an opportunity to give me bunny ears, though they came out really tiny. After all these shots of grey my son began objecting and implored that we give the day back its full vibrant colours of life. So here we are again with Pip and the daffodils, saying YES, IT'S SPRING! We don't care that the weather forecast for the rest of the week is heavy rain, today the sun was beautiful and we embraced it. 

Four Years On ~ Computers, Beaches And Bumholes

  

February is full of mixed feelings. The weather can feel like we're still in the middle of Winter and yet there are the first signs of Spring appearing. Snowdrops, hyacinth and narcissi are blooming in my garden. There is the lightness of the very early Spring sun as well as the feeling that we're moving towards warmer, longer days and Summer!

But February also brings the sadness of being the month my brother died. On entering February it can feel like a bit of a countdown towards the 19th/20th where thoughts of what was happening this time four years ago bring increased anxiety and keep me awake at night. Because there can be no hiding or turning away, I decide to rise to meet it each year with some kind of creative process. Something practical and engaging. Some form of an offering, which in the making, helps me feel closer to my brother at that time when I think he probably felt intensely alone. I see it as a piece of magic, to imagine that I am throwing my attention back through the years to wrap it around him during those dark days, that dark night, to surround him in lightness, warmth and love, for then and for now.

This February, I had a go at using movie/photo editing software for the first time. I got quite hooked! Entering the software to work on this project felt a bit like entering a sacred space. It was interesting as I usually find computers and screens generally to be a bit of an antithesis of the sacred, an invasion of my internal and external space. Give me an old tree in the woods anyday for my temple. But I suddenly found myself tapping away late at night and in the very small hours of the morning. My brother spent much of his time in the 'temple' of the computer screen, so this was probably quite fitting.

The visit to his old house for the photo was quite a big deal for me as I have managed to avoid going down his road ever since the house sold over 3 years ago. I still can't really get my head round the fact that if I ring the bell, I won't see his shape through the glass, coming along the hall to open the door. I don't think I'll ever fully understand that. For some things the brain just will not compute. At those times what are our choices? Shut down, hibernate or switch user? That's the challenge I suppose, to remain entirely ourselves, power on, ready to open to a fresh new page.

The visit to the beach for this project was  part of the same afternoon 'ritual', a ritual in which a pathway can be mapped out through the sometimes overwhelming chaos of grief.  A candle, the shingle, the waves, the sea gulls, they can all be anchors to this moment now and they can also all be a bridge to then. Paul, this is for you... we miss you so much.

 

A few words about Paul's box of angels... I found this when we were sorting out his stuff. I felt like I wanted to contact the maker of them to tell her about Paul's death in case she didn't already know, to thank her for giving him such a beautiful gift, for obviously being someone who had brought some blessings into his life at one time and to offer her the opportunity of taking back her 'angels'. My letter went all the way to an address I found in America and a few months later came back to me unopened. So, I keep them safely with me now, letting their blessings remind me of some of the most important things in life. I hope their creator would be happy with that.

And there's one last thing I want to put out there Paul, if you're somehow picking this up. Your nephew came across something which made him laugh a lot! We really wanted to show you! It's the little things like this which sometimes hit me with your loss the hardest. So here it is - you kept this a bit quiet didn't you, don't worry, your secret's safe with us! Look, it really is you!  xxx




From 'Loads More Lies To Tell Small Kids' by Andy Riley



Imbolc Brigid Poetry Festival 2013

It's the Brigid Poetry Festival time again. Find out more about it and join in yourself by clicking here!

This year my contribution is this poem written by Jehanne Mehta , which I discovered on a Bristol Transition Group website. Although I've never visited Minchinhampton Common, the poem speaks for my feelings about the land in many places I have been.

Having been involved recently with the protests in the Combe Valley, land ownership has been at the forefront of my mind. Who owns it, sells it, buys it (by compulsory purchase if they choose) and all of these so often completely detatched from those who care for it and inhabit it. Whether defined as a Common or as privately owned, I feel in a world where nature is receding so rapidly and great violence is being done to the land and what springs from the land, we have to question more and more the responsibilities of wild land ownership and even question whether anyone can truly claim ownership as opposed to environmental stewardship. I dedicate this offering to Brigid and to the fallen oaks of Combe Haven, who I know belonged only to themselves.

On Minchinhampton Common

I am walking,
walking barefoot on the common,
on this warm green ground,
ground that belongs only to itself,
to the four wise winds,
to the treasures it conceals under its
ancient crinkled gown, cow trodden,
unfurling it all along the changing
seasons of the sun,
in subtlest colours of gold, violet
purple and dark blue,
finely stitched and embroidered with
bramble, briar and hawthorn
and spangled with the dew.

This is common ground,
never ploughed,
never dug, since
long forgotton folk
built round houses,
buried their dead,
threw up bulwarks against
marauders
and watched the stars,
glimpsed through forest
boughs
ages since unseen,
dipping and wheeling
in their round dance
horizon to horizon.
Here I walk on Albion’s ground,
her secret spirit still awake,
in spite of the fog that fetters feeling
and tangles thinking into knots we do not
even notice,
her secret spirit will awake,
still calling through our feet;
and do we hear, do we hear
the quiet insistent voice of the ground,
the common ground that belongs only
to itself?

~ Jehanne Mehta, 2011