What an amazing natural world we live in…
I sometimes wonder if the way I feel about the natural world comes across in my work and my life. I mean, I think it is utterly PHENOMENAL!! By ‘it’ I mean the whole thing! The world, the planet, the universe, space, the people who live in it and the way we are made or have evolved. It’s incredible don’t you think?! I mean, look at the night sky, look at the amazing colours in sunsets and sunrises and how different they are from day to day. Look at the numerous varieties of insects and animals and their survival instincts and methods. What about light?! I mean, how does that work? Then there’s colour - the number of colours in one small patch of rough ground can be overwhelming, and the more you look, the more you see! Plants and flowers…how many varieties and designs?! I just think it is pretty overwhelmingly wonderful and I can never express how I feel about it without appearing totally crazed! This is what I try to bring to my work but I’m still not sure if it’s expressive enough. I need a whole beach or field to myself with a massive canvas and huge brushes so I can make wild and crazy gestures in paint to express the joy I have which comes directly from the natural world. But I hold something back because I’ve sometimes found that this kind of behaviour makes others feel uncomfortable. Talking with passion or anger or extreme joy, I have found, has put others in a difficult position. They don’t know how to respond and I’m left feeling like I’m a bit extreme and need to temper myself.
Well, I think this has to stop. Because I am angry, passionate and overjoyed all at the same time and it is like a pressure cooker building. I’m angry because my beautiful world, OUR beautiful world is being trashed and it’s not just because we use plastic bags, it’s because huge corporations refuse to change their manufacturing methods. They think that if they distract us into thinking it’s down to us, the consumer, to make sure we always carry a tote bag and we’ll somehow save the planet, then we’ll forget about the bigwigs with their power, control and massive great yachts! Of course the individual can make a huge difference to the way things are done and we must continue to be careful with our resources and value every drop of water but without the really big stuff changing, frankly, we’re fucked! So, we have to find ways to change this. Of course keep signing petitions, buy local and only what we need, re-use, recycle, boycott crap products but for the bigger issues Extinction Rebellion is a good place to start if we want to find out about how we can put pressure on corporations and challenge the way stuff is made and produced. Change IS possible.
I’m about to start reading a book called ‘All We Can Save’ which is a collection of ‘writings by women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward’
Quite honestly I can’t wait to hear their wisdom and knowledge because we really need it I think. And need to act upon it! I will pass on anything I glean from this.
I’m also reading a book called ‘The Book of Trespass’ - another issue I feel strongly about - the origins of land ownership and how it became possible for anyone to ‘own’ pieces of our shared planet and therefore forbid others from walking across it! How ludicrous is that if you really think about it!
And yes, I have strong views on politics because I care passionately about the way we conduct and organise ourselves as humans - that is politics - not ‘are you a lefty or a tory’ - just - how to live together and care for our planetary home with tenderness, care and empathy.
The main thing for me though is this - if people really love something and know about it, they want to keep it. If we were all in love with the beauty and wisdom of nature, and I know most of us reading this are, we would be cherishing and working alongside it and not trying to conquer it. It’s those who still think that nature is something to be bled dry for our benefit who need to be educated and humbled into realising that nature contains everything we need but only if we learn from her rather than trying to rape her.
One final note - I think it’s important to remember that it’s not all bad news. Looking at the big picture we can see how much we have progressed since we started inhabiting the world but we have to remember that progress is not always straightforward. We slide backwards when huge changes are occurring. Change and progress is messy and right now things are really messy. My hope is that this time of turmoil will force us to be creative in our resourcefulness. When I look at the generation coming into their teens and twenties now, the way they treat each other and the natural world with understanding and compassion is enough to restore my hope and fire up my passion again that a better world is possible. Come on!
