Extremes

Extremes are in the news at the moment but they have been around for a very long time. But lets take the weather first as that is very current. There have always been extremes of weather but we seem to be getting more, possibly because the climate is changing. So we have lots of flooding and lots of drought. These bring their own problems, like landslides and forest fires which both devastate the land around them and people’s lives as well as the wildlife which also lives there. But we are unable to change these events so far. However, such events often bring out the best in people and they all help each other to get back what they have lost. But a question here, does it change their lives?

We can look at extremes of beliefs next. There are some very right wing and some very left wing thinkers around. They each have their strong beliefs and many try to get rid of those who don’t agree. This turns into dictatorship and is not good for the many who don’t have the same beliefs. How do we deal with such extremes? Compromise is essential and we all need to think about what is fair, not just to ourselves, but to others who share our planet. What is best for one person is not necessarily any good for another. We are all different with different needs and this needs to be considered  at all times.

Sometimes it can be easy to see if something is good for all of us. Take a large car for example, made in this country. That benefits people by giving them a job, it benefits those who buy the car and drive it, therefore benefiting those who maintain the car. But against all of that, we need to consider emissions and air quality. Not easy is it.

I am a great believer in changing what I can and trying to work with what I can’t change. This applies in all parts of life and the ways of my life. I feel that is a start and try to encourage others so that extremist views may at some point become a thing of the past.

 

Waking up amid the sadness and anger

Even the Queen commented on the numbers of traumatic events which have occurred over the last few months and how people are coming together to help each other. Traumatic events often trigger a ‘spiritual awakening’ and people become aware of what life is really about. They also begin to see how they have been manipulated by those higher up and in charge. It is not easy to deal with all of this. Not only have they lost someone or a home but they also have to deal with their grief and anger.

One thing I have noticed over recent years is that any misdoing does not remain hidden for long. It soon surfaces and those who did the misdeed have to come forward and face those who were harmed. For many this means going to prison for their misdeeds. It also seems to me that more of us are working together to get changes even basic ones that help us to live better and safer. The truth always comes out so watch out for more and for more traumatic events.

But changing the subject so I end on something more positive, I spent half an hour or more this morning by the local pool which is less than five minutes walk away. It was peaceful, the birds were singing, a man was fishing and I saw damselflies and other insects. The grasses had very heavy seed heads and it was all so refreshing and replenishing for my soul which has felt the sadness and anger of the last weeks.

No questions to ask you this week. I am sure you can think of some yourself but enjoy the photo.

 

Protests and hope

I was sitting in the bus shelter on Friday waiting for the bus and the sun was shining on the birch trees across the road. It felt warm too as it shone directly on to my face. That really gave me hope that it will soon be warmer every day and that as the wheel of the year turns so does everything else in the world.

Which brings me to protests and the hope they give. So what does the word protest mean. According to one definition given, it is an action expressing disapproval or objection to something. We have seen protests over many hundreds of years and they have not all been successful and some have been violent and left deep emotional scars.

So what does a protest hope to achieve? I expect than in many cases those protesting hope to achieve change in whatever they are protesting about. If we take fracking, then the protesters hope to stop it altogether and hope to get the authorities involved to change their minds.

If we look at the huge protests over this weekend what do they hope to achieve? I expect many of those involved just want their voices to be heard and to send a message to those in power that they are not happy with what is going on. They want to have an input to any change in their lives and they want to know that those in power are doing their best for everyone not just the rich and powerful.

But most of all, I feel that protests give us hope. They allow us to state our own beliefs and to state that we do not like what is going on and maybe give us a chance to offer an alternative. Being able to protest also lets us know that we live in a free country with freedom of speech. To lose that would not be a good thing at all. There is more I could write but I like to just write enough to jog you into your own thinking about these things. So what do you think about protests? Are they good or bad? Would you join in one? Do they give you hope for a better world?

Reality or Illusion

Recently there has been a lot of talk about Fake News. But all news media reports are often not true or only partially true as they miss out important facts about what they are reporting. Live news reports have a time limit and the person doing the report has to choose which bits to keep in and what to leave out. This often gives a distorted view of what is actually going on.

So what about the reality of all this? According to one dictionary definition, reality is the state of things as they actually exist. We all know about our own reality, the things we do, what we see around us in our daily lives, etc., but we rely on the media to tell us what is happening elsewhere and to tell it as it is not what they think it is. The media is often used to persuade us to see things differently, to not see the reality but to see the illusion they are sharing with us. The dictionary definition of illusion is a deceptive idea or impression, a false idea or belief.

Over the last year or so we have seen false ideas and many false impressions of what is going on in the world. Look at Brexit, the US Presidential election, the war in Syria and the issue at Standing Rock for starters. How can we decide what the reality is in those areas? This is difficult if we know nobody personally who can tell us. But then we all have a different perception of what we see so what is the reality of these situations? Is it what we see or hear from others or what we are told in the media?

I currently see two world situations where I am concerned that the truth is not being told and that we are given false ideas of what is going on. One of these is Syria and the other is Standing Rock. I am lucky that I have what I call a ‘gut conviction’ of what is the truth and what is an illusion but it is still hard to know what is the reality and what is media hype. It seems as if the whole world media want us to believe things are different from what they really are and I wonder who is paying them to do this. For me it is all about being controlled by people who don’t want us to see the truth, the reality of our world or they would lose their power.

I will stop here as I am sure that many of my readers will have lots to say about this. I look forward to reading your comments.

November thoughts on our world

It is very cold outside, a howling wind, some sun but some heavy clouds which I recognise as possible snow clouds. Winter is on the way. The trees are almost bare now and there is a carpet of leaves on the ground making it golden in the sunshine. For me this is the time I start to stay inside as it is too cold for me out there. But I spend my time reflecting and writing mainly as well as knitting thick scarves for when I do go out.

But what I want to write about today is something different. As some of you will know I am an avid researcher and recently have been researching the local workhouse which was closed in the 1930s. Although this is nothing to do with druidry, it is to do with our approach to our lives, our compassion for others and our wish to make the world a better place.

During this research, I have read some terrible stories of hardship and cruelty especially towards the poor and the mentally ill who were soon put away in the workhouse or lunatic asylums. Some stories struck a chord within me. In 1912 there was a miners strike. Some miners belonged to a union so were unable to ask for poor relief to help them survive. Other miners did not belong to the union but could not work because of the others. However the Board of Guardians who were in charge of poor relief as well as the workhouse decided that those miners who did not belong to a union, sympathised with those who did, so were not eligible for help.

Food in the workhouse was set by the main Poor Law Board and was just enough to keep you alive. Later there were dietary changes so on Sundays you got meat and potatoes for lunch instead of rice and treacle. You had to wear what can only be called a uniform and you all went to church on Sunday in that uniform so everyone could see that you were poor and in the workhouse. What does this remind you of?

I found a case in 1915 where two young children born in Germany of a German father and an English mother. The mother had returned to England with the children who were born in Germany but she had died and the two children went into the workhouse. The Guardians thought that it should be possible to deport the young children back to Germany. 1915 was the time of the first world war and Germany was not the place to send young children. Did they have no compassion? All they thought about was the cost of providing for these young children.

As for those who were ‘mentally defective’, the words used by those in charge, they were sorted into different types or classes and kept to their own class. Many were sent to what became known as colonies where they lived separate from the normal world.

Has our world changed? I look at what is going on around me and think that we are going backwards not forwards. What do you think?

 

Questions and more questions

I had thought about the theme of the ancestors for my blog but this morning I changed my mind as I felt I had more important things to say. Most of this blog will be questions, some of which you might like to think about, some of which you might like to answer. So my first question is this;

How have we managed to let our world get in such a mess? Not an easy question to answer in a few words but thought provoking.

Why do we leave things too late to get them changed? It is only when we see the actions done on our behalf that we think about their effects and that we should not have allowed this to happen.

Why don’t people register to vote and then vote so that things can be changed?

Why do we listen to the rubbish spouted by the mainstream media and believe it is true? Are we unable to think for ourselves?

How have we allowed greed to take over our world? I saw a child’s tee shirt last year. On the front was printed the following words -‘I scream, I stamp, I get.’ I saw something similar this morning ‘ I like, I want, I asked Grandma, I got’. I don’t need to say any more as I am sure you will see what I am getting at.

Some of you might think I am a grumpy old woman but I hate the way our world has changed. We buy things and throw them away after a short while or if they go wrong. We used to repair items not throw them away. Why don’t we change our shopping habits so that there is less rubbish to dispose of? Some countries are good at this.

Why do we allow companies to bottle water which should be free?

Why do we allow long pipelines across land which is not ours and on which the pipelines might leak (which they often do)?

Why do we use man made drugs when natural medicines are better for us and cost less?

I could go on but I am sure I have given you food for thought. I hope so.

Yesterday I found a leaf on the ground. I brought it home to press and took a photo at home. The colours are beautiful and remind me that as humans we are all different colours and should mingle together like the colours on the leaf.

 

What a week!

I woke up last Sunday with a sore throat. This is unusual for me as I don’t normally get sore throats and colds. So why now? I have moved house and area and now live higher up than I have done for years. I am north west of where I was before and it is colder too. I also live near large open spaces where the wind blows strongly and brings with it all kinds of things. So how much difference does the area you live in have on your health. I remember having colds as a child but things were different in those days just after the end of the War. We were not so molly coddled either and went to school with colds and old rags to blow our noses on. Tissues were not invented then or if they were they were a luxury item like toilet tissue which was definitely not as we know it now.

So my sore throat developed into a heavy cold and then a cough and in the end I resorted to old remedies to help. An elderflower linctus  made by a friend and the old fashioned Vick vapour rub (mainly Menthol and Eucalyptus). I remember using Vick for many years as my mother rubbed it onto my chest before I went to bed. But these old remedies have worked and I am much better now.

There is something about old remedies. It is so easy to turn to the chemists counter in shops such as Boots and buy the modern version of pills and linctus for coughs and colds. But I have noticed recently that this firm are making more traditional remedies too. I feel that many people are fed up of remedies that have so many side effects that you need other medicines to help with those and so many are turning to the more natural old fashioned remedies which we know work safely. Our mothers knew a lot of these and it is good to still use them and know that they work.

Do you make or use the natural herbal remedies that your mother used? Would you be happy to share them?

 

Respect or not as the case may be

Respect seems to be one thing that is missing in the world at the moment. It is not just young people who have no idea what respect means but often older people who have forgotten. So what is respect? There are several definitions which vary slightly but the main two definitions are as follows;

due regard for the wishes, feelings and rights of others;

a feeling of admiration for someone for their abilities or achievements.

For me it is something slightly different but I think that words do change their meanings as the years go by. Sometimes it feels the same as courtesy, another thing long forgotten. This means holding doors for the next person or helping others with heavy bags, or allowing someone else to get on the bus before me because they may be older or have heavy bags. To me it also means that I respect the religions of others, their food choices, their clothes, and so on.

At the moment our world seems to be full of people finding fault with others because they don’t think the same way or dress in a way that is thought to be the right way.OK  of course there are some things that would have no respect such as bullying but I am thinking of things in general. It is good to look at ourselves and see how others perceive us. Do we come over as good, kind, tolerant, gentle and compassionate or are we seen as bullies, dominant, nasty and so on. How do you see yourself? Do have the respect of others and do you give respect to others? I think there is a lot of food for thought here.

 

Thoughts on how we treat our world

I read something this morning which really resonated with me. It was about how we treat our world. Each day we see more disasters occurring, not just in war zones but in our countryside where rivers are polluted, pipelines leak or explode, lakes are polluted and so on. Just this week in my area fish died because of river pollution. We see greedy companies wishing to destroy the landscape for new pipe lines, new railway lines which go through ancient forests and destroy natural habitats which have built up over the years for various species.

And do we just watch and think it won’t be long before the human race disappears or do we do something? If we do something then what do we do? Working together is important as can be seen when the Native American tribes came together to stop a pipeline being built across their sacred burial grounds. I am not going to write any more here because I would like you to read the words I read this morning so that you are aware, if not already aware, of just what is happening to our planet.

Here is the link:

Ushering in the Closing Chapter of the Human Species

Strength and power

‘As the world that we have known crumbles around us, let us stay strong and focus on peace. It will come one day at some point, maybe not in my lifetime but in that of my children and grandchildren.’ These are the words I wrote yesterday. As we look around us we can see everything that we have known and felt to be safe is now crumbling down around us.

I am older than most of my readers and remember the hardships following a war. Since that time, we have changed in many ways, not just ourselves but our country and our world. Some things have got much better but others have got much worse and there are large gaps between different populations.

Many years ago I felt that we were approaching a fairer world but that was not to be. There are so many people around who are greedy for money and for power. But they don’t understand what power really is. They think it is about controlling others and that is not the case. Politicians say things they don’t mean and make promises that they have no intention of keeping. But those words and promises lead people to think that they are good which give the politician a feeling of power.

What does power mean to you? If you look up the word in a dictionary you will see that there are many different meanings but the most ‘popular’ one is about being able to do something in a proper manner and having the ability to do something.

For me maybe it means the ability to do something, to help others, the ability to search for truth, To offer thoughts of peace and healing to others is also what I see as part of my ‘power’. We often hear the words ‘people power’. What do these words mean to you? To me they mean people getting together to do something which can change the way we live in our world. Think back to the effect of the ripples in the pond, the gathering together to spread words of peace. What are your thoughts? Let us stay strong like a tree even when its branches bend in the wind.