What happens when we just listen? I feel a fiery frustration at the news Bristol is to remain in lockdown. Recently a kind of exhaustion has overcome me, I judge myself for finding my life as a solo parent/entrepreneur/artist/idealist scholar so tiring. I have pressed pause on listening to endless lectures and podcasts. In the gap I notice my mind quietly beginning to process the information I have absorbed over several months. New thoughts began to emerge.
Stillness feels aligned with the season. The light has the quality of wonder. Christmas in the past has always felt at odds with this to me, the same tired tunes emerging from supermarket speakers. In my heart I long for peace and the brightness of home.
Our winter offering “Breath of Beginning” is about breath but it is also about listening and returning home to our bodies and to the forests which sustain life. Noticing an ache as I realise how I have neglected both of these things.
If the forest could speak to us what would it say?
Diana Berresford-Kroegoer has been a guide on this journey. I would like to share with you a quote:
“Trees are sentient beings (recognised by Celts and many of the ancient civilisations). The Celts believed the trees presence could be felt more keenly at night or after a heavy rain and certain people were more attuned to tress and better able to perceive them.
There is a special word for this recognition of sentience: ‘Mohathiackt’ described as a feeling in the upper chest of some Kind of Energy or Sound Passing through you this is Ancient expressions of a concept that is relatively new to Science ‘infrasound’ or Silent sound – Sound pitched below the sounds of human hearing which travel great distances by means of loping waves produced by large animals such as Elephants and Volcanos – these waves can be measured as they emit from large trees – Children can sometimes hear these sounds.”
To Speak for the Trees- Diana Beresford Krogoeger
