get thee to the trees! endless river summer retreat coming up very soon - come along!
Hello
I hope you are well.
Explore Connection 8, 9, 10th July - Hebden Bridge
The natural world is a healer, because it is a part of us that we are so often cut off from. But in a sense, it's not healing it's just reconnection. I read somewhere lately that most people spend 90% of their lives indoors. When I read that I thought "Well, I'm glad I'm not one of those poor, unfortunate people!" But when I started to look at it a little more closely I found that I do spend a lot more time indoors than I want to. It's one of those things, like assessing how many hours a day one might spend looking at a screen. It can feel disconcerting when we assess how little time we actually spend outdoors. We are disconnected from the natural world, it's a fact. Our bodies need connection, though, and when we start to reconnect it feels amazing - it is, in so many ways, us coming home to where we 'grew up' as a species.
Beauty
We all need beauty in our lives. We find beauty in the natural world - it just is appealing to us. It's easy on the eye, no straight lines, corners and right angles. The shapes are pleasing and help us feel serenity. It reflects our make up, our symmetrical-but-not-really-symmetrical bodies are more like trees and flowers than rectangular windows and screens - those shapes and straight lines can harden our outlook. Natural shapes draw in the eye, give no straight answers and expose us to a world of possibility. And that's just the shapes! Then we've got physical interactions, smell, sound, touch - a universe of possibility in each. We need this stuff to keep us sane. I know I do.
Join me in some beautiful woodland on 8,9,10th July and you'll get a taste of reconnection, a softening, away from the hard, predictable shapes, sounds and tastes of the regular world, away from your phone and 'being connected'. Connect to the rest of the world this way - get down on your hands and knees and run your fingers through some grass. Follow an ant and watch where it goes. Give yourself enough time to ponder how you evolved as a human. Feel your own fuzzy edges and let go into the place you came from, the place that will always give you what you need - the natural world. And then there's the 'OTHER' - the stuff we don't understand in a logical, rational way, the bits we feel and sense and trust - the magic, the mystery and unnameable, personal, connecting truths we all have. Let's dare to explore them in the beauty and safety of the natural world. Let's be held by our nature. All we have to do is open up to it, that's it!
This is me doing the uncomfortable hard sell here - but it's ok! I'm only selling awesome experiences!
Come and share a weekend of beauty and connection, I guarantee you will feel great afterwards! I know, I know, I could sell second hand cars for a living..
https://endless-river.org/events/
With love and connection
Alan