Flow
Weaving nature regenerative threads ...
Welcome to Regen Notes.
On the April full moon, Peter Gabriel released the Bright-Side Mix of the title track from his forthcoming album, i/o that celebrates connectedness with everything.
I'm just a part of everything ... So we think we really live apart Because we’ve got two legs, a brain, and a heart We all belong to everything To the octopus suckers and the buzzard’s wing To the elephant’s trunk and buzzing bee’s sting
The older I get, I probably don’t get any smarter, but I have learned a few things and it makes a lot of sense to me that we are not these independent islands that we like to think we are, that we are part of a whole. If we can see ourselves as better connected, still messed up individuals, but as part of a whole, then maybe there’s something to learn? 1
Releasing a track on each full moon ( i/o is the third) is set to be a connected with the universe pattern for Peter Gabriel who has commented he may release a track every full moon whilst he is still around.
Some 130 years earlier Scottish-American naturalist and writer, John Muir stepped out on his travels in the Sierra that was to be the start of his nature connected ‘being’. It was many years later in 1911, after founding the Sierra Club in 1892, that John Muir wrote up that trip as My First Summer in the Sierra. It contains the quote that has become a touchstone to express the idea that all things in nature are interconnected and that the actions we take to protect the environment can have far-reaching impacts
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world,"
Some three thousand miles north of the Sierra the Van Dusen Botanical Garden building in Vancouver, itself a Living Building Challenge project, that has Muir’s quote engraved on the entranceway and in a circular fashion on the floor below the circular sunlight, reminding and reinforcing how Living Buildings are connected … to everything.
See John Muir Way's Greening Study on Zoom Regenerative 54
Muir who we now see as an early ecologist (who described himself as a self-styled poetico-trampo-geologist-bot articulated the transformation of understanding the connection between ourselves and the rest of the universe as ‘the flow’, comparing both rivers and trees as having 'the flow' to and from the earth. Balance and harmony are other keywords in Muir’s ecology and writings, inviting us to rediscover the natural in ourselves, by reconnecting with the ecological web of which we may have forgotten we are part. Writing later in The Mountains of California Muir describes climbing a tree in a lightning storm to experience what a tree would experience, “We all travel the milky way together, trees and men; but it never occurred to me until this storm-day, while swinging in the wind, that trees are travellers in the ordinary sense”
Balance, Harmony and Flow are themes common to today's regenerative thinking as a progression from sustainability and as “The Flow’ a theme that many musicians and writers have developed, as we saw in a recent Regen Notes with Amy-Jane Beer’s The Flow
We are in a burst of exploration of nature connection expressions through various forms of art, including literature, music, and visual art. Robert Macfarlane is a British writer and naturalist who has written extensively about the importance of nature connection in his books, such as "The Wild Places" and "Underland". Macfarlane's writing often explores how our experiences of nature are shaped by language and culture, and how we can work to develop a more deep and meaningful relationship with the natural world.
A further example of Macfarlane’s nature connection in the arts can be found in the collaboration with Jackie Morris in the Lost Words and the work of the collective known as Spell Songs. Spell Songs is a group of musicians and artists who have come together to create music inspired by the natural world. Their music incorporates elements of traditional folk music, as well as more experimental and avant-garde styles, and explores themes such as the changing seasons, the cycles of nature, and the importance of biodiversity.
"Every river flows into the sea, And every leaf that falls will return to the tree"
Runrig’s Every River song's lyrics use the image of a river flowing to represent the cyclical nature of life and the interconnectedness of all things in nature. The song encourages listeners to embrace change and find meaning in the journey of life. The word "flow" occurs often in Runrig's music reflecting the band's connection to nature and to their Scottish roots. here the image of flowing water is a powerful symbol of continuity, resilience, and interconnectedness, and it is a fitting metaphor for the themes of many of the band's songs.
And on full moon activities - Gardening with full moon cycles is one way in which many have sought to deepen their connection to the natural world. This involves planting and harvesting crops in accordance with the lunar cycles and is believed to enhance the growth and vitality of plants. While there is some debate about the scientific validity of this practice, many people find that gardening in this way helps them to feel more connected to the natural world and to develop a deeper understanding of the rhythms and cycles of nature.
Just before I started to write this I watched from the garden as three Buzzards (a family?) soared overhead, the morning sunlight illuminating their white tails as they alternatively flowed and tumbled, seemingly in play cawing to, and with each other. I am so grateful to call the Forest of Bowland home and to witness the flow of seasons, light, smells and sounds across the fells.
Spring is sweet wherever you are, but it doesn’t get much sweeter than in the Forest of Bowland Fells… The soundtrack to spring in the Bowland Fells is the chatter of wading birds such as lapwing, curlew, snipe and redshank. There are powerful smells too, most of all the wild garlic and now carpets our moist woodlands. 2
Ultimately, nature connection is about more than just our well-being. It is also about recognizing that we are part of a larger ecosystem and that our actions can have an impact on the natural world around us. By developing a deep and meaningful connection to nature, we can learn to live in harmony with the environment and become better stewards of the planet.
Within our buildings, however, how does this connectivity manifest? From the materials, fabrics and furnishings used can we trace any flow back to the earth? Can we associate anything in our buildings with moon cycles? Could having a flow awareness reinforce our biophilic relationship, and develop a deeper understanding of the rhythms and cycles and our place in nature?
One of the wonderful descriptions of a living building (as in a truly living one, not a Living Building Challenge project) is from Roger Deakin, whose writing has often been compared with Thoreau, with his book Wildwood compared to Walden Pond. In Wildwood, he shares the intimate knowledge of knowing every timber team, post and peg in restoring his 400-year-old Walnut Tree Farm, with room dimensions predicated on the natural sizes of timber available locally. Using ‘Greenwood’ enabled the house to gradually season in place “twisting and curving, creating graceful undulations”
Nature Writing making a difference
Across Regen Notes I have picked up on many ecology writers, but do they make a difference to our approach to sustainability today, to the way we view nature and help in averting biodiversity collapse? In my view a big yes, and increasingly we see nature and ecology knowledge becoming as important as technical and financial sustainability knowledge, past and current ‘nature’ writers provide us with a new perspective, they challenge our thinking and approaches, and importantly they make nature accessible and give us the imagination to strive for a better regenerative future.
This question was the theme for the recent BBC Radio 4 Costing the Earth radio programme, with guest writers Helen Macdonald (H is for Hawk) Paul Evans (Guardian Country Diary) and Kerri Andrews (whose new book on Nan Shepherd I eagerly await).
Kerri Andrews - For me, absolutely. If we can't imagine it, then we can't make it. And I think that's where nature writing can be at its most powerful. It's a space to dream and to imagine, and it's also about a crucial space to bear witness so that we have that in between uncertain state in which change becomes possible,
Helen Macdonald - look back at Rachel Carson and you know what the Silent Spring did was phenomenally influential. Aldo Leopold said that the penalty of an education of an ecological education is to live alone in a world of wounds and I think reading nature writing is a way of feeling not alone in that great horror that we're facing and gives us some kind of sense of purchasing power to make a difference.
Next Zoom Regenerative - ZR55
Following on from the last zoom regenerative we stay in Scotland for ZR55 to hear from Dr John Ennis sharing insights from his work at Journeys in Design. Tuesday 25th April 2023.
Regen Notes
Now in its third year, Regen Notes3 starting as a companion to the Zoom Regenerative programme, has been bringing regenerative news and thinking, (mostly around our separation from and reconnecting back to nature), to hundreds of regular readers. I am in debited to those who support through subscriptions.
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https://petergabriel.com/news/the-song-i-o-released/
Jack Thurnton Lost Lanes North
Previous articles on Regen/Notes can be explored here - and the best of 2022 can be read here- ENJOY