ROUND-UP: Brecon Beacons/ Epping Forest

This September was quite quiet on the uptake for workshops, so Katye and I decided to take the Brecon Beacon workshop as a time for personal practice. The site was near the town of Brecon – a stunning location near a mountain lake, nestled in a small valley with expansive views and great forage opportunities. We talked a lot about the work, what it has become and where it may be heading. We wandered amongst the farmed fields, the wilder stream crevices, up the mountain and down again. The most amazing parts of that place were those places that were left pretty much alone. They were more diverse, greener and more fertile.

I’ve recently been learning about Re-wilding landscapes and also about the landscapes we commonly see around us and how they have been changed, used and managed over time. I’m inspired by projects in the UK and around the world to let nature take its course with only minimal human activity. And I wonder what our landscapes once were and what they may become in the future as we seek to sequester carbon and find more sustainable co-existence…

If Kinship is in part about re-engaging with nature, and Re-wilding is about not resisting nature’s course – there’s an inkling in me that holds them both close by and wonders how they might come complement each other somehow. Perhaps the cold season might give more time for these thoughts to brew…

This last weekend was the last workshop of the season. We went out to Epping Forest for a day in the trees. A great group, impressively prepared for the wet weather, spent a simple day walking, talking, moving and nourishing in a wild place that curiously finds itself inside the capital city. I was touched by the thoughts and inner processes everyone brought with them from their own lives and how they are meeting these particular times: grief, relief, rage, hope, affinity, gratitude, courage and empowerment. There are no visible traces of the work we did but the powerful echoes of re-engagement ring on and beyond all the same. – Not easy to talk about or understand but it seems, in my body and others’, that there is great importance in being in forests, quiet and receptive, listening and sensing, learning and responding.