Lapidus Scotland invites you to a session of
Mindfulness & Writing for COP26
with Adrienne Hannah and Bev Schofield
Monday 1st November 2021 ~ 1900-2100
Admission free or by donation to Lapidus Scotland via eventbrite
Session included
- timed writing
- mindfulness practice
- guest speakers: Margaret Bremner and Dominique Bachelet*
- written contributions to be posted on this page (via zoom chat)
readbevs@gmail.com
is the contact for any queries and participants are invited to send a single line or sentence of inspirational writing to be posted on this blog page
*Dominique Bachelet is an ecologist with 40 years of combined education and work experience in the USA. Her research has focused on global climate change impacts since 1989 and she has been involved in several IPCC reports since 1995. She contributed to the development of the first dynamic global vegetation model (MC1) that included a prognostic fire model. For a decade she worked in the NGO world focusing on climate change science information delivery and communication. In 2017 she was elected AAAS fellow in recognition of her climate change science contribution. She is also a member of the Oregon Watercolor Society, of the exhibition committee at the Corvallis Arts Center, and the VP of the Corvallis Art Guild.
This video says it all...
Your inspiration and writing:
"You don't need to have hope to act; action gives you hope" Greta Thunberg
thanks Karen for William Blake:
"To see a world in a grain of sand."
thanks Kath for Lindsay McLaughlin:
"The many species of plant, insect and animal life are moving and breathing, eating and excreting, emerging and dying, all part of the web of life which holds us and every being, an immense compass of wordless wisdom, a thousand teachers and guides waiting for our attention."
thanks Amy for David Whyte:
“the temptation is to turn away, but one of the great central invitations of poetry is that this doorway of difficulty, this vulnerability, this access of heartbreak is exactly the road that you have been invited along. And you don't get to start from anywhere except this place of collective sorrow"
I listen to what you say (by Sheila Buchanan)
I will listen to what you say
As the river of lava slows
and takes my dreams away
It is my privilege to listen to the harmony of protest
We will share the elements As we swim and drown in the future
As nature takes my hand
As grief becomes reality in the pursuit of progress
I will listen to what you say.
from Kath Higgens
Nature is coming with us.
I will listen to what she says.
She wants to sing, to be free,
she wants to be clean
and she wants to teach us.
She wants to breathe,
she wants to run,
she wants to flow with the current,
to soar with the wind,
to dance in the thermals,
and skate on the ice.
She wants to rise like the mountains
and bloom with every kind of wild flower
on the slopes.
She wants to ice up,
she wants to thaw,
she wants monsoon and desert heat,
she wants moonlight and shooting stars.
She wants to be
all she is meant to be.
Nature is coming with us.
May we listen to what she says.
Amen!
from Kay Ritchie:
We worry how Greta seems more fragile than the planet she is desperate to save.
How brave she is while leaders blah blah blah. We notice crocus, confused &
out of time. The climate change right here before our eyes as forests die,
oceans warm & wildfires, floods & droughts are commonplace.
Let’s talk:
recognition
exploitation
reparation
compensation
negotiation
co-operation
new legislation
extermination
food transportation
evacuation
deforestation
third world starvation
carbon emission
positive action
green hydrogenation
top soil erosion
ocean expansion
desertification
diversification
growing population
aviation pollution
animal extinction
chemical reduction
habitat destruction
meat and dairy consumption
atoning for our actions
car electrification
ocean acidification
alternative transportation
de-industrialisation
rain fall
rock fall
dry soil
coral
global
denial
gas coal oil
cocoa soy palm-oil
the future of our children
the future of our planet
the rising the burning the melting
the now
let’s talk
from Val Lake:
I will listen to what you say
as long as you want to say it
but know that not everything I hear
will sit comfortably.
I might recognize assumptions.
There may be truths we skirt around and cannot face.
There may be head-on collision of beliefs
leaving us both in pieces, shattered
as we grope for what is true,
what is assumed,
what is denied.
We have to be lost in the forest
before we can wait for dawn
and scan the landscape for hope, truth and the way out.
Talk to Grief by Sheila Buchanan
The climate change has become the winter of discontent
Prepare to grab the positive vibes
And connect with our warriors
Grieve for the lost lands, icebergs and glaciers
As we step into the car and drive.
Prepare for our winter of deserts
and grab love as we do
Don’t let our heart grow cold
Or our body shake and shiver.
Open your heart and welcome glad news to the fore
Share your pain and shock and ache
We will never get over the loss
But we can be whole
As grief is love lost.
More gems in the session Chat:
Giovanna MacKenna: Thank you!
Giovanna MacKenna: Margaret - Your singing gave me goosebumps, and hope. As did your exploration of creative ways to protest, which I’ve never considered before.
Joyce Nicholson: thank you Margaret what inspirational words and song xxx love to you both
Bev Schofield: I will listen to what you say
Lisa Rossetti: Thanks so much. A lovely event. Wrote in a strong and direct way.
kay ritchie: belated thankyou to Margaret loved your singing
Catrice Greer: My niece said thank you for the lovely invite. She found this inspiring. She regretfully, needed to leave to go attend to something at work. 🌿🌷🌿
kay ritchie: and thanks bev
Sheila Buchanan: Would love to hear what everyone wrote. Will it go on the blog
Kath Higgens: Thank you, that was so inspiring.
Kath Higgens: Yes, I agree with Sheila, is there somewhere we can share our contributions?
Bev Schofield: Put them in here Kath
elaine kingett: And I live in an IKEA showroom in Sevilla!
Dr Jessica Clapham: Thanks :)
Barbara Bloomfield: I will listen to what you say even though i be distracted by sights and noises and the colours of distraction. My Glasgow daughter, Liv Glatt, says: “Mum, i love the land first and best.” And i can see that, I see it when she sighs in a green, woody glade of trees and her shoulders exhale. And when she nurtures her wee woolly willow saplings for planting at Trees for Life in the Cairngorms. My eyes prick with tears when she says “I love the land.”
Catrice Greer: How Lovely, Barbara! “And when she nurtures her wee woolly willow saplings for planting at Trees for Life in the Cairngorms. My eyes prick with tears when she says “I love the land.”
kay ritchie: thankyou Adrienne x
Joyce Nicholson: thank you Adrienne xxx
Barbara Bloomfield: Thank you so much, Adrienne
Giovanna MacKenna: Wonderful Adrienne, thank you
Karen Forbes: That was truly amazing. Thankyou Adrienne x
Dr Jessica Clapham: Thank you Adrienne
Odette van Rensburg: https://www.capetownetc.com/cape-town/cabbage-bandit-faces-jail-time-for-planting-crops-on-his-front-yard/
kay ritchie: wonderful thankyou
Giovanna MacKenna: Dominique, that was truly wonderful and informative, thank you
Frances Ainslie: loved the words & singing x
Barbara Bloomfield: That was really uplifting. Thank you so much
Catrice Greer: Dominique, thank you for a lovely presentation.
Joyce Nicholson: thankyou Dominique for the hope xxx
Frances Ainslie: the art behind dominique is marvellous …
Sheila Buchanan: Thanks so much all x
Frances Ainslie: we sometimes feel we are too small to make a difference … but together we can be small and mighty
kay ritchie: beautiful and very powerful thanks
Frances Ainslie: beautiful
Dr Jessica Clapham: Very inspiring thank you
Karen Forbes: So evocative
elaine kingett: I’m sorry I have to leave but thanks you all so much - gracias from Sevilla!
Rob McGuire: a powerful piece. such movement in it.
Frances Ainslie: after 40 years Dominique, in ecology .. what keeps you most hopeful?
Barbara Bloomfield: Dominique, why are we humans so slow to change our habits?
Sheila Buchanan: Thanks Dominique for hope and positivity peace and kindness x
Dr Jessica Clapham: “Ask Me” by William Stafford R.T. Smith
Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.
I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
Dr Jessica Clapham: Thanks for such an uplifting evening Jessica
lorna hill: Huge thanks what a wonderful session!
Giovanna MacKenna: A great evening leaving me with hope and lots to consider, thank you all
Karen Forbes: Massive thankyou- this has been so moving. X
Frances Ainslie: thank you Dominique & Margaret, Bev & Adrienne x
Odette van Rensburg: Thank you and how awesome to see Isabel, I hope we can make some positive change that she will see in her lifetime
Barbara Bloomfield: Thank you to Bev Adrienne and Rob and speakers
Isabel Gardner: Thank you guys, you really made me think into the deeper perspective.
Rob McGuire: i will listen to what you say when you speak with your atmospheric pressures and gasps of displeasure the quakes and shudders of a system losing balance the heat, the floods the earth rising in defence meeting us in violence showing us who carries whom i will listen to what you say when you shout in tears and tell me of the heartbreak and the ways you are disgraced all the ways in which we've hurt you in your invincibility
Jo Gray: Thanks so much
Isabel Gardner (11yrs): Hear me as I speak to you,
As we close our eyes and wonder what it would be like if our extraordinary Earth was at peace,
If all of the streams would forever flow,
If all of the plants would forever thrive with ease,
If all of the animals would grow harmoniously alongside each other,
That wish is yet still far in the misty, distant future,
Hear me as I speak to you,
May your mysteries be unsolved,
May your challenges be overcome,
Hear me as I speak to you,
May you long be at peace on your glorious Earth.
Jane Walker: The madness is beginning in Glasgow today Cop 24 Cops in streets Cops in cars Guns on show Big shots Protesters Cruise Ships Helicopters chaos But we arise early manage the diversions and drive drive to Fort William in darkness and rain cooried behind a huge lorry who guides and lights the way saves us diesel driving at 50 all the way Then morning lights the water streaming it’s way like a beacon to the railway All aboard. The whistle signals departure the clickity clack begins Then after the delights of hills in autumn colours smoke fills the window like a ghostly blanket. Looks are exchanged faces fall perhaps we think of climate Of multi national smoke then the wind embraces the day wipes the window clean Harry Potter has weaved his magic as we slip almost unnoticed across the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct . Those outside in the muddy bogs and grass wait wait for just one glimpse of those honoured inside the train being transported to Mallaig. They stand in groups or alone cameras in hand. some wave to the old red train Smoke bellows like a peace pipe Yet there they wait for just one wave from one of us Unspoken words of loving kindness are sent with the wind and the smoke to the hills to the people watching us while we watch them Perhaps they’re waiting Waiting As my eyes search for souls standing on those hills yet untouched by fracking My silent words reach out to visitors to locals photographers indigenous peoples protesters children here on our Scottish Hills and back down there in Glasgow perhaps standing in the cold in the rain waiting for just one magic moment “I will listen to what you say” My heart speaks out to all From Janie Walker
Lorna Hill: I Will Listen to What You Say
I Will Listen to What You Say
I will listen to what you say
Don't ever lose hope
Write a letter, send a tweet
Our words can really help
Don't ever lose hope
Change is always with us
Our words can really help
May our minds be at ease
Change is always with us
Rejoice in nature
May our minds be at ease
Reflect and pause
Change is always with us
Write a letter, send a tweet
Reflect and pause
I will listen to what you say
Who to listen to? (thanks to Isabel Park)
Who to listen to? The ‘experts’? The scientists? The politicians? No. Only to my heart, to the hearts of other ordinary people, to the hearts of the trees, the oceans, the earth. For all these hearts make up one huge beating heart, the heart that beats for all of us, in all of us. We are all one. And we know what is right, what keeps that heart alive and beating. We must not be distracted by words. We know the truth of the beat of that heart, and we must learn to listen, to trust. It’s hard; there are everyday distractions. The heartbeat may sometimes sound faint, far away, but if we let ourselves be still, be quiet, we hear it again - beating, beating - and we know we can let go and trust, and do the right thing.
Hope (thanks Joyce Nicholson)
I hope you can hear the cries of our mother dying, choking and suffocated by the quenchless thirst of toxic greed,
I hope you listen to the lessons of deep deep interconnection and interrelatedness throughout and within Gaia,
I hope you hear the voices of rage, of grief, of hurt and despair as our mother tries to rebalance and survive,
I hope your heart feels the metta we send for the earth, air and oceans, for all life, pulsing for healing and change,
I listen to your empty words, and promises yet to be broken and know that we can all, in communities across this wonderful earth, make differences in multiplicities of ways each day,
I hope our creativity sustains us and our mother in turning the tide of chaos,
I have hope in our seed bombing, puppet making, placard crafting, in the beat of the drum, in laying down in roads, in singing and meditating, in silent protest and well wishing, in quiet tree planting and brave acts of resistance, in all our collective non violent endeavours
for peace and justice for our shared earth.
Barbara Bloomfield: That was a wonderful event last night. So many thanks for making it happen. I’m constantly trying to get my glasgow daughter, Liv Glatt, involved in your schoolhouse. She is currently helping to host the La Minga indigenous delegation at COP26, 80 people in total. www.mingaindigena.org
She works for Urban Roots and Trees for Life and runs groups in forests/rural settings with and for young people, women and adults generally.
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