We worry how Greta seems more fragile than the planet she is desperate to save.
oceans warm & wildfires, floods & droughts are commonplace.
will sit comfortably.
I might recognize assumptions.
There may be truths we skirt around and cannot face.
what is denied.
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
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.
