The essential nature of Nature

This year more than any other (perhaps because my life is generally so brilliant and balanced these days) I've found myself afflicted by Hibernatyitis. (Another possible reason is the replacement of one -itis by another: my severe bout of Londonitis seems to be well and truly over and lifted at the beginning of this year, rather suddenly.) Thankfully, life has been such that my Hibernatyitis hasn't been too torturous (I just find myself more inclined to curl up in a small ball and sleep) but I have been missing daylight so much. Walking to work means that for the majority of the year I get at least 30 minutes of daylight exposure, and in the summer often more when I loiter on the beach on my way home. But for a good while I've been lucky to see much daylight either side of being in work. Which just isn't a good thing.

Wednesday saw me go and administer an hour of daylight in the middle of the day (I hear some people call this a lunch hour...) but TODAY I got to get my favourite dosing of daylight - up on the hills, with a pair of loppers and a pruning saw in my hand. And the obligatory rain and hale showers here and there. Of course.

It wasn't a particularly strenuous day but I like to hope one of today's activities in particular will have made my Da proud: Beasting Elders. We have a long family tradition of attacking these poor, unsuspecting trees (in fairness, they generally get replaced with other native trees but I recognise how weird this family trait - one I absolutely share - may seem, particularly for a card carrying tree hugger). My beasting was of the mild variety (severe lopping rather than complete removal) and was inspired by the fact that another bundle of elders in the same location had been lopped last year and produced many more flowers and fruit. The whole business of pruning is an interesting one and although a brief visit, my time today in this local forest garden added yet more food for thought to my plottings of "Tigger's Idyll".

It also added comfrey to a couple of works' borders (removed with permission, I hasten to add!) Comfrey very much seems to be a double edged sword in permaculture applications, being a great nutrient accumulator, ground cover and voracious grower...but also being a voracious spreader. It's fairly contained in its new locations and (the theory goes) will help "feed" the fruit bushes it's planted alongside but at the moment its all very experimental. The process of devouring a great book on perennial vegetables with a view to choosing different plants for different locations (work may not have a lot of space, but being on various sides of a building it certainly has lots of rather distinct microclimates!) is continuing and I may even get around to hunting seeds and possibly small plants by the end of the weekend. With such a blank canvas ahead of me, anything could happen.

But best of all, I can feel the Hibernatyitis lifting as the days lengthen. Huzzah! That's not to say I won't still take the option of curling up with a duvet when the mood takes me - simply that I'll do it entirely through choice rather than by any midwinter affliction.

Why do damage when there's no need for damage to be done?

So, the title of this post could apply to so many things. And for me, does apply to so many things. But today I'm particularly writing about Massage.

I've been thinking a lot recently about my path to Massage.  Yesterday I was particularly struck by my absolute gratitude for having discovered a way to Massage which enables me to provide the amazing benefits of Touch to my clients while not only causing myself no damage, but actually enhancing my own health. Which is the way it should be, right?

Massage hit my own personal radar when I was about 17. Wow! Since then I've had the great privilege to discover for myself what I believe to be one of the biggest "secrets" of our age: the simple, incredible, healing power of Touch. Massage has been around for millenia and yet somehow the power of Touch and Massage have been degraded. Or simply forgotten about. I have had (and continue to have) some amazing teachers: every client I've seen, every Massage I've received, and every conversation I've had or witnessed within the NO HANDS community. And I'm passionate about doing what I can not just to provide this wonderful thing called Massage, but to communicate its benefits to people who might not otherwise have stumbled across it.

But what I didn't discover at 17, and in fact only first became aware of when doing my first Massage qualification, was the incredible prevalence of work-related injury in the profession. How did I become aware that work-related injury was a problem? Because they told me so on the course. On the one hand (no pun intended) is this incredibly beneficial therapy called Touch. On the other, the knowledge that practicing this therapy can be incredibly damaging to the practitioner. And yet I was taught these damaging moves and told that this injury was "normal".

Good for Client + Bad for Therapist = OK

Even the thought of this equation upsets me. More than upsets me - is absolutely abhorrent to me. And not just in relation to Massage. "OK" to me does not involve inherent risk of, or actual, damage to any party involved. And yet my first professional introduction to being a Massage therapist proposed exactly that. It was proposed as so normal that at the time I didn't question it. Even when I was taking on my first full-time position as a Massage therapist (in a spa on a cruise ship) I thought a book on injury prevention would be enough to protect me. Looking back my naivety is almost endearing, were it not so damaging.

I was on that ship for 6 weeks. In that time the commonality of injury among Massage practitioners was reinforced further - but my accepting of it rapidly waned. Colleagues were prescribed anti-inflammatories and told just to get on with it. One colleague was medically disembarked in a wheelchair due to severe sciatica. As my own injury developed my first response was to do what those around me were doing - buy wrist supports for when I wasn't working, go to see the doctor to get the anti-inflammatories, and keep going.

Remember, this was barely a month into my first position as a Massage therapist.  

But my injury wasn't abating. It wasn't improving. It was worsening. The anti-inflammatories made me sick. I was doing everything I could to avoid using my hands and wrists (I still have a tendency to open doors with either my shoulder, back or occasionally my feet). And, finally, my own belief that my long term health was far more important than any short-term contract surfaced. I had signed a 9 month contract and I believe strongly in meaning what I say. But that contract was damaging me. And if one party's being damaged...you got it, that's not OK to me.

I didn't wait to be medically disembarked. I took the decision to terminate my contract, pay my way home and get myself out of this incredibly damaging situation. I remain eternally grateful that I was able to do that - financially, but also from having had the education and upbringing that let me value myself enough to invest in myself and get out. But I know I was a minority. I know that hundreds if not thousands of therapists in my position were getting injured every day and continued working as their injuries got progressively worse. The turnover in therapists in just the 6 weeks I was there was incredibly high. And, sadly, I have no reason to believe this situation will have changed. Financial profit over employee health. If you ask me that's completely bonkers. And is a situation that arises in so many professions beyond Massage.

So that's the story of how my injury came about. And I know I'm not alone. I know because of the people I saw at the time getting injured, getting medically disembarked. I know from the therapists I've met since who have had to give up a career they loved because it was damaging them. I know from reading the results of several international studies into therapist injury, and having helped with the most recent survey into Massage therapist health carried out by the NO HANDS Massage Company - all of which found that two-thirds of Massage practitioners are experiencing musculo-skeletal damage.

But I'm one of the fortunate ones. I wasn't permanently disabled (which many are). Not only did I discover a completely new approach to Massaging that was beneficial to my own health, but I found a company that taught me more about the power of Touch than I had ever imagined. And from which I continue to learn.

I also now have the great privilege of getting to work for that company. Of playing a small part in addressing this injury pandemic in a profession which I believe to be vitally important. And sometimes I feel like I shouldn't declare my passion, dedication and gratitude to this approach and the people who have made it possible. That somehow by being an employee of the company my opinion may be seen as barefaced marketing. But my reality this morning is that I no longer care what others may assume of my intentions because I know that this is my truth, this is my reality, and the NO HANDS Massage Company have made it possible. Does that make me biased, unfairly prejudiced? No - because this isn't an unfair prejudice: this is my reality and my truth.

And I absolutely LOVE being able to offer the power of Touch and Massage where the equation is no longer Good for Client + Bad for Therapist = OK but, instead is:

Good for Client + Awesome for Therapist = OK

And in that moment in my treatment room yesterday, it was my overwhelming sense of gratitude that prompted this blog post. Because this is my story. It's a big part of who I am today and what I do. It works for me and if there's a chance something here can help another human - all the better.

What a Wanderful Place

This morning, via a non-existent work party and the introduction to The Art of War, I have found myself exploring the wonders (and wanders) of Arnside Knott. And I have to say: I'm smitten.

Arnside Knott combines so many things I love - hilly undulations, the sea, trees, space, people enjoying being out and about, all sorts of flora and fauna...and it's virtually on my doorstep! I am far from being a familial trailblazer in this particular spot (my father having come here as a 16 year old) but I feel like I could come back here over and over and over again and find different paths let alone a constantly changing growth-scape.

And the wanderability of it is glorious. There are the obvious "main paths" and lots of "sub paths" but you're never a million miles from a sign that'll help you get your bearings if, like me, you're just wandering around with a vague plan of where you're heading but nothing set in stone. Admittedly, I had great fun perusing an Explorer OS map before setting out so have a bit of a picture in my head, but knowing I don't have to keep referring back to the map to make sure I'm not massively veering off track is wonderful. The rather significant features of the landscape help as well.

I came out without my camera this morning so have no illustrative photos, but I've come across some beautiful trees on my meanderings. Twisting and winding, straight up or curling around for reasons no longer apparent, these are trees that withstand some mighty winds and are mostly left to their own devices to come up with a path of growth that suits them. One tree in particular stands out - one of the major limbs (about a foot in diameter) had been torn (presumably by the wind) but had not completely sheered off, leaving an amazing section close to the trunk where the fibres of the branch had split into thick "sinews" - still attached at either end but with gaps  right the way through to the other side. That one in particular I think a photo would have done more justice to than I can in words.

And with lots of echoes of one of the fundamental principles of permaculture bouncing around in my head (that of observation) I've been enjoying lots of moments of stopping, being still and just taking in the scene around me. Another wonderous aspect of The Knott. Relatively untamed natured is (to me) utterly awe inspiring and invokes a meditative sense I struggle to capture in built up areas.

A wonderous way to spend a delightful Sunday morning.

Adventures in Permaculture

Not the beginning, and certainly not the end, but where I am right now.

I first heard about permaculture* many moons ago but my desire to get properly stuck in with the philosophy (and practical applications) of permaculture became apparent in the Autumn of 2012 when there was a residential Permaculture Design Course (72 hours of tuition) planned at a local venue...which I wasn't able to attend. 2013 saw me target finding a residential course that I could fit around other commitments. Found one, booked it - and had it cancelled at short notice. Nevermind, thinks me, I'll find another - and so I did! Booked it...and had it cancelled at short notice.

At this point it felt like I was pushing the river so I decided to stop looking for courses and see what happened. The time I'd already booked off work for the two cancelled courses was spent WWOOFing which was in itself incredibly valuable (and something I'm planning on doing more of in 2014) but I still felt the structure of the permaculture design course would help focus me on the topic in a way that reading the various books I'd got hold of hadn't.

And lo - at the end of December, I found a free online design course! Yippee! Now, I've already discovered various challenges with getting stuck into this course but I've looked for (and found) ways to make it work and am successfully trotting through the various video lectures...while undertaking various time-consuming-but-non-brain-engaging activities like stripping rosemary from twigs to dry it, or shelling cobnuts I picked in Herefordshire in October. Activities which feel pleasantly apt.

The course itself is currently covering a lot of material which is already familiar from the books I've read or other parts of my life, but is bringing said material back to the front of my brain. I'm revisiting a lot of the books which have been sitting forlornly on my shelves and I'm getting new inspiration for the various areas I can plant in.

As 2014 starts and I reflect on 2013's growing activities, I've unfortunately concluded that growing things in the area in front of my house is not energy well spent - as those plantings have frequently been targetted by vandals damaging the plants or pulling them out of the soil. I find it incredibly sad that anyone has a mindset that things vandalising plants is OK. But spending energy getting upset or angry, or, indeed, continuing to grow different things which just keep getting attacked isn't what I want to be doing just now. However, with other areas to focus on I have plenty of possibilities to keep me entertained! I haven't given up entirely on getting greenery in that area outside my house but as an "unsafe" zone for the time being it may just have to wait a little longer while I work out a better strategy.

Permaculture design focuses heavily on observation before starting to design and I can already feel the "Doer" in me wanting to get stuck in. I am, however, in the enviable position of having loosely observed the areas I can plant in for several, if not many, years. There's always more to learn from observing and I intend to continue refining my observation skills and collecting information about these different spots. But I also see 2014 as an opportunity to continue experimenting with various growings in preparation for future possibilities as yet not defined.

Already I'm seeing why permaculture holds such interest for me: much like NO HANDS Massage, it is founded on a lot of principles I already hold as important and yet takes them a step further, while weaving in new concepts I've yet to fully understand. Brilliant.


*There are a host of definitions of permaculture here - I see the applications of permaculture as incredibly diverse and exciting but as a newbie to permaculture land am still formulating what I considering to be my definition of the essence of it.

Resolutions & Plastic Bags

Much has been said about New Year's resolutions (good thing / bad thing / indifferent thing) and I see the arrival of a new calendar year as an opportunity to challenge myself to take another step along a road I'm already travelling. It's not a success / failure thing for me - rather an exploration of what changes I'm not making because I'm just being lazy, and which remain for other reasons.

Last year my resolution was only to buy Fairtrade Chocolate. I've long known about, and supported, Fairtrade generally and do make an effort to buy Fairtrade. However, last year I discovered that my own challenge with only buying Fairtrade Chocolate was in choice and availability - usually when I'm out and about and want chocolate, I want "light" chocolate. "Light" in my books translates as average quality, easy to eat and in a snack sized portion. Most vegan Fairtrade chocolate doesn't fall into this category - instead it's good quality, very rich chocolate in 100g bars. And that's when I can get my hands on it. I don't buy a lot of chocolate (generally gifts through the year keep me fairly well stocked) but when I want it, I often struggle to find a Fairtrade option which fits my needs. A very middle-class problem, I acknowledge, but that's the place I live. So I have returned to buying Fairtrade where I can (not just chocolate - and, infact, Traidcraft's Fairtrade wheat & quinoa fusilli is one of my staples) and bowing to my desires occasionally when I can't.

So - this year! This year is plastic bags - not to ask / accept them when I'm shopping. Again, I'm not starting from scratch on this - I've been avoiding getting plastic bags for donkey's years but, I believe mainly through laziness, I do occasionally fold and ask for one. Perhaps I haven't got enough capacity in the bags I've got with me. Perhaps I just didn't think to take a bag at all. But given how unnecessary (yet ubiquitous) plastic bags are, this seemed a good habit to sort out.

Already I've learnt my first lesson of plastic-bag-acquisition-avoidance: plastic bags are sometimes a very handy resource to have! I was buying tofu yesterday and the containers were a bit wet (in fact I think one has a slight hole in it) - the temptation to ask for a plastic carrier bag was high but being Jan 3rd I opted to take the lesson and get my backpack a bit damp on the cycle home. So now I just need to make sure I have a couple of plastic carriers stashed along with my cotton bags when I'm off out to buy this and that. More lessons I'm sure will come along but already this year's resolution is doing exactly what I want it to - challenging me gently to live in a way that's one step lighter on the planet.

Enough

Reflections in the past 24 hours or so have led me here. To this place of Enough.

Not "Enough's enough!"

Not "Enough already!"

But - enough. Sufficient. In fact, even plentiful. There is a simplicity in my life because I have enough. And for having enough (and the simplicity it brings) I am incredibly grateful. By having more than enough I find myself wondering what to do with the more - to hoard, to share, to give, to multiply - but that's a reflection for another day. Today is of Enough.

On every level. I am enough. I have enough. I give enough (or do I? This one I'm still pondering). My tendency is to strive for more, to do more and be more - and yet sometimes just being and doing is enough.

What worries me is the belief which pervades many areas of life of "not enough". I absolutely recognise there are times when more must be striven for, and done, and achieved - but very rarely is the message "Well done. That's great. That's enough. Now - enjoy". Perhaps I'm straying into the territory of "live in the Now" but my biggest concern in the area of Not Enough is simply consumption.

It's a new year now but barely a week ago was the culmination of festivities around Christmas. I'm not a Christian so Christmas is not my festival - but I also somehow don't embrace the "well, Christmas is a cultural thing now, so that's what I'm celebrating, being with friends and family..." view either. However, with so many around me wanting to celebrate at this time of year I gladly welcome the opportunities to be part of that - simply enjoying those opportunities for what they are, and if anything celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next.  I do enjoy seeing friends and family. I do enjoy sharing good food. I do enjoy creating decorations from the wonderful plant life that still thrives at this time of year (and particularly enjoyed making three foliage rings this year entirely from matter I was able to choose and cut myself - with a little bit of garden string here and there for good measure). But I really struggle with the material consumption side of things.

Now, it's not a Christmas thing alone. There is marketing year round for the latest phone or gadget, the next big thing in fashion, the must have toys - but the sense of obligation to purchase and give at this time of year is what I object to. Giving is a wonderful thing to do - being stressed and worried about what to give, and what to get, and who needs a present and whether you can afford it: that's not wonderful. That's horrid. And the potential judgment for not partaking - I heard a radio host deriding a colleague for being "tight" because said colleague and his family had chosen not to exchange gifts. They all had sufficient. None of them had children so there was no sense of "depriving the kids of the excitement of presents". And rather than playing the consumption game they simply chose not to. Brilliant. And yet so publicly "judged".

We live in a rich time. There is poverty and imbalance in the distribution of this wealth, but there is also, I believe, an oft unspoken truth, an "elephant in the room", that this richness will not last forever and is, in fact, incredibly finite.

There is some inspiring work being done by millions of people around the world - seeking sustainable alternatives, creating new technologies, looking for solutions in the problems - but I fear there is also a significant proportion of those able to choose to consume or not who choose to ignore the fact these resources are finite and plough ahead regardless.

And so for my part I'm recognising Enough. (Yes, it's the material consumption which is the easiest to understand and recognise as Enough - but it's also every aspect of Enough, not just materially.) In fact, I'm celebrating it. I look forward to the challenges. I look forward to what's possible. But I also am enjoying where I am, what I have and what I can offer. And in particular my material sufficiency - because the only place we can start any change with integrity is with ourselves.

Written as the dusk was falling (along with the rain) on Heysham Head

I'm a Doer, not a Watcher

Beaters in hand, rhythm all around and utter joy in my heart. *That* is what I love about drumming with Batala. Tonight I didn't even feel I was particularly on form - a much smaller and lighter drum than usual felt quite different and I was also just a bit tired / distracted / out of practice - but the rush of drumming in such an awesome band was amazing. In my mind I have a snapshot moment of looking forward through the band to our awesome caller for tonight, as we played our second and final set in Garstang. The hoodies. The costumes. The smiles. The energy. The power. The DRUMMING.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. My arrival to the gig had been somewhat more stressful than desirable given difficulties I had locating our meeting point but throughout that period my concern was that I was going to miss out on playing. The event was pretty good itself - lots of shops open, stalls out in the street, street organs and the like - but I didn't want to watch it all. I didn't want to be the recipient of something that was organised for my entertainment. I wanted to be IN it. Doing. And that's what I got to do. And it was ACE.

The contrast was made starker by being much more of a "watcher" this weekend, with a trip down to a Sunday Assembly in Manchester. It was somewhat of a research trip as there's a small team of us hoping to set up a Sunday Assembly in Lancaster - but it was also another amazing "clarity finder" to add to the list in 2013. The Sunday Assembly concept is that of a church-type set up, but without the religion. I've heard it called the atheist church - but it's not really that either. Whether you have a faith or not, the Sunday Assemblies provide a non-religious setting to spend some time with others from your local community, sing some songs, hear some addresses and have a cuppa after. And that was very much what we found on Sunday morning.

This was the second Manchester Sunday Assembly, and was held in the amazing Victoria Baths (more on them in a bit). There was clearly a strong organising team facilitating the smooth running of everything and the format was very much what I'd been anticipating from a Sunday Assembly. But left me very much being a watcher. Listening to what was being said but not necessarily actively engaging. There was something about it that left me wanting to have "done" more. And yet, thinking about it, I'm not sure how in the set up that I anticipated (and was party to) I would have done more. I love the idea of meeting and getting to know more people in my locale and this seemed the perfect medium. Maybe it still is. But there's a nagging feeling inside me that this may not be the magic pill I was looking for.

But the Victoria Baths. Oh. My. From first looking at their website I had a suspicion I'd fall in love with them and I absolutely did. Stunning glazed tiles. Classic Victorian architecture. A sense of solidity. And just so evocative of, well, another age, another way of living, another world. Rose tinted glasses and all but I was entranced. I shared a delightful moment with three folk sitting behind me when one commented that it was really rather odd sitting in the bottom of an empty swimming pool (the congregation was on chairs on the rake of the base of the pool, the presentation happening from "the deep end") to which my only response was "Hmm, somehow it doesn't feel odd to me. Maybe I've been in the bottom of an empty pool before..." And I think I have - but the memory I've managed to extract from my brain doesn't have the hallmarks of one where being in such an unusual position would just go down as "normal" in my books. Another mystery for another day.

At the end of the Assembly "proper" we were invited to have a look around the building and I pounced on the chance - and somehow managed to snare myself the Baths' representative who was there in a caretaking capacity as a personal guide. I saw the Turkish baths and a contraption that was one of the first jacuzzi type affairs and had an amazing "control panel" to regulate the temperature etc. which looked like it could launch rockets. I saw the other two pool halls - one of which had been covered over for some time and was used as a sports hall, the other which was the most likely contender to become an operational pool again in the nearest future (and had been proven to be water tight just a few months earlier). And I got the opportunity to gaze and gaze and gaze. WONDERFUL space.

(I even got to see the basement and walk around the sides of the pools from the bottom, and go to the room which had the filtering machines and the old laundry. I feel so lucky to have had such a comprehensive and yet totally unexpected tour of this wonderful old place.)

So it's already been a week of contrasts - and it's only Tuesday...