I love the way as writers we think we are sitting down to write one thing and then it goes in an entirely different direction.
And love the rewilding of your garden. Our bit of forest garden is rewilding and the middle part of it becoming bog with reads where the river floods it so really resonated.
Thank you so much and I'm happy to hear you have your own little patch where the wild is returning.
I think there is a lesson for us writers in how the moss just *is*... My mind is brewing 10 articles at the same time and it often frustrates me, I feel an urge to finish it, to organise myself, to put it all out on the paper and make sense of it before it all becomes too jumbled and I lose the train of thought. But look at this garden, it doesn't get more jumbled than this, yet the moss, the water, the twigs just *are*. They don't need a manufactured order to exist, they simply *are* despite of everything and anything. This is how I'm now trying to approach writing, just let go and give myself the grace I never had in my life.
That's really insightful on the flow of writing. I seem to either have zero in my head or 5 blogs fighting to get out at once and that fear of losing the plots :) But you are abolsutly right -- somehow what comes out of the jumble is the right thing and often those 5 ideas end up as 3 or 4 completely different pieces that emerge from all those intersections.
Completely the same! I hit a bit of a slump at the beginning of March, courtesy of kids bringing horrendous stomach bugs and chest infections home all the time. In sickness I sometimes get these dark thoughts, almost to the point of "gosh I'm out of ideas, that's me done with writing!" Of course I laugh at it now. Such thing isn't really possibl, is it?! Learning to go with the flow is a process. Here I am, sitting with some 10-15 drafts. Who knows what all will come out of it? Don't know, don't care, time will tell, I'll know what to make of it when I know.
Thank you for this. Trying to decolonize ourselves even if our own culture was the colonizer ... all are harmed by this way of thinking, both the colonizers and the colonized. I have a small urban yard so true rewilding is not possible. However, planting gardens of native wildflowers to nurture wildlife, in place of lifeless turf grass, is a small yet important act of hope and resistance here in the U.S., where chemical lawn culture has ruled post WW2. I felt much the same way about the workplace as you do, and my most important daily goal now I am "retired" from paid work is to spend as much time as possible outside among wild things, to make up for all the years I couldn't. xo
It is always heartening to know there is other out there who are still dreamers (and I will use that in the best sense of the world) I feel so lucky to have been able to keep my childlike wonder. But it is exhausting to walk through a world surrounded from people who are so disconnected that they look at you like you’re the strange one.
Thank you for the piece. It was the perfect start to my day.
Thank you very much for your kind words Tansie, I'm so glad they had this effect on you! I sense I'll have much more to say about this yard and its wondrous moss.
A profound message beautifully expressed. Thanks, Ramona.
Thank you very much Diana, I'm glad it resonated with you.
This is a superb piece of writing Ramona.
I love the way as writers we think we are sitting down to write one thing and then it goes in an entirely different direction.
And love the rewilding of your garden. Our bit of forest garden is rewilding and the middle part of it becoming bog with reads where the river floods it so really resonated.
Thank you so much and I'm happy to hear you have your own little patch where the wild is returning.
I think there is a lesson for us writers in how the moss just *is*... My mind is brewing 10 articles at the same time and it often frustrates me, I feel an urge to finish it, to organise myself, to put it all out on the paper and make sense of it before it all becomes too jumbled and I lose the train of thought. But look at this garden, it doesn't get more jumbled than this, yet the moss, the water, the twigs just *are*. They don't need a manufactured order to exist, they simply *are* despite of everything and anything. This is how I'm now trying to approach writing, just let go and give myself the grace I never had in my life.
That's really insightful on the flow of writing. I seem to either have zero in my head or 5 blogs fighting to get out at once and that fear of losing the plots :) But you are abolsutly right -- somehow what comes out of the jumble is the right thing and often those 5 ideas end up as 3 or 4 completely different pieces that emerge from all those intersections.
Completely the same! I hit a bit of a slump at the beginning of March, courtesy of kids bringing horrendous stomach bugs and chest infections home all the time. In sickness I sometimes get these dark thoughts, almost to the point of "gosh I'm out of ideas, that's me done with writing!" Of course I laugh at it now. Such thing isn't really possibl, is it?! Learning to go with the flow is a process. Here I am, sitting with some 10-15 drafts. Who knows what all will come out of it? Don't know, don't care, time will tell, I'll know what to make of it when I know.
Thank you for this. Trying to decolonize ourselves even if our own culture was the colonizer ... all are harmed by this way of thinking, both the colonizers and the colonized. I have a small urban yard so true rewilding is not possible. However, planting gardens of native wildflowers to nurture wildlife, in place of lifeless turf grass, is a small yet important act of hope and resistance here in the U.S., where chemical lawn culture has ruled post WW2. I felt much the same way about the workplace as you do, and my most important daily goal now I am "retired" from paid work is to spend as much time as possible outside among wild things, to make up for all the years I couldn't. xo
We can’t change history but we can face the present and change our future. Thanks for a beautiful read. 💚
You transported me right into your backyard.
It is always heartening to know there is other out there who are still dreamers (and I will use that in the best sense of the world) I feel so lucky to have been able to keep my childlike wonder. But it is exhausting to walk through a world surrounded from people who are so disconnected that they look at you like you’re the strange one.
Thank you for the piece. It was the perfect start to my day.
Thank you very much for your kind words Tansie, I'm so glad they had this effect on you! I sense I'll have much more to say about this yard and its wondrous moss.
Perfect.