The first week of July and there’s a feint scent of Autumn in the air this morning.
The morning brings a quiet and gentle beginning to the day, untouched by the continuing perplexities of man.
“Man has drawn artificial lines on the chest of the Mother Earth, which have no significance, except for the sake of war and clashes between countries. The soil seems to be the same, the trees the same, the grass the same, and the fragrance of the air, the smell of the earth the same.”
~ Girdhar Joshi
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Yes it is…all the same…at most times hard to believe when one watches the circus of life on MSM.
Bread and circuses, but we all know and recognise real life.
It has a colour and fragrance all of its own.
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“The earth is a mosaic, and most fail to notice the gossamer tesserae floating down from the realm of the mind that form its images of beauty and horror.”
~ Lawren Leo
In a world that appears to be coming apart at the seams, we are reminded, on a daily basis, by the mainstream media, that we are separate and divided on many levels.
There are many aspects of our lives where we disagree.
I know how that works, for I was born and raised in a place of separation…Northern Ireland.
As I grew, left home, went to university and raised a family in London, I became aware of the importance of common ground.
London is a melting pot of over twelve million people, where the essence of living harmoniously is to be found in common ground.
I held an allotment for many years, a place where cultures met with great affection shared for what was beneath our very feet…common ground.
It served us well as we grew food, shared seed, advice and barbecues!
I continue to share common ground with my ex-husband, for we each agree that our common ground is compassion for animals, the Earth and love of our children.
As a species, we have much in common with each other.
When a community comes together it can be an awesome sight, especially when fuelled by compassion!
Here we are in the midst of troubled times where much is threatened, yet I see people coming together as never before.
People with real concerns for Mother Earth, their communities, resources and much more.
There will always be those we feel apart from, angry with and despairing of, for that is the human struggle.
It is the small, unsung bits of humanity that bind us together…kindness and compassion.
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Bealtaine Cottage Good Life website now has 17 blogs with over 150 photographs to date.
“Right now over 70% of the world population is convinced that something serious has to be done about the dangers facing the planet. …Most of humanity wants to know how to make the change. It’s one of those tipping-point times where things can change unbelievably fast…”
~ Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, The Cultural Creatives
Words of wisdom.
Words of vision.
The coming times; a glimpse of what’s to come.
These times are infused with uncertainty and fear.
Many people deal with this by switching off.
The Tipping Point has arrived.
Most of us know this to be a truth.
We know it deep in our hearts.
There is a panic among those who hold power over us.
This is manifested in the shifting sands of policy as things appear to fall apart.
Our governments have sown the seeds of chaos…in what they have done and what they have failed to do.
The most insidious, Machiavellian, duplicitous human beings are rampaging and corralling us all into dark times.
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.” ― W.B. Yeats, The Collected Poems
For several years, as I have written this blog, and photographed the exquisite and the beautiful that is Mother Earth, I have attempted to inspire and encourage a return to Mother Earth.
For those who dwell close to her, quickly find the connection to life and spirit they have searched for, and in the finding is birthed a renewed sense of humanity, compassion, goodness and joy.
These are the values we have, as humans, innate within us.
The intuitive, intrinsic, spontaneous gifts of the Divine which make us as one.
Those we have elected as Trustees of Our Planet are conjuring wars, corruption, hatred and despair; thrusting us into the darkest of times.
As the falcon turns, hold on tight to what you know to be the truth.
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Bealtaine Cottage is free and has over 850 blogs, as well as over 3,500 photographs.
Bealtaine Cottage Good Life is a mere 12 euros per year and allows me a small income, to keep doing what I love doing most…writing about Mother Earth and photographing her.
To subscribe, a small donation of 12 euros per year, will add your name to the subscriber list.
There follows some correspondence from a subscriber to Bealtaine Cottage.
I thought it worthy of sharing with you…
Colette,
As a follow up to your e-mail regarding receipt of my order for your Christmas book, I wanted to let you know that I immensely enjoy your blog and You-tube videos.
I follow Bealtaine Cottage regularly since I discovered your wonderful work through Tom O’ Brien’s program, From Alpha To Omega. That was a brilliant interview. Your openness and natural manner really came through in quite a powerful way.
You are inspiring and a model for what is right in the world in the midst of so much madness.
I am so heartened by your mission of re-leafing Ireland as I watch with dismay the senseless removal of so many of our beautiful conifers and other trees here in the Pacific Northwest of America. It makes no sense to me whatsoever to take away all that grace. Yet it continues at an alarming pace.
I am so glad to know there are others who share my concern and deep love of our most noble and life giving creatures of our planet. May the green realm prevail!
Wangari Maathai comes to mind when I think of you and what you intend to accomplish. Please know you should not have to save the green mantle of Ireland alone.
Perhaps your strong, unwavering voice shall enlist as many kindred spirits who shall plant not 900+ trees as you yourself have nobly done, not 9,000 trees as you intend with your own hands, but 90 million or more trees in Ireland alone! Goodness only knows the immense numbers of trees planted to the far corners of this world from a single originating voice…. May it be so!
May your mission far surpass your own expectations many fold, please stay safe, and take the best care of yourself.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, friend of the green!
Many blessings to you for being such a bright light in the world.
Richard
Dear Richard…such wonderful, uplifting and inspiring words!
Thank you for lifting my spirits, for much has gone awry today…though nothing that can’t be fixed!
I am about to make a pot of tea, some toast and settle down to watch a DVD loaned by a friend…so the evening will be relaxing. My beautiful Ireland, this amazing Earth, so abundant and caring, despite our hapless ways!
Trees are the noble guardians of Mother Earth and our source of oxygen…planting trees is an act of pure worship of the Divine…more so than any other worship we do.
Planting trees is a prayer to God, to make the future secure, for those we love and will never even meet in this life.
The Native Americans spoke of the seventh generation, the descendants we will never know, but love all the same.
We must be mindful of them, and in that mindfulness, nudge that little bit closer to the Creator. Let us not just hope, Richard, but act in great and unshakeable faith that there will be a tomorrow for our humanity.
Blessings X
Colette
Without compassion, we become robots of the state and are enslaved.
Compassion means understanding the suffering of others.
How often do we regard our leaders as being unaware of the suffering of others?
Compassion is regarded as a fundamental part of the greater social interconnection of humanity.
The people we revere most in history often turn out to be those who nurtured compassion for others and for the Earth.
Having compassion for humanity often means rejecting one’s ego and focusing our full attention on the needs of others.
The humanity within us often attracts us to compassionate people.
This was so very evident in the days following the death of Princess Diana.
Much of humanity mourned the loss of so compassionate a woman.
My abiding memories of Diana is of her wearing protective clothing as she inspected an area that had been land-mined…a campaign that made her unpopular with the warmongering elite, and how gently she held the baby suffering with Aids.
Her passing left an enormous void that has not been filled.I cannot think of one celebrity who can fill her shoes…very sad to admit after such a long time since her death.
Our society, as portrayed by the media, appears to lack that very essence that connects us to the Divine…compassion.
If we wait for our leaders to make compassion a trademark of good society, I fear we may be waiting a very long time.
It is down to us, each one of us, to cultivate and grow compassion in ourselves and those around us…Imagine, as John Lennon once sung…
There are millions of American people without power.
Candles are now a luxury item.
Temperatures are plummeting.
Whole neighbourhoods are in darkness.
People are in real crisis and all the result of one storm, albeit a “super-storm.”
Many of those trying to make it through to normalcy are describing their situation, and that of others, as being like a “war-zone!”
We are but a few meals away from starvation, when it comes to the havoc being wreaked by Mother Nature.
The media and governments remind us continually that this was just a freak storm, a “once in a 100 years event!”
If that is the case then Ireland has suffered several freak weather events in the recent years…as “freak,” becomes “normal!”
Look back over recent years and recall just how many freak events in weather have taken place…
For several years we have had unusually heavy snow and frost in a land where the Gulf stream assures us mild and temperate weather all the year around.
The Earth is not in a happy state.
There are many ways in which we can help ourselves and the planet we inhabit.
The first one would have to be simply accepting that all is change and adapting to circumstances now beyond our control is the best we can do.
New Yorkers and people living on the East Coast of America are having to do just that.
There are signs of hope and support out there, as people come together and help each other.
NYPD have reported that in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, crime has dropped by 87% against the same time last year.
People are cooking communally and reaching out to others, sharing and caring, with and for each other.
In times of distress and hardship, humanity is rediscovering their immense ability to love…rediscovering community and friendship.
Humanity rediscovers itself in a time of crisis.
We are all one.
Our prayers and blessings are with all those who suffer, whether in war, conflict, climate chaos or bereavement…we are one.
“Man has drawn artificial lines on the chest of the Mother Earth, which have no significance, except for the sake of war and clashes between countries. The soil seems to be the same, the trees the same, the grass the same, and the fragrance of the air, the smell of the earth the same.”
Bread and circuses, but we all know and recognise real life.
It has a colour and fragrance all of its own.
If you would like to support the work of Bealtaine Cottage, completely dependent on people who value what I do, here’s how…
