Oh hell. This growing older thing is freaking. me. out. I was having a good day until it smacked me in the face that I’m nearly forty. And I just got really scared.
But I’m not here tonight to talk about the terrible speed at which I’m approaching middle age. Who needs that on a Sunday, right? Instead, I’m here to share some bites from the books I’ve been reading today.
I like to have a few books on the go simultaneously. When I say a few, I mean about eight or nine. But the ones I’ve been reaching for today are:
Conversations in Love by Natasha Lunn, The Last Almanac by Bob Beagrie, The Daily Creative by Todd Henry, and This Is Vegan Propaganda by Ed Winters.
From The Daily Creative (Which is so far reasonably decent. It does, at moments, feel a bit thrashed out, but it’s making me think about my creative practise in some different ways and that’s always a good thing.)
Your only job today – and every day – is to pour yourself fully into the work being called out to you.
Is there any place where comparison causes you to feel like you’re falling behind or running out of time?
From Conversations In Love (Which is fucking excellent and a highly recommended read. Especially if you’re like me, i.e. very much single and trying to figure out what the hell happens next.)
The story of human intimacy is one of constantly allowing ourselves to see those we love most deeply in a new, more fractured light. Look hard. Risk that. – Cheryl Strayed
I learned from Conversations about the etymology of the word honeymoon. It comes from the Old English word ‘hony moone.’ The term ‘hony’ refers to the indefinite period of tenderness and pleasure experienced by newlyweds, and ‘moone’ hints at the inevitable waning of said tenderness – like a phase of the moon.
From The Last Almanac (Bob is one of my favourite poets and this collection is moving me and inspiring me and haunting me in ways I’ve never been moved, inspired or haunted before. If you want a copy, I think you need to contact Bob Beagrie directly.)
Two stanzas from Film Poem (based on Peter & The Wolf)
The mountain’s shadow slides across the meadow
a wolf slinks from the forest’s rim, pendulum tongue.
They once hung a witch from the branch of that tree,
what kind of crone was she that did not sink?
From This Is Vegan Propaganda (Just read this. It’s an important book. Devastating, yes, but hugely important.)
The UK, which used to be covered in woods and forestlands but is now just an island covered in fields…Only 13 percent of the UK is now woodlands and forests with a mere 2.5 percent being ancient woodland. 11 of that 13 percent, only 7 percent is considered to be in ‘good condition,’ 12 and a half is made up of forestry plantations that support very little biodiversity. This is much lower than the average of 44 percent in other European countries.
If we want to protect wildlife, we have to stop the destruction of wild habitats and the best way to do that is to change what’s on our plates.
During a televised debate I had with the chief executive of the National Sheep Association on the BBC, he referred to sheep as being the ‘ultimate renewable technology.’ This comment summarised to me a huge part of the problem: we have reduced the natural world and animals to simply being resources that we can do with as we please.
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 