Hi friends,
I’ve been thinking this week about our collective healing journey as stretching. Stretching ourselves to be able to hold multiple, conflicting truths at once. Stretching ourselves to allow people to fully express views even if we disagree. Stretching ourselves to allow ideas to be possible, without the need to define truth and false instantly, without become attached and defensive. It’s interesting to notice how my body responds when words and ideas don’t align with my preconceptions. The tensing, the contraction, the shielding that seems to happen as an automatic reaction. Our bodies keeping score of generations of ideas. Ideas that shape and form us.
I chose these three topics for each post as a stretching exercise. Can I reach my roots down into the Earth to connect with plants & kin? Can I stretch upwards into spiritual and creative expression with rites & practice? Can I extend my empathy for my global brothers and sisters by understanding land & justice? The exercise of writing this stretches me a little every week. My hope is that it helps you stretch a little in these ways too. I’m curious how else you stretch yourself beyond the confines of the cultures that raised us? Will you let me know?
Plants & Kin 🌿
Hypericum perforatum - or St Johns Wort - is probably a plant that is more famous as a medicine than it is a wild plant. Flowering around the summer solstice (unless you live in my part of Wales and/or summer is increasingly late), the plant seems to soak up and capture the joyous summer energy, to be shared back with us when we need it.
This plant is well known and evidenced for treating depression and menopausal symptoms. They are a wonderful plant to keep stored and prepared ready for the long dark winter months, when a little dose of summer sun goes a long way. They are also used topically, applied to the skin to support healing of minor wounds and inflammations.
I like to make a tincture, which instantly goes red in colour, from the aerial parts. Dried leaves and flowers make a great tea. I’ve also infused the aerial parts in oil and then melted a little bees wax in to make a balm that can be used topically.
Rites & Practice ✨
I LOVE Julia Cameron’s practice of the artist date - time blocked in the diary as a real and prioritised activity of courting the wild, creative self. This is an excerpt from her seminal book The Artists Way:
An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. In its most primary form, the artist date is an excursion, a play date that you pre plan and defend against all interlopers. You do not take anyone on this artist date but you and your inner artist, a.k.a. your creative child. That means no lovers, friends , spouses, children - no taggers-on of any stripe. If you think this sounds stupid or that you will never be able to afford the time, identify that reaction as resistance. You cannot afford not to find time for artist dates.
Land & Justice ✊
In June this year, groups have been protesting in Kenya against increasing taxes. The protests were led largely by young people organising online via social media platforms. The Guardian reported this week that many protesters have gone missing and some have turned up dead. The Kenyan Peasants League, member of international union La Via Campesina, stands in solidarity with the protests. This week they released a statement that shares their understanding of the facts and causes behind the protests. According to the Kenyan Peasants League the new tax was a 16% VAT that imposes the tax on critical essentials such as bread. Other items, such as “motor vehicles used by the National Intelligence Service (NIS), packaging materials for tea processed by multinational corporations, and agricultural inputs for pest control, benefiting companies importing banned pesticides and harming the environment” were exempt. The protesters directly accuse the IMF, World Bank, and WTO of imposing harsh taxes.
It is likely that some of the statement is not true - the IMF, World Bank and WTO is unlikely to be dictating VAT-able and non-VAT-able items to the Kenyan government. However, according to Al Jazeera the IMF did grant Kenya a bail out loan in 2022, conditioned on hiking taxes, reducing subsidies and cutting government waste. The global institutions have a bad reputation in Africa, and leaders often exploit this to justify unpopular decisions.
Encounters 🔥
I chatted to my dear friend Sadati recently about life in Uganda. Some of you supported the crowdfunder we did a few years ago to get him home from the Turkish sweatshop he was working in - you can read some of his story here. He’s currently doing well, earning from his tomato plot and a government job labouring on a large construction project and his kids are in school. The work is good but, as ever, a short contract. Life in Uganda feels ever more precarious and food prices continue to be high (around 30-40% of income to eat a starch-based diet - no veg or meat).
There’s a quote that’s been bouncing around my head all week.
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
This quote is generally attributed to Lilla Watson, a Murri woman of Central Queensland, after she quoted it in the 1985 UN Decade for Women conference. The phrase was actually coined collectively by an Aboriginal Rights group in Queensland in the 70s and according to Wikipedia, Lilla is not comfortable being attributed as the sole author.I’d really love to extend the reach of this little blog. If you can think of anyone that might enjoy these weekly musings I’d be so grateful if you’d share it with them!