Belinda Mara Ashton
Come forth into the light of things,
let nature be your teacher.
WORDSWORTH
I love poetry and caring and the thoughtfulness of kind words. I find inspiration in clouds drifting across autumn skies and in vases of flowers and a soulful room filled with books, paintings, and scatter cushions. I love waking up each day knowing that the subtle magic of life stretches before me... and then stepping into the fresh, clear dawn, filled with gratitude for the simplicity of small moments and the loveliness of it all.
I so appreciate people who have no idea how truly wonderful they are; they just go about their lives, shining their light and making everyone feel nice and the world a happier place.
Sharing these soulful words by Irish poet John O'Donohue: 'May I live this day compassionate of heart, clear in word, gracious in awareness, courageous in thought, generous in love.' A blessing, an invocation for each day.
Through my work as a nature writer and visual storyteller, I share stories to help deepen our awareness and understanding of the beautiful living world and our ever-changing place in it, so that we can reimagine a way of being that is gentler, more considerate of nature and of one another.
I live between the Cotswolds, UK, and Cape Town.
Thankfulness finds its full measure in generosity of presence, both through participation and witness.
DAVID WHYTE
Working for wildlife & wild places
After years of writing and searching and travelling into remote landscapes to deepen my understanding of place and connection - to self and to the wider living world – I began sharing much of what I learnt through publications and thought-provoking initiatives.
tenalach
Gaelic for the relationship one has with the land, the sky, the water: a deep connection that allows one to hear the earth sing and be one with nature
Will the memory of our lives remain
amidst these gentle places of the soul,
where we have walked so freely,
and together, all these years…
AS THE WILD GEESE FLY
In search of our own potential for growth and renewal along the diverse pathways of our lives...
In quiet moments, I sometimes contemplate our deep ties to the land where we were born and how, when we choose to live far yonder, a sense of that land and its stories remains with us. I grew up among the beautiful fynbos mountains and close to the wild Atlantic coastline of the Cape, and to this day, the scent of wild sage and the evocative, heart-stirring sound of nightjars calling at dusk are deeply embedded in my internal life. They are foundational connections that I carry with me wherever I go. And as our distant ancestors were once nomadic wanderers, constantly moving towards new horizons in search of that which calls to our human spirit, so we grow into our lives, and with time, the landscapes shift and change, much as we do. In recent years, I have become deeply attached to the hills and fields and quiet lanes of the English countryside where I've been living, and they are profoundly a part of my older, more reflective self.
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Cianalas - Gaelic for a deep longing for, and attachment to, one’s true homeland and roots, all wrapped up in melancholy, love, and nostalgia.
Having grown up in a home where my parents have a love for classical music, I too fill my life with music and the inspiration of poems and written words. Working in my study with the Moonlight Sonata or Irish composer John Field’s Nocturnes playing quietly in the background is, for me, one of life’s true pleasures.
Years ago, while busy with research for a project that I was working on, I came across a few words by Albert Camus that said, ‘I like people who dream or talk to themselves interminably…they are here and elsewhere,’ and I thought, yes, this is me! And it felt comforting having these words with me, kept between pages in my journal, for surely it is in the dreaming, amid the reality of everyday life, that we connect, for a while, and perhaps more eloquently, with the true magic of life? ​
The exceeding beauty of the earth, in her splendour of life, yields a new thought with every petal. The hours when the mind is absorbed by beauty are the only hours when we really live...
RICHARD JEFFERIES
The Life of the Fields
Peace is a practice not a hope...
Over time, and having worked within many nature awareness programmes, I have learnt that it is through our emotional bonding with the land that we develop an ethos of care and compassion for the natural world, at a time when so much of all that is wild and free is being lost, perhaps forever.
