The ponies in the New Forest, where I went camping last week, are very clever indeed. They have established their own fiefdom with unprecedented pony freedom and special rules for humans. About 3000 ponies roam freely throughout the forest. Their grazing maintains the heath and grasslands, and they also contribute to the local economy and [...]
Monthly Archive for June, 2008
I wonder why it is that I feel such a tremendous sense of wellbeing around trees. Last weekend we took trips to two wooded areas, Burnham Beeches and Cliveden, both in Buckinghamshire. Burnham Beeches is a 540-acre wood that was bought by the City of London in the nineteenth century to stop it from being [...]
#43 Improve Our Transitions
Posted in Community, General, Politics, Spirituality on Jun 23rd, 2008
When I call my boyfriend in the evenings, we often have a great conversation, and then he ruins the whole thing by hustling me off the phone without warning because he wants to brush his teeth or go to bed or something exciting like that. I know he has to get up early and he [...]
#42 Take a Break
Posted in Family, General, Spirituality on Jun 19th, 2008
My recent trip to Scotland was the best thing I have done all year. After months of anxiety, I thought I had tried every kind of stress relief: exercise, healthy diet, yoga, meditation, self-help books. Nothing was working. I felt overwhelmed by the impossibilities of the future, and at some point every week I felt [...]
We are taught always to be grateful and thank our hosts. It’s hard to say which of my hosts has been the most remarkable. Was it the landlord who took away my furniture so I had to sleep on the floor? Or the family who disinvited me with a post-it note on the stairs? [...]
Plastic may be wonderful for water bottles and new noses, but when we descended from a remote Scottish coastal path to a picturesque beach, only to find that the shore and hillsides were covered in plastic trash that had washed out of the ocean, the (plastic) recycling bin never looked so good.
My mother [...]
#39 Educate the Ignorant and Correct the Wayward
Posted in Community, Family, General, Spirituality on Jun 13th, 2008
I particularly love it when other people decide they are my long-lost kindergarten teacher. This happened yesterday when I was buying groceries at a small shop.
‘May I have a bag?’ I asked.
The checkout woman put on her most self-righteous tone as she waved the plastic bag in front of my face. ‘Will you promise [...]
#38 Be Confident
Posted in General on Jun 12th, 2008
We are in awe of a young Indian man of our acquaintance by the name of Kamlesh. We admire the supreme self-confidence that permits him to wear blue velvet jackets, silk cravats, and curl-toed Indian slippers on a daily basis. His prim, dandyish appearance suits him perfectly and does not seem affected in the slightest. [...]
For some reason the rural road builders of Britain have decided that it is not necessary to have a separate lane for cars going in either direction. Instead they have concluded that a single lane will do for both directions, as long as there are slightly wider spots identified as Passing Places where two small [...]
#36 Stay Upright
Posted in Community, General, Personal Hygiene on Jun 6th, 2008
It is no easy matter to maintain our bipedal stance on a muddy hill so steep it might be mistaken for a wall. Hundreds of feet have worn away the grass, leaving a slick, treacherous surface. We slip and fall to our hands and knees, clinging to tree roots and other people’s legs as we [...]