Black nature

The Devil’s Staircase Awaits

| Sheree
Kingshouse, Highlands of Scotland

Today is my birthday and it dawned bright here in the Highlands. The sun has been dancing across the peaks of the Glencoe mountains but the rain and wind has followed soon after.

I wait to set off walking today. Alex is injured. A scar of a former wound has become infected and it’s touch and go if he can walk today. But the deal is if he can’t I go on.

I wait to see what happens.

Today is a short day of walking just over 8 miles but no doubt still a hard day as we attempt the Devil’s Staircase. The highest point on the West Highland Way (550m)which has claimed lives in the past as the navvies building the reservoir in Kinlochleven would take this route at night after drinking over this side and would get lost and perish in the mountains.

Nowadays, there’s a well defined path and hopefully we’ll be up and down before the light fades.

We will see. And here comes the sun again!

It’s Live – Rise Up Rooted

| Sheree

I totally forgot yesterday, My head was down as I concentrate on my essay I’m writing. But today I remember. And I’ve signed up. The Rise Up Rooted Symposium is live. Check out the schedule for the free virtual symposium about about nature, connection and rewinding.

My conversation is live tomorrow then I share about my relationship with the sea and the healing properties. But there are some ready to be watched now. It’s free to join. Just add your emails and start watching. You can upgrade to an all access pass which means you get to watch all the videos in your own time and pace. I’ll get a percentage of the fee. But no pressure. Watch for free and tell me what you think.

Mine is out tomorrow and can be watched for 48 hours afterwards for free.

Black Aliveness

| Sheree

“We are not the idea of us, not even the idea that we hold of us. We are us, multiple and varied, becoming. The heterogeneity of us. Blackness in a Black world is everything, which means that it gets to be freed from being any one thing. We are ordinary beauty, Black people, and beauty must be allowed to do its beautiful work.” Kevin Quashie describes in Black Aliveness, or, A Black Poetics of Being.

May (Blossom) Poetry – Empathising with Blossom

| Sheree

I see you, white blossom.

I feel your softness and gentle caress-petals.

Hanging, heavy bell-like clusters of white,

delicate to the touch as well as to the nose.

I taste your thirst for life, to cling on,

as your prime is short-lived, ephemeral

but no less spectacular. Thank you,

sweet one, for blazing white-bright

in my line of sight, that my heartswells

with awe and wonder and love. For you.

For this world. For we share this glory

through our true nature.