Emperor's New Clothes

I was listening to a program on the world economy and the degree to which it is based on a 'virtual' situation --- i.e. money is lent that doesn't exist, there is no gold standard to back economies , countries with huge debts 'lend' huge amounts etc, etc, etc One of the presenters asked the fascinating question " Is it time to declare the emperor has no clothes?"

I thought what a brilliant question! How often do we bolster up our acceptance of ways of going on, when the brave thing would be to say stop, let's stop this nonsense!

A good example recently was one of the UK politicians who had just volunteered to put himself on a lie detector and came out clean as a whistle on every question. His point was that politicians can only lie so long as the voters put up with it. So, why not, cut to the chase, and if you want to be in public office, be willing to take lie detector test once a year. If you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to lose!

OK..maybe a bit draconian...but actually...he had a point ..there are always ways of drawing a line and saying 'enough is enough'. And once a stance has been taken, the principle applies. In previous times, truth and honour were important enough to influence public behaviour...and who is to say, that could not be the same again, if enough people won't have it any other way!

The Flip Side of the Coin - re-writing the balance

Speaking with a friend in London yesterday, we were discussing the recent rioting. One of the more positive aspects which she was inspired by, was the response of the major part of the local folks to the destruction and chaos around them.

Her son lives in Hackney which was left in a right old mess, yet by 10.30 the following morning, the local residents had been out in force, shoulder to shoulder, clearing up their home turf. It brought together people of all persuasions..socially, religiously and racially ...who together just were not going to put up with the destruction around them.

It's sad and worrying that so few can cause so very much violence, but heartening that a much greater number of people feel so strongly against such degenerative behaviour and pull together to do whatever they can to counter it.

Voice from the elder generation

I just had a call from a lovely friend of mine who is 83..a real elder of the tribe! She said she was thanking her lucky stars that she was young in the 1930s and 40s rather than in our present time.

That gave me food for thought as she had lived through the second world war, including the occupation of her country by the Nazis with all the resulting horrors.

Again, the same view was echoed to me as I've heard from so many different people over the last month.....that her fear was, that we are facing the beginning a serious breakdown of the stability we take for granted...that the current kind of western civilisation we have is simply falling apart.

It strikes me, if there is some truth in this, it is an incredibly important time to remain steady in oneself, to hold fast to our values and to do everything we can personally to maintain a good standard of life and living - one that, in whatever small way, could be part of the pioneering of a new way, a new time.

Unusual Behaviour in Queen Ants

BBC Film crews have recently filmed some unusual behaviour in queen honey ants. Normally they are solitary workers and seldom work in conjunction with others.Whilst building her nest, the original honey queen was seen to be digging and building together with several other honey queens. Normally the approach of another queen would result in fighting yet in the film, they were working together, co-operated well and all have gone into the nest together to begin to lay their eggs.

Interesting! When looking at a changing world, the behaviour of insects, birds and animals is another facet to watch.

The Riots in UK

Many people in the UK are reeling over the rioting of the last few days...and feeling horrified about the mindless violence and rapacious looting. It really does look feral...and many people are wondering why the army has not gone in with a heavy hand to nip it in the bud before it has reached this proportion.

However, this blog is not about that..but rather seeks to question what is it in the minds and hearts of those involved ( or absent) that allows such behaviour. The police, army and judicial systems may quell it with heavy measures, but the level of resentment that it has revealed is not going to go away by punishment. Some of the girls involved in the violence in London described their involvement as 'good fun' and felt justified in what they were doing because they felt the system was so unfair. Their lack of value for the safety of other people and the sanctity of their lives was chilling.

You really feel there is an undercurrent of unrest which is reaching boiling point and this is unlikely to be the last we see it surface. Understanding what it all means is hugely challenging .. and so very important.

Phoenix Arising from the Ashes

It's been some time since I blogged and there has been so much happening in the world.

I was watching the news with a friend last weekend. The news items covered so many negative events...the shootings in Norway, debt and finances in the US, continuing events in the Arab worlds, more coverage from Afghanistan and on it went to issues closer to home. Conversations had between various business people talking about the inefficiency they meet day to day in banking, in industry, in government departments....

The person with whom I was watching turned round and made an interesting observation. He said...."there is no bringing our civilisation back to a reasonable standard of life is there? It's just too far gone the road of breakdown"

For him this was a really sobering and depressing thing to come to....and I could only agree with him about the direction he was detecting. However, I began to talk of living in times of transition from the old to the new...a time of a phoenixing ...and that the breakdown of one way of life was pre-cursor to another emergent one .......and yet he just couldn't see it or feel this new possibility. All he could see was the world as we know it falling apart, with no fresh hope appearing. I wondered how many people across the globe felt the same?

It made me wonder how is it that some people feel this new arising so passionately , attempt to respond to this new signal so intensely, whilst other people simply seem impervious to it? Is it the case that it is only those who are actively pioneering the new, who feel it ?

Knowledge v Understanding

Thanks to some of my Facebook friends, I've recently been reading some items in the National Graphic News website..really fascinating articles and videos ..one about recent sun spot activity, another about predictions of sun spot 'hibernation' post 2013,
and another describing a young 'sun like star' in the constellation of Perseus, 750 light years from Earth "with jets that blast epic quantities of water into inter-stellar space"

In fact, I almost blogged about each of them separately and highly recommend a look at the site!

However, what I want to explore today is the fact of the amazing amount of knowledge we have about everything and everything...from the minutiae of atomic particles to the goings on in space.

So much fresh information flooding our brain cells....and yet the question comes up in me as to the value of more and more knowledge, whilst our understanding of some of the core issues of living still seems to be so minimal.

There seems to be such a brain hunger for more, more, more ...not only for facts, but also in so many avenues of living such as for money, possessions, entertainment, advertising, relationships, titillation .....that it seems that the 'more, more, more' syndrome can keep our lives shallow, rather than the deeper probe for the value and significance of who we are and what we have.

Six months on, in Kenya

I did a blog back in March about a friend of mine who was working with a network called Feminenza in the area of Forgiveness in Kenya.

I spoke to her again this week about the results so far ...and delighted to hear about some very inspiring events. Some of the ladies who had been on the course had been meeting with some of the local tribal dignitaries and leaders and getting a very positive response from them.

One very practical example was of two tribes who at one time used to share a local market. For some time, after the recent outbreaks of violence between them, they have had to have two separate markets to prevent fighting. As a result of the ladies meeting with the local leaders, all have decided it's time to bring the market together again. Perhaps a small decision, but an important one.....because it is a practical attempt to leave the troubles of the past behind and focus on the future they want to build together.

Yet again, one can appreciate that it is often a few individuals' decisions and actions which can be the catalyst for others to come together to help build a better future. Real change begins in how we think and what we value.

All strength to them.

Idealism and Business

Just reading this morning's post at work and delighted to read a letter to my good friend, Richard, whom I work with, thanking him for not only doing a great job producing a CD for someone, but for his inspiration in combining business and idealism....something the customer now wants to try to emulate in his own business.

I love it when one man inspires another ( or woman!) by not compromising his principles in whatever field of his life he is dealing in.

Isn't it amazing how any one individual can add to or subtract from the well-being of society...and often in an exponential way.

My next blog is going to be on a young Brahmin in India doing just that!

More on the Land of Pearls

Sometimes India is called the Land of Pearls ...a rather romantic evocation....yet this last week, I keep coming across programs and articles about modern day India which are absolutely heart wrenching and haunt the mind, brutally realistic and far from romanticism.

This one was about the mentally ill in India, where it is still seen as a giant social stigma. Because of this many families simply abandon anyone with a mental problem where they wander the streets untended and uncared for, with no medical treatment. The program estimated there could be as many as 60 million Indians with mental problems.

It showed many people in very disturbed states ....sometimes with their children watching on helplessly.

As often happens, in the midst of an account of such suffering, there was one bright light in the programme. This was about a young Brahmin called Naryanan Krishnan, who has taken a position about this. From a wealthy Brahmin background, and facing a very lucrative career as a successful chef, Naryanan had a life changing experience in 2002 when he saw an old starving man in the streets of Madurai trying to eat his own excrement.

It caused him to take a position that he would help feed the mentally ill in Madurai, where he now takes care of about 400 people on a regular and daily basis. He has founded the Akshaya Trust which is publicly funded and has now managed to erect a building to provide shelter too.

He has been severely criticised by traditional Brahmins who highly disapprove of his physical contact with the Untouchables. In response, Naryanan said...

" they are human, I am human,, they are flesh and blood, I am flesh and blood"

What moves me about this is manyfold ...one is for his sentiments and his work, and another because it just demonstrates so clearly how one individual can influence so many others around them...can really make a difference....and how one strong minded person can be catalytic in inspiring other to rally too.

Forward the Future!

I have many friends in the UK of different social, political and educational backgrounds.

One thing they all seem to have in common is a dissatisfaction with their own brand of politicians which only takes second place to their objections to the politician's opponents !Those of a right persuasion, are seeing all the blind spots in the Conservative approach now the Tories are actually in government whilst still railing at the problems left behind by the last year of labor administration. Likewise with those of a left inclination.

It's fascinating to me listening to the arguments and counter arguments. One can't help wondering if there is not a completely new political template to be found which leaves behind the worst aspects of both left and right, whilst looking to the inherent values and principles of each which can add to the quality and well being of humanity.

Is there a third way to be found ? A new approach, not based in power and politics as we know it , but a fresh approach which comes from a fundamental value for life on earth and the future of humanity? Wouldn't it be a great area to bring together some of the brightest minds of our times in an international summit which is looking towards the FUTURE, rather than simply addressing whatever current PROBLEM AREA is drawing them together?

Changing Times in India

I watched an interview with the author Arundhati Roy on Newsnight last week about aspects of life in India in these times of change .. it has haunted me all week.

One aspect was about the growing gap between the rich and the poor. With India producing more and more millionaires, Mumbai has more per capita than Manhattan. Yet at the same time , there are millions and millions of people in dire poverty. The growth of the Indian economy is set to overtake that of China by 2013 at current growth rates.

Just one of the features Arundhati was highlighting was the plight of thousands of Indigenous Indians whose lands are being despoiled by the mining of bauxite. The bauxite, being porous, is also the key to the land holding water...and without it the land can't grow the food that's needed....a really vicious circle where the extraction of the mineral is going to make aluminium, bumping up the Indian economy, making a few people rich and leaving many of the poor in an even more desperate state.

As she said in the interview , Arudhati asks the question ...FOR WHAT? India hurtling towards a so called prosperous 'western style' economy at the expense of millions of its own people, so many of whom don't have even the basics to live?

She also talked about pockets of people who have quite a different vision of modernity ..those who appreciate the urgency and emergency situation of the planet.

Surely true progress can never be at the expense of humanity ....can never be just for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many?

Path Finding New Ways

One of the challenges for being a pioneer of finding new ways forward is not sliding back into the past. This is one of these really interesting areas to explore as I opened up in of of my earlier blogs about recent events in the Middle East. New ideas, fresh winds blow through and create a vacuum, but as soon as a space appears, the old establishments rush in to fill the void!

One of the things I've discovered is that there is a lot more energy, more 'oomph' attached connecting to genuinely positive new influences, than when something is merely a kick against the past. You might say one is evolutionary, with that extra something else from the future whilst the kick against the past, is revolutionary with all the pitfalls of revolution which we have seen from history.

Thanks for all this sun!!

Talking to one of my environmental friends yesterday threw out another reason to be grateful for all this gorgeous sun we've been having in the UK.

And it relates to the nuclear leaks at Fukushima in Japan after the recent shocking earthquake. Rain is carrying weak amounts of radioactivity into the eco system in various parts of the world ..but by default, that means the absence of rain here in the UK has been a real life saver for us, in that we have not had that same exposure so far.

The other interesting fact that came up in this conversation was that he and his family have been taking daily doses of Potassium Iodide , which he said builds up in the system as a protection against the body absorbing radioactivity. Not being much of a science buff, I headed straight for Google! And there is some interesting information on there, about how it was given out to 10.5 million children and 7 million adults around Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster there in 1986, as a protection against the thyroid absorbing radioactivity ...well worth a research.

To watch or not to watch?

To watch or not to watch ?

Speaking to various friends recently, it seems some are absolutely glued to the international news programmes, eager to understand and follow events as they unfold. Others are frankly just finding it too much...too depressing and have decided to give it a miss for a while. As one friend put it.....just too much doom and gloom and nothing I can do anything about !

From the perspective of living in times of change, with the view that we are in times of both endings and new beginnings, the news very often highlights the breakdown of old ways and old patterns ...a necessary part of moving into something new.

The problem is that the influence of new thinking is often subtle to perceive, because it is very often quickly taken over by old thinking ....take for instance the wave of demands for reforms through the middle east. It certainly felt like a wind of change washing through country after country, often with the voice of young intellectuals talking about the need for respect, for humanity, for fairness. However, very quickly, as a vacuum appears in the establishment, other factions, whether they be religious, economical, military or political quickly step up to the mark and want to impose their views, their ways.

It's a real challenge in today's world, to find ways forward that are really new, bring fresh hope, have learned from the past and do not simply fall into a re-run of previous history with various vested interests looking to improve their own situations at the expense of others.

But then, isn't that the greatest challenge of our times?

Back to the Future or Forward to the Past?

I watched a TV show recently on the concept of RE-WILDING, sometimes described as the return of natural habitats or the reversal of human 'domestication'. The program was highlighting various examples where top predators are re-introduced to an ecology to 're-balance' the eco system. The example of wolves in Yellowstone was cited as a very successful example. Other examples were re-introducing the panther to Florida to keep down the wild hog population, or brown bears back into the mountains of Northern Italy. Question is, how thoroughly has this been thought through? In the example of the brown bears, local villagers are furious as the bears are not only scavenging in the villages, destroying small businesses like bee-keeping and poultry farming by breaking in for bees and chickens to eat, but are now trying to break into houses too. Pretty scary stuff! But the thing which alarmed me most was another suggestion currently under serious debate as to whether they should re-introduce the African lion to Montana, USA. Can you believe that?It seems that there is such a large herd of wild horses that some scientists have come up with the bright idea that they should be 'controlled' by letting loose lions which in Africa like to eat zebras! There have not been lions roaming in the US for about 12,000 years!

I found this a very bizarre line of thinking ....surely if there is a population of wild horses, which can't sustain itself, then humans have the brains and ability to manage the situation? Haven't we, with all our technology and weaponry, already taken over as the 'top predator'? And if we won't do that, then hard as it is to say, nature will do it for us as the weakest horses will simply not survive and the herd will find a balance that works.

It struck me that humans love to play God in these situations, and even the examples which are currently cited as 'success' stories are only 15 years old....a blink of an eye in ecological terms.

The good news we don't hear!

I have friends who live around the recent quake affected areas in New Zealand. Devastating as the experience has been, there have been some fantastic stories about the 20,000 students who have been going around helping people clear up the sludge and mess left behind. In fact, 300,000 tonnes of liquefaction needed to be removed from properties..
that is a lot of ****!

People can be so fantastic, especially when they pull together in a good cause to help each other!

Hypocrisy or Truth

Like so many people, I've been closely following events on the world news on the unfolding situations in the Middle East and North Africa.Every news program I've watched has had people being interviewed who are talking about the double standards and hypocrisy of the world governments. I watched one very learned chap this morning who with all seriousness said that one of the ways to deal with the double standards was to ignore them! We have all become used to this double dealing and hypocrisy as normal...yet it is not so long ago where people ( rightly or wrongly!) actually believed politicians ..thought what they heard on the news was actually the facts. It seems today, everyone knows they have to read between the lines to try and work out for themselves just what the truth of the matter might be!

In rather stark contrast, I've been reading some of the writings of Laurens Van der Post where he draws evocative pictures of some of the ways of life and thinking in Old Africa. I found it so fresh and inspiring ..especially after the current news programs. Although an echo from the past, perhaps it could also be a call to the future? I certainly hope so! Here are some thoughts on 'truth' from 'A Story Like the Wind'

" No imagination has yet been great enough to invent improvements to the truth. Truth, however terrible, carries within itself its own strange comfort for the misery it is so often compelled to inflict on behalf of life. Sooner or later, it is not pretence but the truth which gives back with both hands what it has taken away with one"

The Japanese Earthquake

It really is so very tragic to witness the human suffering caused by the recent earthquake in Japan. Not something one wants to blog lightly about, but rather a time of quiet reflection and consideration as to how one might be able to send some support.

However, there is one conversation which I've had with numerous people, from neighbours to friends to the post lady. It stretches across two very current realisations.

One is the power of nature compared to that of us humans. A calamity like this earthquake shows so clearly how small we are in the face of the power of the planet. It really shrinks us down to a more realistic size. The other talking point is realising that there are so many nuclear power plants around the world, and that whilst every precaution is taken to safeguard them, when a calamity strikes, the dangers of our technology can immediately pose a threat to people all over the planet at one stroke. This is a feature of modern life which has only been the case for a few generations and once again highlights that life today is so interconnected around the globe.

The danger aspect is one side of the coin ...but of course the other side of this same picture is how there can be a world wide to support and help those suffering in Japan. It immediately rises above considerations of country or race and evokes a humanitarian response to other members of the global human family.

In Transition

Talking last week with one of my friends, we were talking over how helpful it is to view these times we live in, as a time of switchover, as a time of transition.

What does this imply ? It suggests we are at the end of one kind of civilisation and at the beginning of another. It means we are seeing the breakdown of many aspects of a way of life which is showing itself as no longer tenable or acceptable in these new global times. A good current example is the revolts against the old fixed ways of hereditary despotism and tyrannical leadership in the Middle East and North Africa. Some see it as a fresh and important new wind of change calling for basic human rights and respect - others as an end to a type of leadership which to many seems way out of date, positively medieval to many western eyes. Both a breakthrough and a breakdown.

To me, it's a nightmare watching the violence in Libya - but at least if I remember that it is part of the reality of transitional times, it gives a context in which to make some sense out of the chaos.

Forgiveness

I had a visit today from a good friend who is just back from Kenya, where she and other members of a womens group called 'Feminenza' have been working with 21 women on the area of Forgiveness. Each of the 21 women in training are themselves involved in practical community projects and keen to improve their skills in this area.

I thought it was incredibly inspiring in many different ways. Firstly, that these women train for a month in order to be able to promote peace and forgiveness in Africa. Secondly that the women who travelled there from the UK and Holland also believed enough in the importance of forgiveness in the world to travel all the way to Kenya.

And thirdly to know, that each of those 21 women are now travelling back to their own communities to promote in very practical ways the importance of forgiveness in building a peaceful future. In a continent which has suffered so much from violence and tribal warfare, it's brilliant to hear of such pro-active work.

Many Overlays

I remember studying history at school and university,and when learning about historical events or world crises, such as major wars, there were always clearly defined reasons and events which were recognised as being either the cause or the catalyst. A good example being the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, on 28 June 1914, which set in train a series of diplomatic events that was seen to lead inexorably to the outbreak of war in Europe at the end of July 1914.
In following the news today of unfolding events in the Middle East and North Africa,and having many discussions with people as to what is going on, it strikes me that we live in a time where there is such a range of interaction,
and intercommunication, where there is so much evidence of old patterns of social structure breaking down, and new ways appearing, that perhaps it is more sensible to stop looking for simple or single track answers.. So many people are arguing their viewpoint...for example, about the influence of Facebook , the influence of Islamic fundamentalists, the desire of the West for more oil, the bid for democracy, that the old despotic ways have had their time, the role of 'Anonomous' Hackers.... Perhaps it makes more sense to admit we really don't understand what is going on, but that the more we can appreciate the many overlays of influence in the situation, the more we can prompt new perception and perhaps get a glimpse into history in the making.

Beyond Polarisation

In a time of change, so many diverse ways of thinking are around ...often with quite contradictory approaches.

I came across what appears like a dilemma of thought today, in scanning a magazine of recent releases in the 'alternative thinking' scene.

There were loads of books advocating the kind of thoughts that how we think ( either positively or negatively) is the major contributory factor to health and well being. Then another book which was advocating the flaws of this apparently positive way of thinking...the fact that it can so easily make people feel guilty about being ill as they have 'caused' the problem, thus compounding their problems, the reality that there are millions of children born into adverse conditions before they even have time to form their thought processes and therefore their illnesses cannot possible be explained away in these terms.

It struck me yet again how easy it is for views to polarise, to become in direct opposition, one to the other ...that one must be right and one must be wrong. How easy it is to become dogmatic in the face of the flaws in the 'opposite' argument.

This caused me to review how important it is to realise that we only ever have parts of the picture, and that to stay open to the ever growing truth of life is embracing the reality that at best, we only ever have a fragmented and partial view....it may need many different overlays on the same situation to come close to any true appreciation...particularly in a time like today where out terms of reference are expanding so rapidly.

In this particular stand off,surely one can accept that our mental and emotional states does affect our health dramatically, whilst taking on board that our cultural, physical and genetic background are a huge influence too. Life ranges from the physical, the mental, the emotional, the spiritual ....we are all unique individuals, yet appear in a particular culture and moment in history. Perhaps,one could say, some are privileged in that they can explore the wider range of human individuality and possibility whilst many others are severely limited by the needs of physical survival because of the place and circumstance of their birth.

Being Aware in the Moment

My blog is all about living in times of change ...and of course it could be said - and it is said by many people - that that change is simply part of the cycle of life and living ....and this, in one sense, is very true. A month ago we were in the deep freeze of winter and now the snowdrops and daffodils are appearing with all the renewed vigour and energy of spring.

But that sort of change and cycle is expected, it's predictable, re-assuring and it tells us all is well, there is an underlying stability....

And that, of course, is so unlike much else that is happening today, like the changes currently unfolding in the Middle East, where events are unfolding with a kind of quicksilver re-activity..with protests and unrest contaging from one country to another with a rapidity which is extra-ordinary.

I had an email from a friend teaching in Bahrain with some of the local 'street' news he had heard there that doesn't necessarily appear on the screen here. Yes, we hear that protests are beginning in Bahrain too, but do we hear that The King in Bahrain has tried to bribe everyone by offering every household a thousand dinars (something like one and a half thousand pounds!!) Or that the Kuwaiti Emir has also offered every Kuwaiti individual a thousand Kuwaiti dinars (more than two thousand pounds?) Both offers in an attempt to keep the status quo!

What an extra-ordinary state of affairs! A world that communicates so quickly, that is reading the trends as best they can as they are happening ....and attempting to be pro-active. And as the above example show, pro-active both in attempting to prevent those changes or pro-active in bringing them about.

It is often said that history repeats itself, but surely the wonderful opportunity of today, is to learn from the past, understand today and to forge a better tomorrow.

The Search for Truth

I had an email back from a young friend in Australia on yesterday's blog ...here is part of what he wrote :-



"Nice article on this subject. I've been following what's happening too. It's clear how biased the news is toward the downfall of the government being positive. I have an Egyptian friend who probably also has his bias but sees this as a terrible event completely manipulated by the Muslim Brotherhood. I think it's one of the great challenges of having mass media and instant communications, not only for people looking on from outside but especially for people in the middle of events to distill the truth from the torrent of biased information. How does a young student know that she's lending authenticity to an extremist group by protesting rather than (as she believes) trying to bring an end to a dictatorship"

It's so true, isn't it?
Everyone has their bias...and we know that whatever we come across in the media has a slant...so how does one begin to make sense of what is going on in the world?

No easy answer to that one! But, somehow realising that one has to make the effort to cover different versions of the same event ( sky news channels from around the world are great for that!) , try to detect what the bias is in each one, and as best one can, subtract a bit of that bias from what one hears ....and even what one thinks, as we too have our personal bias ! Watching the trends as well as the individual events on the news ..looking for patterns, cycles...talking it through with friends
All these will help in some way get closer to the truth of the matter...and perhaps too, recognising that none of us has the whole picture ..so never getting too dogmatic that we're right ...that might keep us open to the ongoing search and the next insight..

From the Past or the Future?

Over the past week, the predominant story in the news is of Tunisia, Egypt and the knock on effects this may have on other places in the Middle East. I've had loads of conversations with friends about this and one of the aspects which jumps out is how differently people can add up the same events. Some see it to be the winds of change coming in from the future, beginning to knock down the fixed old ways of dictatorship and opening the doors of change to a way of government with more humanity, more dignity and more freedom. Others fear the events are being manipulated behind the scenes by Islamic extremists, and that what looks like a bid for freedom will be a lever for re-instituting fundamentalist values and be a pull back into the past. Others are of the view, probably both influences are at play ....and look on with uncertainty as to how events may unfold.

When you live in times of change,as we do now, with instant global communications at all levels from governments to the folks on the street, the speed and contagion with which events can happen is quite astonishing. Let's hope the current events lead to a really positive human outcome for the people living there.

The Un-changing Importances

With all the severe weather in the UK, many people are realising that climate change is not theoretical but something which is beginning to affect us all, Having been without running water for some weeks at home ( along with countless others) it brings home just how vulnerable we actually are when weather conditions change and we are unprepared for it.

I heard from a friend with contacts in come of the latest climatology research that for the first time ever, satellites observed that the North Atlantic Drift had stopped for about an hour a few weeks ago ...something unprecedented to our best knowledge. Not being a scientist myself, I googled the North Atlantic Drift to understand the implications. It said that it is a warm current without which Britain and Northern Western Europe would have the same climate as Canada! OK...food for thought there ...and isn't it extraordinary that such important information doesn't even make the news?

More than ever, there is a growing sense that we are in somewhat unpredictable times ...and it is un-nerving for many.

Yet when times are difficult, it really highlights some of the unchanging importances..and in particular how important people are for each other ...the kindness, the caring , the helpful acts which count for everything in maintaining the quality and humanity of life ...just as they always have and always will.

And isn't it always so deeply re-assuring and encouraging when you walk out after the snow and see through the thawing ground, the snowdrop bulbs re-appearing


...hope springs anew always....and spring brings hope and new beginnings....surely such a great analogy for these current times!