Listening to Jack Frost…

It’s been the quiet months at Anam Cara. Physical days spent observing, maintaining and tending the grounds and buildings have given way to dark early nights by the wood-stove.  Co-currently, the gifting of a smartphone has catapulted me into the world of social media; anytime I want. I’ve been touched by just how fast paced the marketplace and playground is in this flurried and furious world; to be a child born into this being a social norm is hard to conceive.

‘Get involved’ in the social media revolution, we are urged, or ‘you’ll be left behind’.

Left where; exactly?

Remember when we were told as kids to: ‘Join the real world?’ Look where that version of ‘real’ got us. As Jon Young so rightly points posits:

‘What If that message to ‘grow up’ and ‘join the real world’ was actually just a stupid mistake? …and  What If that moment is responsible for all the environmental destruction that’s going on right now?’

No, if the task of our tribe is to reclaim our indigenous sense of natural curiosity and engagement in the animate world; then we must learn to slow down in Winter…  just how much of a distraction is the requirement to consistently engage in our screen based tasks?

I have to say that I’m unsure I have either the will nor the brass neckedness to emulate the level of thinly disguised & shameless self-promotion it seems to take in maintaining a social media presence. It’s more than a bit of an addiction.  As ever, I’m going to have to die slowly or find another way and, if you think my work is important then i think I’m gonna need your support in promotion…

You see, I’ve been listening to the whispers of that kind mischief maker Jack Frost. He’s to old too tweet, too young to be content by watching re-runs; you’ll often find him sitting cross- legged among the coppice lost in the silence of the crystal night sky. He’s been screaming at many to submit to circadian rhythms and just sleep as much as you need; much to the chagrin of those trying to maintain a regimented 9-5 grind. Ignore him you might but he doesn’t go way; in fact the more you ignore him, the more persistently he’ll return. He’ll rip the roof off if need be, soak the woodpile or silt up your ditches and force you to acknowledge him.

Meet him in his element mind you, he’ll show you how to pay attention to what’s really important; what’s creaking under the permafrost begging to be given expression in your precious soul life.

I wanted to share the following inspiration that had been with me over winter and a resolution to carry it forward into spring; it was written on a newspaper I was lighting my fire with on a cold and frosty December morning before checking my news feed; I’d like to dedicate it to all the wise integral souls who sit contentedly by their fires, full of the songs & stories that will be the reweaving of community & culture:

‘The British psychoanalyst DW Winters speaks of an obscure yet essential region in us that can survive only by remaining hidden, and whose natural elements are darkness and silence. This hidden spot is the source of our uniqueness and singularity, a fact authoritarian regimes know only too well, which is no doubt why they make such a priority of closing down all the spaces in which the private self can flourish. To attack privacy is to attack the very source of creative and imaginative life. In flooding us with light, in promoting our permanent and total visibility, our culture threatens to turn personal violation into an unknown fact of our daily lives.’

[Josh Cohen, author of The Private Life: Why we remain in the dark.] [singlepic id=206 w= h= float=none] [With thanks to the  adbusters latest campaign…who unbeknown to them prompted me to transpose from paper to screen!]