ecomonkey

If Tony Juniper Was PM...

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 09:57:00 +0000

From: Tony Juniper, The Independent, 12Feb2015
""Integration, integration, integration”. That would be my slogan, because too much of what doesn’t work arises from how we often organize ourselves in an unintelligent ways – in policy silos, rather than seeing the bigger picture.
Take the National Health Service. At the same time as costing more it is subject to massive increasing demand, including from chronic conditions such as mental illness and obesity. One way to address this is through prevention and harnessing the massive proven power of green space and access to natural areas. Yet the protection of nature is treated as an unaffordable cost even, when official evidence shows how we could save billions through the therapeutic benefits of nature being available to more people. I’d pass a new Nature and Wellbeing Act to help join the dots.

More joined up policies could deliver benefits on the cost of living too. Take water. At the moment many of us pay major costs in our bills arising from water treatment. This is often needed to remove soils and chemicals that get into water because of how we farm. If we spent agricultural subsidies more intelligently, so that farmers farmed sustainably, it could make our water cheaper while at the same time preventing rivers silting up, thereby reducing flood risk.

In our fast changing, uncertain and ever more volatile world, I’d seek to redefine what we believe are the best routes to energy and food security. Instead of seeing these aims best pursued through global free markets (which in any event are a myth), I’d focus on building strength at home. This would be achieved by protecting soils and pollinators and by setting the UK on a path toward having a wholly renewable and super efficient energy economy. Policies would deliberately encourage job creation and technological innovation in both these strategic sectors.

I’d also take steps to improve the security of our financial sector, including through new laws to make it more likely that those who threaten Britain’s economy through reckless and illegal behavior in financial organisations serve long prison sentences.

On education I’d look for ways to impart wisdom, knowledge and creativity, rather than memory tests that simply churn out exam passes. Intellectual excellence would be encouraged and rewarded but the emphasis on University level education would be balanced with far more support for vocational training and apprenticeships..." Full article here

ZERO CARBON BRITAIN

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 14:11:00 +0000

In his article ZERO CARBON BRITAIN for IM Magazine, Paul Allen explains the transition of energy use on this planet from the assumed beginnings of photosynthesis billions of years ago to our over consumption of fossil fuels today. It's a crazy trip but Paul also points us in the direction of a more sustainable way to provide our energy needs without destroying the very earth that sustains us.

From: ZERO CARBON BRITAIN, Paul Allen, IM Magazine, 22Jan2015

"The extraordinary story of human beings & energy
Our current relationship with energy is only the most recent chapter in a very long story, beginning with the sun. It converts 620 million tons hydrogen into helium every second, and in the process releases an enormous amount of energy. Initially planet Earth was a desolate sphere of rock, gently warmed by this radiating energy. Then around 4 billion years ago, something incredible happened. A chemical reaction, which we now know as ‘photosynthesis’ began to bond energy from sunlight into ‘low energy compounds’ like carbon dioxide and water to create ‘high energy compounds’ such as sugars, that could power the growth, movement or reproduction of living things. Over millennia, photosynthesis powered the birth, life and death of an incredible evolution of plants and creatures, which as they died, took a portion of this captured energy (and captured carbon) with them as they fell to the forest or ocean floor. Under the influence of time, temperature and pressure these dead plants and animals became ‘fossil fuels’ – peat, lignite, coal oil and gas. Over millions upon millions of years, this process created the largest, most concentrated and most convenient reserve of stored energy we have ever known or are ever likely to know...

The Zero Carbon Britain scenario
The Zero Carbon Britain (ZCB) scenario demonstrates that we could rapidly reduce UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net zero by 2030, using only currently available technology. ‘Powering down’ our energy demand by 60%, and ‘powering up’ our renewable energy resources instead of fossil fuels and making changes to our agricultural system and diets would reduce the UK’s annual GHG emissions by 94%. We could balance out the remaining 6% of emissions from non-energy processes (such as cement production or methane from livestock) by removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through carbon capture from forests and restored peatlands. This would take us to zero emissions overall..."

Read the full article here

My Call For Humanity by Jamie Dunmore

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 12:33:00 +0000

All About Food

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:50:00 +0000

My Christmas list is short this year as I really don't need physical stuff so much as the ability to heal and move on to a higher state of wellbeing. Thus the only two items on my list are Rick Stein's book Far Eastern Odyssey from the series which I have been recently watching on iplayer and Evita Ochel's latest publication Healing & Prevention Through Nutrition.

I rarely use cookery books and have been loathe to follow recipes in the past, preferring instead to experiment and throw ingredients together creatively. However, I've so loved watching the Rick Stein series as he travels through Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand as well as Sri Lanka meeting all sorts of fascinating people and sampling amazing looking food, that I feel a need for some guidance on how to prepare and cook the meals. The freshness of it all, with prolific amounts of rice, noodles, fruit, veg and fish all cooked or served with delicious aromatic spices, has made my mouth water and I am seriously craving these foods right now. Oh, to live beside the sea in a warm country with easy access to such nutritious and delicious foods!

I love Evita Ochel's writing, videos and advice on well living and consciousness expansion and her recently published book, in its second edition promises to provide heaps of useful, practical advice about which foods are best to eat for optimal nutrition, to prevent and heal dis-ease plus information on how best to prepare and consume certain foods. This video (below) provides a great introduction and I look forward to reading the book soon.

Nutrition and what we eat is extremely important to me at the moment (and to many others too it seems) as I attempt to up my game on the physical side of healing my body from dis-ease and achieve a state of excellent health and wellbeing that I'm sure is waiting for me. Although I have been working hard on other levels of health renewal over the past few years, particularly mental, emotional and spiritual, I somehow managed to convince myself that the food I was eating was good enough, what with it being 80-90% organic (certainly at home anyway) and mostly fruit and veg based with a fair amount of fish and occasional meat that was almost always organic.

It wasn't until relatively recently that I realised, or perhaps admitted, that I would have to make more radical changes to my food intake in order to heal. This is due almost entirely to being blessed with post-natal arthritis around 6 weeks after my darling daughter was born. Although, I'd suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for many years, flare-ups were usually fairly manageable with ups and downs of pain intensity and inflammation that came and went and rarely lasted more than a few days at most. This post-natal version however has been constant, every single day and night and the pain of inflamed and sore joints is more intense than I realised was possible. In conjunction with trigeminal neuralgia pain which moves in cycles of varied amounts of pain usually of the super intense variety, I really hit a point where I could no longer deny that the food I was consuming needed to be improved if I was to heal on a physical as well as holistic level.

So, I did heaps of research into optimising nutrition and healing dis-ease with food (gotta love the internet for a vast variety of information sources and the ability to choose what feels right and works for me) and started by taking nutritional supplements to increase my vitamin and mineral intake. This produced great results in just a few weeks as although the intensity of pain remained the same, I felt so much better in myself that the pain became somewhat easier to deal with.

Then I discovered the world of juicing and blending fresh fruits and vegetables and my eyes were opened to the simple notion that increasing nutritional intake was so easy if I could consume a large portion in one go on a daily basis. I like the idea of juicing for maximising nutrient levels but after having dug out a juicer that had been passed on to us some time ago, my partner and I decided that the amount of pulp produced was too much for us as we were not keen on wasting food. So, after some more research and recommendations, we decided on the Nutri-Bullet which is a super fast blender that allows fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts and other foods to be blended together without raising the temperature (which can decrease nutrition levels) too much.

For the last month or more, my partner has been whizzing up delicious blends of the most valued foods to reduce inflammation and boost immunity for breakfasts and they have already started to make a huge difference. Again, levels of wellbeing have increased even when pain has continued to be intense and in addition inflammation of my joints has reduced and my food cravings seem to have changed quite dramatically. Although I still feel drawn to cake every now and then - who doesn't! - I no longer seem able to stomach processed foods such as the vege sausages we used to eat lots of and I've started craving fruits and vegetables in a new more intense way. The green mango salads of Thai cuisine are calling me!

A visit to a rheumatologist last month when I was in a lot of pain, also inspired me to take the obvious need for a lifestyle change seriously. Being told by the very kind, concerned and well meaning doctor, that I'd have to stop breast-feeding my baby immediately, needed to start taking steroids and once I'd had a precautionary x-ray would be able to take an immune system changing drug that I'd be on for the rest of my life, gave me just the impetus I needed to make that more radical change! There was no way I was going to spend the rest of my life on medication with all it's inherent and horrible side effects, or to continue in so much pain.

So now, I am moving forward along the path towards optimal nutrition and health and although it is a slow path, sometimes frustrating to my impatient mind, I can feel improvements already and am convinced that taking it slow and learning to be patient and trusting is the sensible and right thing for me to do rather than take the sticking plaster route of lifelong medication with no hope of actually healing. Wish me well as I wish the same for any reader suffering pain and dis-ease right now. It's definitely time for change!

Further Info: Nutri-Bullet Blog | Evita Ochel | Rick Stein | FMTV

Gifts To Celebrate The Gift Of New Life

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 18:59:00 +0000

Speaking and living our own personal Truths is a huge theme for my life at the moment and it seems be resonating with many others too. These two essays by Evita Ochel on Evolving Beings express the theme particularly well: Suppressing Your Truth Isn't Helping Anyone and Making Peace With Selfishness And Setting Healthy Personal Boundaries.

In line with these profound adjustments in how I choose to live, think and re-act to life's flow, I finally feel able to express something which has weighed on my mind for some time but until now I have felt unable to express due to fear of being perceived unfavourably, misunderstood or simply dismissed by anyone unable to agree with my Truths.

I realise now, that my pre-conceived ideas of what others MIGHT think of me and my Truth is not at all valid. They are simply thoughts based on untruths and egoic misconceptions which I have no need to pursue. Instead I can let go of the unnecessary fear and free my self to be my self without those self-deluding lies!

These particular Truths are about the way I choose to live my life and therefore the way I choose to nurture and care for my self and my family, particularly those who are not yet capable of taking care of themselves.

The topic is gifts and in particular gifts for our babies and children that we will almost inevitably receive from kind friends and family. I would never want to appear ungrateful for any gift given to us or our children in love and kindness but at the same time it does not sit well with me to accept gifts that cannot be used because we as the specific parents that we are, and I as the particular mother that I am and hope to be, choose to live by certain principles and self-imposed guidelines.

Thus, I have written a Baby Gift Guide to give to friends and family with the intent only to avoid disappointment and wasted time, money, energy and effort.

Ecomonkey Baby Gift Guide

For anyone generously contemplating donating a gift for our expected child or for us as potential new parents: to avoid disappointment, wasted time / money / energy / effort etc. as well as saving precious space in our relatively bijou London flat, please bear in mind the following:

General

1) No Obligation: Please do not feel in any way obligated to give a gift. Although, like anyone else, we love to receive thoughtful, useful gifts in celebration of life's momentous events, we do not NEED anything more than we already have, so anything received is a blessing that we would love to be able to put to use.

2) Vouchers: A gift voucher from one of the recommended sources would be most welcome.

3) Time: Gifts of time spent with Baby (a voucher / promise of babysitting for example) and / or us (an offer of lunch, dinner, coffee etc.) would be much appreciated.

4) Baby Moon Meal: A ready prepared freezeable or fridgeable meal gift, either home-made or ordered online from Abel & Cole (no tofu or soya please) would be most welcome to help us enjoy our Baby Moon period - 10 days of private family rest, recovery, adjustment and bonding time directly following the birth.

5) Pre-loved and Homemade: Second-hand, pre-loved items and handmade gifts made from ethical and sustainable materials (see below for details) also gratefully received. We do love homemade so if you can write a poem, draw a picture, take a photograph, knit an organic or pure wool hat, write a song etc. we’d be super happy!

Clothing

Baby will be dressed only in natural fibres, preferably ethically & sustainably produced and sourced.

Yes Please - Organic cotton, pure wools, bamboo, linen, hemp

No Thank You - Synthetic, acrylic or other synthetic wool fibres, non-organic cotton or otherwise chemically treated fibres.

Suggested sources / vouchers - Cambridge Baby, Greenfibres, Molly And Monty, We Love Frugi, Babipur, The Organic Baby Company, Little Green Radicals, Liv.

Toys, Furnishings, Games, Crafts & Books

Baby will use and play with items made from natural materials, preferably ethically & sustainably produced and sourced.

Yes Please - Wood, metal, paper, toys and decorations using non-toxic paints. Soft toys and furnishings made from organic cotton, pure wool, ethical bamboo, linen, hemp and other natural fabrics with natural filling/stuffing (feather, down or wool). Jigsaws and other paper/card products made from sustainably sourced wood. Non gender stereotyped books and games.

No Thank You - Plastic, synthetic, chemically treated, potentially toxic painted or unethically produced toys. Non-organic cotton, acrylic or other synthetic wool items. Synthetic or foam fillings/stuffing. Gender stereotyped books or games (e.g. princess/beauty themes for a girl and fighting themes for a boy!)

Suggested sources / vouchers - Myriad, Barefoot Books, Babipur, Daisy Daisy, The Organic Baby Company, Objects Of Use

Accessories & Toiletries for Parents & Baby

Yes Please - Certified organic (preferably UK5 Soil Association) or biodynamic cleaning / wash products. Natural sponges. Reusable flannels, muslins, towels and blankets made from natural fibres (organic cotton, pure wool, bamboo, linen or hemp).

No Thank You - Non-organic / biodynamic toiletries . Synthetic sponges. Flannels, muslins, towels, blankets. made from synthetic materials, non-organic cotton or otherwise chemically treated fibres. Disposable wipes or nappies.

Suggested sources / vouchers - Weleda, Neals Yard Remedies

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this. Hope it’s all clear and understandable. Do contact if unclear and feel free to reciprocate own seasonal / children / personal gift lists.

Best wishes,

Rache, Tom & Baby xx

Letting go of fear and realising how insignificant those fears actually are, is such a wonderful release. I'd love to hear about any personal Truths you have discovered lately, how they are helping you let go of your own fears and how are you managing to put your Truth into practice?

Reclaiming Our Power For A Whole New World

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:45:00 +0000

Hello there! Well, it's been almost 2 months since my last post and I'd like to say time has flown by but it hasn't. It feels as though almost a year has gone by in those 60-odd days. Time has slowed down for me as many changes have taken place both externally and internally. Mostly the latter of which more in a later post...

Externally, Spring has been succeeded quite successfully by summer. Long hot days have been interspersed with cooling showers and thunderous storms and we have been blessed to spend some time away from home, both in a sunny, vibrant London and a week in the scorching heat of Provence.

Changes of scenery are like nectar to me. The opportunity to get away from the routine of home-life, however dull, painful, exciting or contented it may be, is a wonderful chance to gain new perspective. Placing myself in a fresh environment, opening up to a whole new set of possibilities, I can begin to see life itself, and indeed my self, in a new refocused light.

But why bother? Why leave the comfort of what we know to discover something new? For me the answer is simple. This is the purpose and process of Life. It is not intended to be safe, always the same, constantly reassuring and consistent. Life is a process in which we grow. From the very first moments of our conception to our last breath and perhaps beyond, we are growing and changing whether we like it or not, whether we admit it or not. To deny this change is futile and few of us are able to fool ourselves that nothing changes. But to deny that that change is a vital, wonderful and necessary opportunity to grow, seems to me to be a misplaced foundation stone of our modern conventional society.

Yes, we are encouraged to grow materialistically, to acquire more and more physical things and 'progress' up the fairy-tale ladder of status, wealth and class. When it comes to growth that really matters however, growth that can make an essential difference to the way we live our lives and to our well-being and happiness, we are often encouraged to leave such thoughts until a later date, 'till we are at the end of our lives and have nothing else to think about. Or we are sold the idea that someone else can take care of those things for us - the old religion of priest and church perhaps; or the modern religion of medicine, science and its advancing technologies; even our political leaders and governments who are surely looking out for us and will come up with a way to save our souls in the end, right?!

The truth, I feel, lies far from that myth of any kind of salvation outside of our selves. I have discovered that the life I desire is only possible when I accept that I am in control and I alone have the power to make the changes I want to see in my life. It may not seem as though we have much power when we rely on other people and organisations for so much of our daily needs - physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual. But this is only a matter of perception and ultimately our choice. Like most of us, I am deeply unhappy relying on people and systems that I know do not truly serve my needs or those of my fellow humans. I can choose to wallow in that unhappiness, dissatisfaction and despair and indeed I have spent some considerable portion of my life doing just that as a flick back to earlier posts on this blog can reveal.

However, when I decide instead to accept that life is the way it is for a reason - even if I just cannot begin to comprehend those reasons - and accept that I have the power to change the parts that affect me, my focus moves away from the situations, people and organisations that upset me and suddenly I discover a whole new world has opened up as if by magic - a world of alternative, better, more efficient ways of fulfilling my needs and desires. I realise that when I am not in despair, I have the time, energy and vision to spend on providing my own needs and becoming more self-reliant, as well as the skills and support needed to seek out alternative means of supply that come from more genuine, people serving systems.

It is my choice to do this - to accept the truth and change my perceptions and focus. And I feel compelled to add, it is my right as a human being to make decisions that rather than simply lining the pockets of someone else and making me miserable in the process, actually work for me and the greater good.

Everyday examples of making meaningful choices and changes in my life come from the most basic needs - sourcing food and clothing that is ethical and sustainable, cleaning and nurturing my self and home in a way that protects the health of myself, my family and the physical environment around me, travelling thoughtfully and being aware of the resources I use and what effect that has on others and the planet.

On a more holistic level, I am also aware of how I spend my time and thoughts. When I am focused on despair and disappointment, I cannot be surprised when my life offers up more of the same. Instead, I have become more conscious of my thought patterns and behaviours, noticing how many of them have evolved from fear and have been bolstered up over the years by lies that exist merely to back up those fears. Rather than feel angry and condemn those thoughts and negative ways of thinking, I simply notice them and let them slip by without attaching any emotion to them. This creates space for the thoughts and feelings that I actually want to cultivate in my life to appear. This space allows life and love - the opposite of fear -to flow in and allows me the strength and courage to deal with whatever comes my way in a positive, grateful manner. Thus I am able to live fearlessly from moment to moment, becoming the change that I want to see.

Accepting the need for change, embracing it and attempting to live fearlessly is an ongoing process of course and I won't pretend that it is an easy one. Sometimes challenges, whether new or old, can seem insurmountable, but it is comforting to remember that 'this too shall pass' and to trust that the process will always lead us where we need to be. Every decision made on a daily basis serves to confirm either our desires or our fears. Holding on to the past where a false sense of security lies or stagnating in fear of an unknown future does not serve our innate desire and need to grow as human beings. Change is not as scary as we may have been led to believe. In fact, staying put is fear. Accepting and embracing change is living life fearlessly, in love.

Visit Ecomonkey's Listings page for some mindful ways of fulfilling our needs and desires whilst supporting a more sustainable, ethical way of life.

Hay House World Summit 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:15:00 +0000

I have been listening to some inspiring conversations from the Hay House World Summit this week. The summit provides 10 days of free access to 110 speakers from a variety of backgrounds, offering advice, tips and exercises to anyone needing inspiration for their spiritual journey. There are talks on specific health issues, general wellbeing and holistic health, spiritual enlightenment and the many different yet similar facets of this reflected in our diverse world.

I discovered the Hay House Summit through Arielle Essex whose book Practical Miracles - Choices That Heal And Build Resilience is published by Hay House and is currently on my bedside as I work patiently through it. Not that it is hard going, quite the opposite, only that I am learning so much from it and want to gain as much as I can in order to assist effective rather than speedy healing. I highly recommend it to anyone coping with health issues who recognises that illness and dis-ease are not just physical phenomena and who desire to heal holistically. Anyway, huge thanks to Arielle for her book and pointing me in the direction of the Hay House Summit.

Back to the summit - with such a wide variety of topics and speakers, there are bound to be some talks that will not resonate with you. Personally, I started listening to a couple that I just didn't connect with so I stopped playback before I got hooked on judging and headed back to the list to find something more connected to me. Topics such as abundance in terms of financial wealth, for example, tend to leave me a bit cold, but I'm sure will sit well with others. It's about finding what inspires and resonates with your own personal journey as well as being brave enough to let in new ideas that we may have previously dismissed out of fear or discomfort.

Channelling is an example of something I've not felt completely comfortable with in the past. Although my heart says it is perfectly possible and highly likely that non-physical spiritual beings can and do communicate with us through particular human beings, my head/ego is full of cynical media speculation from the past, movies and stories of people apparently pretending to channel messages from beyond our physical world for personal gain. So listening to Esther Hicks, through whom a spiritual being(s) called Abraham speaks, was a refreshing opportunity to let go of the fears with which the ego had filled my head and listen to my heart instead.

Hearing the conversation between Esther and host Reid Tracy about her personal experiences and the loss of her partner, Jerry, was both fascinating and moving. When Reid began talking to Abraham rather than Esther, I could hear my ego waiting with bated breath for a deep booming scary voice to come out of Esther - it didn't of course - and intently noting the differences in speech pattern and content between Esther and Abraham, trying to work out if I was being duped - so much fear going on there! Switching to listening with my heart however, I found that what Abraham had to say through Esther rang true with me and provided comforting inspiration.

Another talk that resonated deeply, was Anita Moorjani speaking to Nancy Levin about the healing power of unconditional love. Anita spoke about her near death experience (NDE) whilst in a coma after years of intensive cancer. On leaving her physical body, Anita recalls meeting her father who had passed on several years before and whom Anita felt she had disappointed in life, particularly by running away from an arranged marriage. However, her father, she discovered, felt no disappointment, only unconditional love. It helped Anita to realise that we all do the best we can with what we are given - circumstances, knowledge, culture, upbringing and so on - and that these factors affect the way we are able to demonstrate love. In this case, whilst Esther felt hemmed in by the Hindu culture she was brought up in and the notion of an arranged marriage, she realised that her father, immersed in Hindu life, had been demonstrating his love by wanting this for his daughter.

Reminded that she had more to do on Earth, Anita re-entered her body and despite having severe organ failure, wide spread tumours and having been unable to feed or breathe by herself, gained a full recovery within a matter of weeks. Now able to recognise all her experiences - including the cancer - as a gift, leading her to the place where she could experience unconditional love, Esther lives a life more fulfilled and offers advice on how to love ourselves unconditionally, be kinder to ourselves and focus on our joy rather than our fears. This conversation truly inspired me and was a joy to listen to.

Each day, the summit offers a new list of conversations and authors/speakers which are available to listen to only for that day, so if you are doing more than simply browsing what's on offer and have a particular subject you need inspiration on or a specific author you would like to hear, check the summit schedule here and make a note of the day the talk(s) is available. (There are packages available to buy of all the conversations if you feel inclined to do so).

From: Hay House World Summit
"The Hay House World Summit, premiering June 1-10, 2013 , will offer free access to more than 100 hours of enriching and life-changing conversations with your favorite teachers on our website. This extraordinary event brings together world-renowned experts and tomorrow’s rising stars, for exclusive conversations on a wide range of topics–providing insight and practical advice–sure to appeal to all of our listeners. We hope that you will join us for this entertaining and educational experience.

During these enlightening, never-before-heard interviews, you’ll have the opportunity to listen to your favorite authors share their personal moments of transformation. You’ll also discover new voices in today’s generation of spiritual teachers and learn how all these inspiring leaders apply their expertise to their own lives."

Further Info: Hay House Publishing | Arielle Essex | Abraham-Hicks | Anita Moorjani

Take A Stand, Sit Down, Eat Well

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:12:00 +0000

As advocates of healthy lifestyles, nutritious, organic food systems and holistic health and wellbeing, Ecomonkey envisions a future where every single human being on this planet eats well, consciously and in tune with nature. We often feel frustrated at the slow uptake of such practices in conventional life and even more so when certain organisations seem to be hell bent on ensuring that all we end up with is patented, non-nutritious, poisonous, unaffordable 'food' products, for the sake of making financial profit.

Although we've not been vocal or particularly active on campaigns and petitions of late, preferring instead to focus on grass-roots levels of positivity and inspiration, we feel that this latest Monsanto fiasco is worth drawing attention to for the simple reason that if the folk at Monsanto have their way, we will all suffer the possibly irrevocable consequences.

Image Source: Avaaz

Wherever you live on this beautiful Earth, the US passing of the Monsanto Protection Act and loopholes in EU patenting law, could have a detrimental effect on the food we eat and thus on our health, as well as that of our planet. Whether it is through not knowing what we are consuming or having reduced access to non-GM (genetically modified) food, the future of our right to healthy, nutritious food is being undermined by Monsanto and other bio-tech industries.

We are reassured that home-grown, local, slow, organic, ethical and natural food is being giving increasing attention and focus as part of healthy lifestyle ideals across the globe and Ecomonkey is confident that we will not allow such a GE (genetically engineered) travesty to occur so long as we are all aware of what is happening and able to make a stand against it. Conventional media is not inclined to convey this important news so it is up to us, as alternative and non-conventional news sources and individuals to ensure that as many folk as possible are aware of the positive impact we can make on the future of our health. Please spread the word and sign the petitions below if you feel inclined.

Petition to close EU patent law loopholes organised by Avaaz:
"As concerned citizens, we urge you to take the lead to fix European patent law by calling on the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation to close the loopholes that allow corporations to patent plant varieties and conventional breeding methods. Clear and effective safeguards and prohibitions are needed to protect consumers, farmers and breeders from the corporate takeover of our food chain."

From: Avaaz: Monsanto Vs Mother Earth, 9Apr2013
"It’s unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to gain exclusive control over the seeds of life – the source of our food. They’re trying to patent away varieties of our everyday vegetables and fruits like cucumber, broccoli and melons, virtually forcing growers to pay them for seed and risk being sued if they don’t.
But we can stop them from buying up Mother Earth. Companies like Monsanto have found loopholes in European law to have exclusive rights over conventional seeds, so we just need to close them shut before they set a dangerous global precedent. And to do that, we need key countries like Germany, France and the Netherlands - where opposition is already growing - to call for a vote to stop Monsanto’s greedy plans. The Avaaz community has shifted governments before, and we can do it again.
Many farmers and politicians are already against this - we just need to bring in people power to pressure these countries to keep Monsanto’s hands off our food. Sign now and share with everyone to help build the biggest food defense call ever..."

Petition to label GM food in US organised by Food Democracy Now (can be signed by non-US citizens):
"...Today we’re calling on President Obama to issue an executive order to call for the mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. Not only is GMO labeling a reasonable and common sense solution to the continued controversy that corporations like Monsanto, DuPont and Dow Chemical have created by subverting our basic democratic rights, but it is a basic right that citizens in 62 other countries around the world already enjoy, including Europe, Russia, China, India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Join us in demanding mandatory labeling of GMO foods. Now's the time!"

From: Food Democracy Now, Apr2013
"We regret to inform you, but late last week Congress succeeded in passing Section 735, aka the Monsanto Protection Act, in the Continuing Resolution spending bill - HR 933. Once again, Monsanto and the biotech industry have used their lobbying power to undermine your basic rights.
We need you to sign a petition to President Obama and tell him to veto HR 933 and the Monsanto Protection Act. With the Senate passage of the Monsanto Protection Act, biotech lobbyists are one step closer to making sure that their new GMO crops can evade any serious scientific or regulatory review.
This dangerous provision, the Monsanto Protection Act, strips judges of their constitutional mandate to protect consumer and farmer rights and the environment, while opening up the floodgates for the planting of new untested genetically engineered crops, endangering farmers, citizens and the environment..."

"Keep the pressure on folks. Sooner or later, we will force retailers to reject GMOs entirely. And remember, every victory against Monsanto is a victory for the future of life on our planet."

Further Info
Campaigns:Avaaz | Food Democracy Now
Organic Food: Soil Association, Garden Organic, Rocket Gardens
Slow Food: Slow Food UK, Slow Food Movement
Local Food: Sustination, River Cottage
Healthy Lifestyles: Mind Body Green, Evolving Wellness, Health & Beauty Channel (YouTube)
See Ecomonkey's Listings Page for further info on eco food and lifestyles

Communications & Connections

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:59:00 +0000

My latest post on Happify attempts to discover What's My Why? on the Aspire: Be More Socially Connected track.

Entitled Double the Pleasure, the task was to describe a pastime that is in synch with my goals, values and purpose. I drew on the recent blissful week spent in my favourite city, London, taking walks, buses, trains and tubes, exploring, both alone and with Tom as well as meeting up with friends. After what feels like months of feeling unable to get out and about, let alone have conversations and share meals, the freedom to undertake these simple acts feels wildly liberating. Communicating and connecting. These abilities are an absolute joy, not to be taken for granted but rather to be savoured and wallowed.

Here's that post:

I love to go walking and exploring either with my partner or close friends. I find the excitement of discovering new places a joy and the thrill of returning to well trodden paths, blissful. Noticing the new, recognising what we've seen before, rediscovering cherished memories and making new connections. These are the ingredients, the substance of a life well lived for me.

In the open air, ambling along the tow-path of our favourite canal, traipsing over cobbles down a secret alleyway or browsing the stalls of a local food market, we discover the connections between us, you and I, friend or lover. We reminisce, make observations, notice and share.

We feel our connection with nature, the cloud scattered skies above, the grey worn pavements below, the earth pushing up through stonework, grass growing wild in a 'wasteland', flowers shining forth a poem of colour and scent, sun beaming smiles upon our faces, crow calling out across the trees, snow sending kisses lightly down, blackbird heralding a new evening, the fresh breeze caressing our skin as we watch and listen, smell and taste, touch the air of our worlds, feel the sensations of life twisting, turning, all around us, all within us. You. Me. Earth. Us. Individuals. Connected. Life. One. The Same.

Further Info: Happify

Happify Your Life - Gratitude

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:06:00 +0000

I have been using happify for around a month now and find it such a useful tool for checking in with my feelings of wellbeing and contentment as well as helping to increase these feelings on a regular basis. Happify offers the user tips and ideas on promoting greater levels of happiness through short quizzes and tasks that can be completed every day (or whenever suits). It's not rocket science. Although based on scientific research, the ideas happify teaches are things we already know either deep within or at a more obvious level, but too often we forget about or ignore them as we race about our lives fulfilling other obligations with less fulfilling outcomes.

One of my tasks for today, under the heading Setbacks and Steps Forward asked about stressful situations. I thought I'd share my response with you to give an idea of how making a daily note of what we are feeling can allow healthy changes to take place. Simply by becoming aware of and accepting of our feelings we give ourselves the opportunity to re-frame our perception of events and situations and alter our emotional responses to them.

The instructions:
"Think of the most stressful thing that's happened in your life during the past 5 years. Spend the next 10 minutes writing about that event. You may have been miserable at the time, but what role did it have in shaping who you are today? Did anything good happen as a result of that experience? Are you stronger than you were before?"

My response:
The most stressful thing that has happened to me during the past 5 years was not one event but the continued presence of pain diagnosed as trigeminal neuralgia. Whilst the intensity of the physical pain has often thrown me to the floor, sometimes reeling in shock, the intensity of feeling that accompanies it has left me in tears on many more occasions, wondering what I've done to deserve such torment, what I'm supposed to be learning from it, what I can do to stop it and, mainly, why, why, why? Why me? Why now? Why this?

However, 6 years down the line from the initial pain, I am grateful to this dis-ease for all the time it has allowed me to work on my self and let go of all the things, situations, thoughts and feelings that were holding me back from my truth.

Without such intense pain, I would have hesitated (at least) before undertaking certain holistic therapies and would almost certainly not have allowed myself the time away from life's 'duties' and 'responsibilities' to spend studying how my mind works, how it affects my body, what role my spirit plays and how I can begin to find balance between all three.

Researching, pondering, reading, exploring ideas about who we are, why we are here and how we can make the most of this Life experience has been an invaluable gift and continues to be so.

There may still be a long way to go and the pain may continue for a while longer, but the journey home has begun and for that I am truly grateful.

From happify: "Recent scientific breakthroughs reveal that happiness is a skill within your control. Just like physical fitness, there are activities you can do on a regular basis to become happier...

Source: happify.com

...When we have new experiences or look at something in a different way, neurons carve out new pathways in our brain to process that fresh information. By practicing certain techniques, we can create stronger neural connections in the regions of our brain associated with attention, motivation and empathy. And we're just beginning to identify what behavioral and mental techniques work best to increase our well-being.
Recent research into the kind of “interventions” (i.e. “exercises”) designed to promote positive emotional qualities, such as kindness and mindfulness, suggests that such qualities may be the product of skills we can learn through training—in the same way that practice improves our musical or athletic abilities..."

Further Info: happify

London's Bicycle Crossrail

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:56:00 +0000

Wonderful news - a sensible, bike led plan for London is finally on its way - yay! With partial and fully segregated lanes, reduced lorry access and "mini holland" suburbs with high level investment in bike infrastructure, the proposals indicate a radical shift in policy and planning. If these long awaited, much needed plans come to fruition within the suggested 4 year time frame, we could soon see huge improvements not just for those wishing to traverse the city sans private car but also for other Londoners who will benefit directly or indirectly from increased health, reduced pollution and more green spaces to enjoy.

Mayor Boris Johnson says, "I want to de-Lycrafy cycling. I want to make it normal, something for everyone, something you feel comfortable doing in your ordinary clothes. Our new routes will give people the confidence to get in the saddle. I do not promise perfection, or that London will become Amsterdam any time soon. But what I do say is that this plan marks a profound shift in my ambitions and intentions for the bicycle..."

Thursday March 7, 2013 - Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Chris Boardman arrive by bike for a press conference on Victoria Embankment to launch "Crossrail for the Bike", a new vision for cycling in London. (Photo: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

Further details of the plan can be found here.

From: British Cycling Campaign
"The Mayor’s ‘Vision for Cycling in London’, written in consultation with British Cycling, has been created with the objective of making cycling a normal part of everyday life and a compelling choice for all Londoners. This will be achieved with a quantum leap in investment in cycling which won't just be good for those who cycle, it will make London a better place to live for all Londoners. The capital will pioneer the kind of changes which British Cycling wants to see across the whole country as it ensures that cycling is firmly established at the heart of its transport policy.
British Cycling’s Chris Boardman, Olympic gold medallist and Tour de France stage winner, joined the Mayor for the launch this morning. He said: "This is the most ambitious cycling development and promotion plan in the UK in living memory, perhaps ever. I'm delighted to have been involved and look forward to the great changes it will bring to London.
As a nation we've become world class at winning bike races. But we needed to start asking ourselves questions about whether we were truly committed to making ourselves world class in terms of getting people on bikes in the way our friends in other European countries have."" Full article here.

Further Info: London Cycling Campaign | British Cycling

Alice Herz-Sommer: A Life Lived Well

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:52:00 +0000

Image Source: Madame Pickwick Art Blog

Image Source: The Times

This film offers a wonderfully inspiring insight on the life of a remarkably optimistic woman. Alice Herz-Sommer survived a concentration camp and harbours no hateful feelings to her oppressors. She believes we all have potential to be 'bad' or 'good'. Playing the piano every day; being aware of the negative but focusing on the positive things in life; laughing and smiling often and recognising all experiences and situations as a gift, Alice is a true inspiration for a long, well lived, healthy and happy life.

From: Everything is a Present published on YouTube by Louwrens & Emily La Grange on 11 Dec 2012
"At age 108, Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer still practices piano for 3 hours every day. At age 104, she had a book written about her life: "A Garden Of Eden In Hell." At age 83, she had cancer. Alice survived the concentration camps through her music, her optimism and her gratitude for the small things that came her way - a smile, a kind word, the sun. When asked about the secret of her longevity, Alice says: "I look where it is good.""

Further Info: A Century Of Wisdom, Alice Herz-Sommer (Amazon.co.uk) | Facebook Page

The Overview Effect

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:29:00 +0000

Viewed from the cosmic reaches of space by astronauts blessed to travel this way, our beautiful blue home takes on an enchanting splendour giving us a more connected perspective of planet Earth and our place in the infinite universe.

From: Overview on Vimeo
"On the 40th anniversary of the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph taken of Earth from space, Planetary Collective presents a short film documenting astronauts’ life-changing stories of seeing the Earth from the outside – a perspective-altering experience often described as the Overview Effect.
The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.
‘Overview’ is a short film that explores this phenomenon through interviews with five astronauts who have experienced the Overview Effect. The film also features insights from commentators and thinkers on the wider implications and importance of this understanding for society, and our relationship to the environment..."

Further Info: Overview The Movie | Planetary Collective | Planetary Collective's film project Continuum on Kickstarter

Nature's Flu Remedies

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:18:00 +0000

We have become used to turning to outside sources for help with many things in life, including our health. Whilst we can be grateful for the products, people and services that are available, rather than give away our power, we can first try to help ourselves.

In this wintry season, with many viruses and bugs doing the rounds, ensuring our kitchen is stocked with basic, health promoting foods is vital, alongside a nutritious, fresh, organic diet, to keeping the bugs at bay.

Garlic, lemon, ginger, white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, turmeric are all great for increasing our immunity to viral infections throughout winter and beyond. Lemons and white wine vinegar are also perfect for adding zest to cleaning surfaces that may harbour bacteria.

Here are some fantastic, simple flu remedy suggestions from Step Into My Green World on Facebook. Stay well x

Further Info: Step Into My Green World

Dead Piano Waltz

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:48:00 +0000

From: Dead Piano Waltz "my lovely old piano had seen better days. One last tune and then it was gone. When the wind blows in the night ,it plays a sad waltz."

I love this video short by Phil Wheeler of organiccotton.biz (who incidentally sell a fantastic array of sustainably grown, organic and fairly traded fabrics for your sewing and crafting needs!). It tells a musical tale of an old piano seen through new eyes. An instrument of sound that once resonated with melodies, transformed into a support for plant life which blossoms and thrives whilst the piano's original form slowly decays.

The constantly shifting images combined with the beautiful soundtrack to this film, gives a wonderful timeless feel and resonates with concepts I am currently playing with and reading about in Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth, Evita Ochel's Evolving Beings and elsewhere.

Life begins out of nothing - a deep inhalation of breath. There is a period of expansion, expression and experience. Growth that seems endless, until a moment of profound change takes place. A new consciousness is born or re-born - a cycle within a cycle. Then follows contraction, a more introspective kind of growth and a deep exhalation, incorporating decay, leading to death and a return to the nothingness from which Life came. And after this, there is re-birth, a new intake of breath and the cycle continues...

Further Info: OrganicCotton | A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle | You Are Timeless, Nov2012, Evita Ochel, Evolving Beings

A Birthing Revolution: Film Premier

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 07:34:00 +0000

This week sees the long awaited premier of One World Birth's ground-breaking movie Freedom For Birth. Toni Harman & Alex Wakeford's new film is set to change the way birth is viewed across the globe and return the right to decide how and where to give birth back to mothers. Find out if there is a screening near you here and although we've left it to the last minute, we do have a copy so if you live in Norwich and would like to view the film this Thursday drop me an email asap.

Press Release from: Freedom For Birth
"Women to claim their rights in childbirth with 1,000 Global Premieres set to launch the landmark FREEDOM FOR BIRTH Film

Human rights abuses during childbirth will be highlighted in a powerful new documentary to be launched on 20th September 2012. Described by the filmmakers as “the biggest event in the history of birth activism”, FREEDOM FOR BIRTH will be screened simultaneously in over 1,000 locations in over 50 countries in 17 different languages this Thursday 20th September 2012.

Featuring a Who's Who of 40 international birth experts, academics, Human Rights lawyers, doctors and midwives, the film calls for a radical shake-up of the world's maternity systems.

Made by British filmmaking couple Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford, Freedom for Birth tells the story of Hungarian midwife Agnes Gereb, imprisoned for supporting women during homebirths, and the subsequent successful European Court of Human Rights case that has major implications for childbirth around the world.

Filmmaker Toni Harman says, “the court ruling means that every birthing woman in Europe has the legal right to decide where and how she gives birth.”

The 1,000 Freedom For Birth premiere screenings will start at a breakfast screening in New Zealand and end in Hawaii. The day also includes screenings at the Cambridge Film Festival, Yale University, the Motherhood Museum in New York and at the Royal College of Midwives in London.

Cathy Warwick, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), says: “The making of this film, which the RCM is supporting, will go a long way to help make skilled maternity care a reality for those women who currently do not have access to it.”

Lesley Page, President of the RCM adds, “Too many women across the world are dying or suffering terribly because of a lack of skilled maternity care. This is unacceptable and I call on all Governments to give women the right and access to safe care in pregnancy and childbirth.”

Hermine Hayes-Klein, US lawyer and organiser of the the recent Human Rights In Childbirth conference at the Hague says, “Freedom For Birth holds the answer to changing the system. Birth will change when women realise they have a right to meaningful support for childbirth and claim that right. Birth will change when women stand up against the abuses that are currently suffered in such high numbers and say, No More.”

Filmmaker Alex Wakeford concludes, “With the release of Freedom For Birth, we hope millions of women become aware of their legal rights. With stories of forced caesarean sections and persecution of those providing woman-focused care, it doesn’t make for easy viewing but has the potential to spark a revolution in maternity care across the world. In fact, we are calling this the Mothers' Revolution.”"

Further Info: Freedom For Birth | One World Birth

Less Can Be So Much More

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 19:42:00 +0000

“We cannot just ‘be’ by ourselves alone. We have to inter-be with every other thing. This [pesto] is, because everything else is.” Doing without a food processor slows me down, and I settle into the rhythm of all of life. I see and feel my connection to everything. It comforts and satisfies me when I connect in this way..." From: Tiny House Family, 22Aug2012.

Reading about the Tiny House Family today - Mama, Papa, Sister and Brother who live in a 168 square foot home on a 3 acre plot - I've felt deeply inspired and encouraged that a more simple lifestyle then our current one, than what is probably considered a fairly conventional lifestyle, is not only possible but relatively easy to attain and infinitely worthwhile.

The desire to exist less as a consumer and more as a human being, living close to the land, has been with me for some time but often seemed like such a far away dream. I have blamed circumstance, my partner's different desires, health issues and so many other things and events for not having made much progress in fulfilling this dream as yet. Lately, I have begun to realise that the only things keeping me back from living the dream are my own cluttered thoughts within and the reflected clutter of physical stuff in my life without.

The process of de-cluttering, previously toyed with in the past, has become a necessity and I have begun in some small ways to let go of that which no longer serves. Everything, from the expansive list of folders on my hotmail account, through the paperwork of daily life collected over the months and years, via responsibilities sustained by a sense of duty rather than desire, to the thoughts based on fear that fill my mind when I forget to keep watch. All these things are now under scrutiny and what is no longer needed, has remained unused for a significant period or can offer nothing positive to my current life is destined for the delete button, recycling bin or charity store.

Living out of a back pack and holdall for 4 of the past 5 weeks combined with reading, research and practice of living in the present rather than the past or future, has helped me gain much needed perspective and recognise the real possibilities of minimising our collection of stuff. I feel more able to let go of the physical and metaphysical paraphernalia that currently creeps around our lives like tangled sweet pea shoots, throwing out clutching feelers, keeping us attached, confused and rooted to an unreal past and unsure future.

As well as sorting some general household stuff, the vast pile of fabric 'to be made into something' and clothing 'to be mended' that I've allowed to pile up over the past few years, neglected but often crowding my thoughts, is calling out to be culled, repaired if deemed worthy and/or given away to someone who may actually make use of it some time this century! This may well be a painful process but I clearly have enough other clothing as I've not used any of it for so long and based on evidence of the past few years, the unmade craft will remain unmade whether or not I hold onto the complete fabric stash! It's a harsh but real fact. Time to let go and make space for what is to come...

The Tiny House Family site provides such powerful and simple inspiration on living with less stuff and gaining so much more in return. Less stuff allows us to slow down, make space for what is important and feel our connection to Earth and each other. What could be more precious than that!

Further Info: Tiny House Family | Tiny House Blog | The Power Of Now | Loving What Is

Dreams of A Present Future

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:13:00 +0000

Ecomonkey is researching and practising the art of living in the moment and finally getting round to reading Eckhart Tolle's The Power Of Now which has been on our Reading List for a while.

Living in the moment does not come easy to one so conditioned to think and think and then think some more. If you're anything like me, your mind has a lot to say, much of it untrue, much based on other untrue thoughts and when it runs out of new concepts to think, it will repeat thoughts - especially the ones that are blatant lies - over and over again until they seem to become true. I have realised that my mind, and thus much of my life, has been lived in a maelstrom of unending, untrue, unrelenting thoughts. Wow! It's no wonder we often feel exhausted and our bodies and minds often find it difficult to cope.

Living in the moment is about trying to change these destructive thought patterns. Not by ignoring them, but by distancing oneself from them, to a point where we are able to observe our thoughts without becoming attached to them - without identifying and becoming them. Often referred to as meditation (and sometimes, ironically, as mindfulness), the practice of emptying our minds of damaging thought patterns, is a difficult but necessary one if we are to live the fulfilled lives we deserve to the best of our possibilities.

Living in the now means trying not to be distracted by the past events, memories and obsessions which tend to rule our thinking and also trying not to obsess over future plans, hopes and dreams which is something I have often found particularly difficult. However, the benefits of living in the real world, where Life is happening now, rather than a false one based on unreal recollections and aspirations is surely worth the effort and practice.

That is not to say that all of our dreams, hopes and plans are futile. It is perhaps, the method of wishing that makes all the difference between wasted energy and vital creativity. At present, for example, dreams of an ideal world, an Heaven of Earth if you like, still often cross my mind, though these days my ideas are far less obsessive way than they used to be.

In the past, I would spend hours, days even, constantly repeating cycles of thought about how the details of my dream could actually work; literally drawing up plans, pondering endless ideas, writing lists, planning precise details which could never be realised. Now, I let the dreams come and go as they please and try not to give too much energy to the practicalities of making it happen.

Instead I imagine how it would feel to be there, in that magical place where life is lived on and from the Land, where constant striving, delusional disappointments and futile frustrations are few and far between, where there is a simplicity and a deep Truth to everything we do, feel, think and create. And instead of sighing and wishing the present away so I can be in an unattainable future, I allow myself to feel and experience those blissful, contented feelings, immersing myself in the feelings rather than the thoughts, because it is the feelings that are attainable now. Thus, in a sense, the future becomes the present, smoothly, instantly and without any kind of pain.

This short film of a magical site in Wales called Cae Mabon, is narrated by storyteller and musician Eric Maddern and illustrates the kind of setting Ecomonkey dreams of when imagining an ideal lifestyle. Beautifully simple structures for shelter and rest wrapped in an embrace of nature's best gifts - earth, air, water and sun. A place to grow and evolve. This makes me feel secure, nurtured, worthwhile, fulfilled and full of Life's pure energies. So, that is what I feel now. What do you dream of?

Source: Natural Homes: The Storytelling Roundhouse at Cae Mabon in Snowdonia, Wales
Further Info: Cae Mabon | Natural Homes | Eckhart Tolle | The Work of Byron Katie | Eco Homes & Buildings on Facebook

Down On The Farm with Yeo Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:49:00 +0000

Last month we were delighted to get a chance to see behind the scenes at one of our favourite organic food brands as we gratefully accepted an invitation to visit the Yeo Valley Farm in Somerset.

Yeo Valley was created by dairy farmers, Roger and Mary Mead, in 1974, from humble, almost accidental beginnings when a surplus of milk left over from clotted cream production for their tea house led to the production of yoghurt. When Roger sadly died in a farming accident, their son Tim took over alongside Mary and the brand has continued to evolve. The organic range, which Ecomonkey is a huge fan of, was launched in 1993 and includes other products such as butter, milk and creme fraiche.

Naturally, we expected to meet some cows on out trip, maybe see some milking and generally get a bit muddy. However, on arrival we were pleasantly surprised to hear that the day would involve a more in depth look at the less obvious elements of organic dairy farming and production. So, although there was a lot of mud involved, we saw no cows but instead enjoyed the delights of wildlife preservation, land conservation, some foraging and dry stone walling as well as delicious product tasting.

Our trip began the previous day when we arrived into Bristol by train and taxied through the stunning Somerset countryside to the pretty village of Blagdon. Here we enjoyed a peaceful evening at Ashcroft House, a very comfortable B&B hosted by friendly and knowledgeable Adrian Boots, who runs bushcraft courses and wild food walks as well as the B&B with his wife. Adrian, incidentally, also had a hand in designing the Yeo Valley tours we would embark on the next day.

After a restful night's sleep and leisurely breakfast (with Yeo Valley yoghurt of course!), we were picked up by the lovely Nikki and taken down the road to Yeo Valley Lakewood, Head Office as well as conference/event centre, to meet Tor, Graham, Les and the rest of the team. Tor told us a little about the centre, hinted at what we could expect from the day and ensured we had refreshments as we waited for other participants to arrive and took in the stunning panorama across the damp morning terrace, of fog hovering and occasionally rising to give us a brief, furtive view of the Mendip hills.

When everyone had arrived, been welcomed and refreshed, Graham and Les drove us all out to the Wills Barn Education Centre, sensitively refurbished in 2006/7 from a dilapidated ancient structure - possibly used by passing drovers and thought to be around 300 years old - into a completely energy efficient building that retains a sense of history as well as heat in the super insulated walls, floors and ceilings. In addition to passive solar heat and light from glazing, an array of PV panels supply the barn with electricity, rainwater is harvested for the toilets and waste wood pellets power the biomass boiler providing heat when needed.

From the barn, Les Davis whose knowledge of the area is legendary - 'what he doesn't know about the Mendips, is not worth knowing!' - took us out on a wonderfully educational and inspiring tour of the surrounding farm and woodland. Along the way we picked and ate wild garlic, picked our way along the edge of deliciously muddy fields and discovered a variety of plants and flowers which nourish the soil fertility and provide a haven and vital sustenance to the wildlife which in turn also support the land.

And this was the main theme of the tour and of Yeo Valley's work here. More than simply farming the soil to produce as much food as possible from it by any means necessary, Yeo Valley is dedicated to sustainable and thoughtful stewardship of the land and care of the animals whose milk they (and by default, we, as consumers) utilise. This organic system, working with rather than against nature, ensures that our human place in the eco system is less abusive than in 'conventional' farming. Rather than short-sighted maximum extraction of nutrients and resources from the land, instead it understands and aids the process of nourishment and sustenance which we, as every other member of the ecosystem - whether we care to admit it or not - rely on to survive.

Back at Wills Barn, whilst rain poured out of grey skies, and the sheep looked on bemused, we investigated the stone walls surrounding the barn and were given a brief lesson in how dry stone walls are constructed and repaired - with much patience and skill. The hedges and limestone walls on the farm, some dating back around 200 years, are carefully looked after and repaired providing vital habitats and protection for wildlife in the valley. As the rain became increasingly heavy, we fled inside to dry off and continue the demonstration under cover.

Lunch was preceded by a tasting of some of Yeo Valley's delicious yoghurt - or Yeogurt as it is now called. Rhubarb turned out to be popular as did the Lemon Curd flavour. Greek Style with Coconut, being exceedingly moreish, is Ecomonkey's current joint top favourite alongside good old Natural, but we haven't yet tried them all!

Lunch itself was a delicious selection of homemade bread, seasonal salads, quiche and other goodies prepared by Head Chef, Jaime and the kitchen team with ingredients either sourced locally or direct from the lovingly tended kitchen garden. All of it was utterly delicious, including the cheesecake dessert made with Yeogurt of course - yum!

After satiation, we ventured back out in the reduced but persistent rain to continue exploring how the organic farm, which inspite of its huge commercial success is still essentially a family farm, is run. This process of course, involves careful preservation of the land demonstrated in the variety of ecosystems we encountered - cultivated fields with shrubby borders and wide margins, beautiful old beech trees, stretches of wild growth and ancient woodland with more recent re-planting and coppice. All of these, plus totally untouched areas, provide natural habitat to wildlife thus enhancing the local and wider environment.

Certified by the Soil Association under its Ethical Trade as well as Organic Farming label, Yeo Valley production is guaranteed to be of the highest quality, sustainability and ethics and the business also only uses British milk from farms belonging to organic milk supplier's co-operative (OMSCo) based in Somerset. The recent re-branding to 'Yeorganic' is designed to communicate this complete support of the organic, sustainable and ethical process of food production which nurtures not just the farm land used, but also the cows and other animals, wildlife, workers at Yeo Valley and their suppliers, the surrounding valley, farm visitors and of course, the consumers.

Tim Mead is passionate about farming sustainably. He says "We're proud to be an independent family business,we've spent the last 50 years farming in Somerset ... We believe in going beyond expectation and doing the right thing to ensure the future of British farming isn't just about the next five years - we plan to be here forever."

After a thoroughly enjoyable trip round the farm land, spying tadpoles in their dew pond, appreciating flora and fauna, taking in amazing views of the Mendip Hills and Blagdon Lake down in the valley when the fog lifted and wading through waist high wet elephant grass (used as bio-fuel) we arrived at another ancient barn for welcome tea and cake break before heading back to Lakewood.

Full of admiration and inspiration, tasty nourishment for body and soul, and with generous yoghurt treats to take with us, we made our weary, happy way back home. We are grateful to everyone who played a part in organising such a delightful day and looking after us so well. Ecomonkey can highly recommend taking a Yeo Valley Farm tour to anyone wanting to learn more about organic farming and nature's wonderfully nurturing systems or simply to experience an enchanting day in Somerset. We've yet to experience the Food & Garden tour but are looking forward to making another valley trip soon and are sure it will be equally wonderful.

Food & Garden Tour:"Wander around our picturesque six-and-a-half acre organic garden, one of only a handful to be certified organic in the UK. Stroll through the meadow, amble through the gravel garden and pick up grow-your-own tips from our veggie patch. We’ll show you how we care for the soil and plants, and how you can grow organically at home. With a live cooking demonstration thrown in before lunch, we’ll finish the day with tea and homemade scones in our gorgeous Tea Room overlooking the garden."

Upcoming dates - Book here:

Farm Discovery Tour - 20th July | 29th September 2012
Food & Garden Tour - 10th July | 24th July | 4th September | 18th September
Both tours run from 10am till 4pm and at £30 per person provide excellent value for an enlightening and fun day out.

P.S. Readers will know that we are avid avoiders of stupermarket shopping, so Ecomonkey is fortunate to have our Yeo Valley butter and yoghurt delivered to our door by our reliable milkman twice weekly. Yeo Valley Products are also available in Planet Organic and Albion (Shoreditch) for London folk, Rainbow Wholefoods for Norfolk and many other great independent health and whole food stores countrywide. If your local organic food supplier doesn't already sell the Yeo Valley products you would like to buy, we recommend asking them to do so.

View our pictures from the day on Ecomonkey's Facebook page.

Further Info: Yeo Valley | Soil Association certification

Inlight Organic Treats

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 15:09:00 +0000

As an avid user of organic oils for moisturising and nourishing the body, I have experimented for some years with a variety of oils derived from fruit (e.g. Olive & Avocado), root (e.g. Comfrey), plant (e.g. Calendula & St. John's Wort), seed and nut (e.g. almond). I blend these with organic essential oils carefully selected for their therapeutic contents according to my current state of health and wellbeing. This homemade alchemy is fun and immensely rewarding particularly when a perfectly balanced mix is obtained. There are times however, when a girl would like a little pampering and have the experimentation and mixing done for her.

This is where Inlight oils and balms come into their own. Knowing that someone else has taken the time and effort to create a carefully selected, deliciously scented, gorgeously moisturising, totally natural, 100% organic, sustainably packaged, ready to use therapeutic product is spa-tastically blissful. Throughout May I have been trying out Inlight's body oil, body butter and their new hand cream called Hand-easy. Super treats indeed!

Organic Body Oil, 100ml, £30 RRP – 8.3/10
[Effectiveness 10/10 | Value 7/10 | Packaging 8/10]
This body oil is delightful on all levels. It smells divine, is easily applied and absorbed leaving wonderfully soft, soothed skin with a lasting aroma. Applied directly apres douche, this fragrant oil sinks into the skin nourishing the body with Apricot kernal, Evening Primrose, Patchouli, Arnica, Calendula and more. Although the bottle could benefit from a pump or spray top to help avoid spillage, excessive pouring and rapid depletion of the precious contents, this is a delicious treat for tired skin, helping to uplift and tone body and mind.

Organic Body Butter, 60ml, £38 RRP – 9.7/10
[Effectiveness 10/10 | Value 9/10 | Packaging 10/10]
As a regular body oil user, my skin is normally in great condition. That and an innate rebellious/curious nature, led me to use this Body Butter predominantly on my face, particularly on the often dry areas either side of the nose and under the lower lip. The balm melted wonderfully into the skin, was easily applied (love the wooden spatula!) and made my skin feel soft and conditioned. Containing a potent mix of oils renowned for their nourishing natures - Coconut, Olive, Evening Primrose, Jojoba, Sesame and Rosehip as well as restorative nettle - prepare to feel rejuvenated inside and out. As the butter is so rich, only a tiny amount is needed so the jar lasts and lasts and as with most Inlight products, is best applied to damp skin.

Organic Hand-easy Cream, 28ml, £11.50 RRP – 8.7/10
[Effectiveness 10/10 | Value 9/10 | Packaging 7/10]
Who can live without a decent hand cream? Not me. Well, I could, but I'd rather not have to, thanks! This new hand nourishing product from Inlight is of course jam packed with health giving oils and herbs. Due to its densely rich nature, it needs at least damp, if not wet hands to apply effectively and lock in moisture, so have a tube handy near every basin. The packaging is good but not perfect as it can be difficult to squeeze the balm out at times but this quibble is made up for by the divine smell that emanates at every use as we breathe in ylang ylang and geranium - ahh, heavenly!

Both the Body Butter and Hand-easy Cream are on sale right now at Inlight, so take advantage and treat your skin to these beautiful products today. Body Butter is available for £26.60 at 30% discount and the Hand-easy Cream has a 15% discounted price of £9.78. Hurry, offer ends June 4th.

From: Inlight Organic Skincare
"We believe in a beauty beyond the reflection in your mirror: an organic beauty stemming from inner health and wellbeing. At Inlight, we take only the finest, ethically-sourced, natural, and organic ingredients and capture them at their most potent to create the best possible diet for your skin.
Our organic skincare products have been perfected through years of research by Dr Mariano Spiezia, medical doctor, homeopath and herbalist. All our organic beauty products, anti ageing skincare, and herbal ointments, are the perfect compliment to natural and alternative therapies, particularly homeopathy. Everything we make has been carefully crafted to complement all skin types, and to work not only on but with your skin.
As Inlight products are oil based (and never diluted with water), they are intensely nourishing and moisturising, and an ideal anti-ageing choice. Our organic skincare products are perfect for very dry skin, especially if you are prone to eczema or dermatitis. They are brimming with power-packed nutrients and free from any synthetics or preservatives."

Further Info: Inlight Organic Skincare | Facebook Page | Previous Inlight review

Community Living Inspiration

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:05:00 +0000

Here are some excellent inspirational ideas from Transition Totnes for increasing the feeling of community, sharing workloads, gaining friends, really getting to know our neighbours as well as giving and receiving support in our individual and collective aims to lead environmentally and socially conscious lifestyles. Ecomonkey loves the shared seeds and community cinema ideas - so simple and super effective ways to share the true wealth in our lives - food, skills, time, effort and the ability to demonstrate our inherently caring and connected nature.

From: Transition Streets: an evidence base to support the Transition approach to change; Transition Culture, 12Apr2012 "...When I meet people in town who were part of Transition Streets, they don’t enthuse about how much carbon they saved, they talk about the new social connections they have made, and that comes through really strongly in this brilliant piece of research. People’s main motivations for getting involved weren’t climate change or peak oil, but were “building good relationships with my neighbours”. The main benefit they pointed to from having been involved was social and community benefits..." Read the full article here for lots more information, links and resources.

Further Info: Transition Streets | Transition Culture

Super Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:59:00 +0000

In these rapidly evolving times, as more of us begin to question the validity of the perceived status quo particularly in areas that affect our daily routines, much discussion continues to take place regarding how we source our food and every-day groceries.

On the Transition website, as elsewhere, no doubt, the need and desire for change to the current conventional system of supermarket shopping is almost invariable agreed upon. The reasoning and methodologies suggested for change however are as varied as the different types of 'bread' products available on any stupermarket shelf.

In Sleeping With The Enemy, Ann Owen from the market town of Machynlleth, West Wales, argues not all supermarkets are the same and that working with The Co-operative to help support local food producers is the way forward:
"...I was relieved that it was the Co-op that got its planning though and not Tesco, because even though you might think that a supermarket is a supermarket, all equally bad news, I've got to disagree with you; the Co-operative is different and I'd hate to lose it. The Co-operative is more of a cluster of businesses, comprising food retail as well as banking, pharmacies, insurance, travel and a few more, but how it is different from the Tesco's of this world is by it's firm commitment to social justice..."

Meanwhile, in Goodbye Supermarkets Adrienne Campbell of Lewes, suggests that as we are responsible for the existence of supermarkets, it is therefore also our responsibility to help bring about the demise of this institution and its deceptive ways:
"...My sense is that most people don't realise, or don't want to realise, that shopping in their local supermarket could wreak such havoc on their community. They would rather believe it's more convenient, and cheaper. But that's just one of the myths perpetuated by supermarkets in their relentless marketing. While individual items are often cheaper in supermarkets than in local shops, once you add in to the shopping basket the convenience food, comfort food and other items we think we need – including cleaning and beauty products – you end up spending far more in supermarkets than elsewhere. I was shocked recently to discover that the average weekly supermarket spend is about £60 a head; I spend half that shopping locally, and we eat only organically..."

Although I have relative confidence in The Co-operative as a whole (as well as the John Lewis/Waitrose partnership), when compared to the other big supermarkets, I tend to agree with Adrienne's premise and advocate a thorough disentanglement of ourselves from the way of life pushed upon us by supermarkets. This will not only be beneficial but is quite possibly essential to our culture's ability to successfully evolve. In the words of Bukminster Fuller "You never change things by fighting the existing reality.To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

As well as reverting to traditional, tried, tested and sustainable methods, setting up new systems for sourcing and sharing food, for feeding ourselves, is essential to a future more sustainable than this present reality. Whilst working with organisations such as The Co-operative and the John Lewis/Waitrose organisation may eventually produce worthwhile results, I feel that by itself, this may prove a long arduous battle whilst such organisations continue to work along the supermarket modus operandi - single-mindedly profit driven regardless of environmental and social costs.

Having high expectations of my own ability to make a huge difference to my own life and some small but positive influence on the lives of those connected to me through food, I first quit all supermarkets bar Co-op and Waitrose around 4 years ago. This went well for a while but the despair of still having to seek out healthy, sustainable, ethical, non-packaged products amidst the vast array of over packaged, unsustainable, unethical and downright unhealthy conventional 'foods', combined with the thrill of beginning to take back control over my consuming habits resulted in a complete ban and I am proud to say I have not shopped in any supermarket for almost 2 years.

Perhaps these, my own expectations are why I expect more from Co-op and Waitrose. I dream of the day when Co-op sells certified organic produce instead of hiding behind the 'less pesticides than conventional crops' excuse and when both organisations stand tall behind their 'more sustainable than other supermarkets' premise and cease to sell the conventional, non-sustainable, unfairly traded products altogether.

Until this dream comes to fruition, if indeed it transpires at all, rather than rely on corporate actions to improve our connected lives on this small planet, I will continue to practise what I perceive to be a truly sustainable way of shopping and feeding myself, avoiding all such 'markets' and choosing instead to make good use of organic deliveries, wholefood bulk buys and local independent suppliers as well as growing our own food.

Whilst not all of us may currently have access to affordable farmers markets and wholefood stores, there are an increasing number of options available for sourcing local, ethical, sustainable, healthy food that produce less waste, feed us better, support local economies and encourage healthy lifestyles instead of hurting others, causing needless damage and lining greedy corporate pockets. Growing food in back gardens, on windowsills, balconies, up patio walls; community gardens and farms; allotments; food co-operatives; independent grocers, fishmongers and butchers; online orders and deliveries and local farms are just some of the beneficial options. As the last 2 years have proved for me, these options make the supermarket and it's maelstrom of consumer lies totally obsolete.

From: Charlotte Du Cann, A Loyal Customer
"...Your body is addicted to that supermarket food, your mind can runs loops around your good intentions, you have been brainwashed by the Empire all your life. You engage in bouts of self-calming and duplicity, worthy of the Coalition. Your heart however can weigh up many factors at once, connect you with the feeling and spirit of things, break those separating walls down. It doesn't excuse itself and argue. It sees and it acts. One day the affair is over. I have been sleeping with Sainbury's and Waitrose, and Tesco's and Safeway. I realise I don't love them, or my time spent between their cold and heartless aisles...

...Supermarkets are our materialistic churches of desire, catering to our addictions for sugar, fat and salt, to our weakness for novelty. To get out of them you need to drop the desire. It's not a decision you make rationally. No one persuades you to "change your behaviour". One day you see the pattern and are shocked to find blood on your hands.
You walk out the door because you no longer want to keep destroying the ocean bed and the forest, the eco-systems of the earth, exploiting your fellow human beings, throwing them off their land, condemning your fellow creatures, chickens, pigs and dairy cows to a life of hell. This is not a Me-Only decision. It's one we are having together. No hard feelings. No blame. We have all been asleep and now some of us are waking up and finding out what to do. Growing oats and beans, storing apples. Moving as David Korten would call it, from Empire to Earth Community..."

Earth Junkies

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:48:00 +0000

Earth Junkies is a wonderful multifaceted project encouraging our younger generations to develop a visual and real connection to our environment through Mother Earth. Stories about Mother Earth, how she has become sick because we don't care enough for her, are shared in workshops, giving children a sense of their own responsibility and love for our beautiful Earth. Earth Junkies helps children to write and draw a promise to take better care of our planet. This Children's Charter will travel from South Africa up through the Middle East and into Europe.

Watch the promotional video for this inspirational project below and help fund the project here if you can.

From: Earth Junkies, IndieGoGo Fund Page
"The Earth Junkies Project uses storytelling to develop creative, social, life and literacy skills around ecological issues, principally among children. The project targets relationships between individuals and their environment, their ideas on conservation, its importance, and how these ideas are shared between generations.

The project works in schools and alongside teachers. During each workshop the following core aims will be fulfilled:
• Developing the first global Children’s Charter for the Rights for Mother Earth, a document consisting of promises made by children on how they will try to protect Mother Earth.
• Compiling the first series of ‘The Adventures of the Earth Junkies’ stories, a series of tales about conservation created along with children through storytelling workshops.
• Producing a feature-length documentary under the working title: ‘Mother Earth and Me’.
• Leaving each school with an indigenous tree that they are encouraged to take personal responsibility for."

Further Info: Earth Junkies | IndieGoGo Fund Page | Facebook Page

Brigid And The Water Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:08:00 +0000

Happy New Lunar Year and Blessed Imbolc!

Image Source: My Diary My Blog

In Chinese tradition, the lunar year 2012 which began yesterday, is the year of the Dragon, symbolising majestic power and wisdom. More specifically this year's sign is a black Water Dragon.

This dragon is deemed special because unlike the other animal symbols of the Chinese zodiac which are all earthly animals, the dragon is a mystical creature, often composed of several other animals including the stag, snake, tiger, eagle and carp. A Dragon year is purported to bring abundance, virtue and harmony as well as a sense of increased intensity and unpredictability. Guardian of the Eastern skies, the Dragon inspires energy and activity in us.

Although Dragons have an innate fire this is calmed by the water influence. It is said that Water Dragons are able to see things from a variety of perspectives and whilst they don’t always feel a need to be right, their decisions are usually wise due to allowing others to influence decision making.

In Chinese element theory, water feeds wood and thus personifies growth and creativity. As 2012 is a yang year, the water element is not stagnant but moving fast like a flowing river so situations and events will tend also to move in this way and creativity and ideas will flow in abundance. By many accounts it is likely to be an exhilarating year.

Image Source: aindreas.com

Meanwhile, under more northern skies, the blanket of winter can no longer hide the promise of spring and many will celebrate the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc and the Feast of Brighid. It is this time of year when the inner wisdom and personal insights gleaned over the slow winter months can be infused with the energy of coming spring to propel us into the year with renewed energy and vitality.

Also known as Bríde or Brìd (as well as Olwen, Niwalen, Gwenhyver or Blodeuwedd in traditional British and Irish legends and later changed to St. Brigit by the Christian Church), the virgin goddess Brighid symbolises this time of year as she resumes her triple goddess, cyclical role from her elder woman's form of the winter months. Ready to initiate union with the renewed Sun King, Brighid will ensure new life and growth.

Not unlike the Water Dragon, Brighid is keeper of the sacred Fire which sparks life into being, as well as having the ability to heal with her life giving waters. She also preserves tradition through poetry and song.

In her wonderful book Sacred Celebrations - A Sourcebook, Glennie Kindred explains some of the ancient mythology of this fertile period of the year.

Sacred Celebrations by Glennie Kindred

"The power of the unconscious represented by the young female is the spark of intuition from within as it joins with the intellect of consciousness (represented by the young Sun King). It is the union of these two aspects of energy which brings about manifestation and growth on all levels.

Other ancient myths reflect the same process in action. Persephone returns from the Underworld (the inner world) as herself made new, the young Spring Maiden... Clotho in Greek myth was known as the fate virgin, the fate spinner, the first of the Moerae (later called Mary) who spun the thread of destiny. Roman Pagans worshipped Juno Februata, the Goddess of the fever (febris) of love, later replaced with St. Valentine by the Church. Athene, Isis, Minerva, Dian, Aphrodite - are all similar versions of this aspect of energy...

The early image of the Virgin was very different from what we now imagine. She was seen as being full of her inherent ability to be fertile. She was honoured for her vibrant sexuality. In pre-Christian Rome, the 'Virgines' were unmarried women. They combined a natural abundant sexuality with the potential of motherhood and procreation. These free young women must have presented as much a threat to the new patriarchal Church as the old matriarchs. A marriage system was introduced which harnesses women's natural nurturing caring instincts to serve men. Her sexuality became feared by the Church and by men for its potential power over them. Virgin became synonymous with purity.

The worship of the Goddess was channelled by the Church into the worship of the Virgin Mary. It is interesting that virginity is the most emphasised aspect of her, not her motherhood, even though it was wildly inexplicable. They were well aware that the Goddess worship they sought to suppress could re-establish itself through the worship of Mary, so they had to diffuse and debase her power and the power of the female. Mary became passive, meek, subordinate, without sexuality, successfully removing her previous attributes. This complex reversal of women's natural instincts, as a method of control by the Church has, of course, had the most dramatic and far-reaching psychological and sociological effects throughout the Christianized patriarchal world. Inner reflection, the unconscious, the intuition, receptivity, the inner voice - all became synonymous with everything female and was also denied, suppressed and feared. This has meant that men as well as women have been cut off from this vital aspect of themselves.

The Church incorporated this festival into their religion as Candlemas, celebrated on the 2nd February. Candlemas is known as the festival of the purification of the Virgin Mary, a time which according to Judeo-Christian rule, a woman must be purified forty days after childbirth as she had been made unclean by the event. This removed all previous understanding of the power behind this ancient festival of Candlemas. 'Cande' from the Anglo-Saxon and 'Candali', 'Kundali' and 'Kundalini' from the Sanskrit, all bring association with the raising of sexual energy. This is the serpent which rises up the spine in sacral and sexual union, in which the self merges with the infinite. This reflects an understanding of sexuality and pleasure as a deeply spiritual experience. Eros, an older Greek phallic God and Cupid, the Roman God of erotic love, were worshipped at a time when sexuality was honoured as a primary life-force.

In Celtic mythology Brighidh was an older solar Goddess associated with the awakening hibernating serpent which was said to come forth from its hole on Imbolc eve. In pre-Christian times, serpents were associated with inspiration, aspiration, healing, the phallus, an emblem of life. The paths of Earth energy were called serpent paths and here at Imbolc their energy becomes reactivated and vibrant...

Imbolc is the time for initiation and healing, for reclaiming what has been forgotten. It is a time for invocation of the life-force and working with the dynamics of its potency. The intuitive flashes, the sparks of inspiration are needed more than ever to complement the active rational approach which dominates our western life-style. The returning active phase of the solar year brings with it an opportunity to use the Fire from within, to combine the dynamic expansive energy of the year's cycle.

We are trying in our own way to live the dreams and visions of a New Age, but we are still connected to the old ways. We each carry the seeds of a new vision, a new way of being. Each time these visions re-emerge after the incubation period of Winter, they are stronger and we are surer..." From: Glennie Kindred; Sacred Celebrations - A Sourcebook; Gothic Image Publications, 2001

Whatever you choose to be inspired by and however you choose to celebrate this new year, the promise of spring and the lengthening of days, may you be blessed and uplifted in all that you do x

Transition & Transformation

noreply@blogger.com (Racheblue Love) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:51:00 +0000

Happy 2012 dear readers! May the coming year of the Dragon bring much happiness, prosperity and wellbeing to us all. I have a feeling there will be many adventures ahead, some which have already begun. There will definitely be much to learn from and a myriad of opportunities to grow both as individuals and communities, from local through global to universal.

Just over a year ago in December 2010, fellow writer, Charlotte Du Cann, wrote one of her many inspiring posts on the Transition Norwich blog - This Low Carbon Life. A section of this particular post, entitled Changing The Frequency, inspired me so much that I copied the text out by hand and propped it up in my studio where I could refer to it from time to time. I ended up re-reading the piece several times throughout 2011 and if I felt it resonated at the end of 2010, by the time 2012 had arrived, the truths Charlotte wrote had become imbibed into my evolving psyche. (Evidence, if evidence were needed, of how blogging can change lives!)

This is the section in question:
"The world doesn’t change because you change your behavior. But because you let go. When you let go of habits and things you realise you have been living within a certain configuration, a certain frequency that keeps you trapped in an artificial empire...
There is a shift out there and sometimes you can feel it. No amount of media control, of distraction, of police brutality can cover it up. You can’t legislate against it. Because it’s invisible and intangible, something you can’t see with the naked eye. It’s a collective human feeling, in synch with all the living beings on the planet. A frequency that happens when people start to link up, share their stores, their sweetness, tune back in, start acting like bees in each others' interests. And that’s a feeling you can’t stop. And that’s the feeling I intend to take with me into the new year. 2011. A year when millions of us start coming home." Read Charlotte's full post here.

2011 was full of challenges for me, most of which were health related on the surface. Experiencing extreme pain throughout the year, there was no escaping the opportunity (although I didn't see it in quite so positive a light at first) to make deep evaluations about my life. These 12 months (and more) of enforced self-awareness and examination of how and why I live the way I do, had to result in changes on many levels - social, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

It's taken a long time but I'm finally learning how to let go instead of trying so desperately to change things - my life, other people, situations and thoughts. Amazingly, it seems I've spent most of my 39 years trying to change things to little or no avail and yet I kept on trying! Perhaps that shows stamina. It also shows a level of blindness to the reality of how life is.

In this Information Age, we are blessed by a million different sources of information and ideas. Amongst the plethora of inspiration, guidance and really useful advice I've listened to, watched and read over the year, one that resonated loudly was a book by Byron Katie called Loving What Is. I heartily recommend this book to anyone wanting to move forward in their lives this coming year. It seems so obvious now, but learning to accept life as it is, rather than thinking, as most of us tend to do, that it is 'all wrong' and if only this or that happened, life would be fine or at least better, was a profound revelation to me.

Once we realise that situations and people that worry or frustrate us, are the way they are only because we see them that way, we are suddenly free to stop thinking about them in a negative light. Accepting that life is the way it is because it is supposed to be this way and yet, at the same time, life can change so profoundly, simply because of the way we view it, is almost literally mind-blowing! Loving what is, may sound simple but the changes it allows in relationships and how we view and live our lives can indeed be life-changing. For me, these revelations and realisations feel and sound like a chord in Charlotte's "...frequency that happens when people start to link up, share their stores, their sweetness, tune back in...".

Living as truthfully as we can, communicating what we learn, listening to each others' stories and experiences, sharing ideas and moving ourselves forward, allowing ourselves to be transformed into the butterflies we already are, if only we'd stop to take a look. These seem like ideal tasks for the year ahead.

2011 has shown without doubt that transitions and transformations of all kinds are taking place across our world. Many of us, whether through deliberate choice or through divine circumstance are feeling the shift from an outdated way of life which no longer serves us, to another which, although perhaps as yet undefined, is becoming an almost deafening call for change. Whatever 2012 brings, my sincere wish is that we find the wisdom, strength, courage and Love to embrace life as it is, to relish in every opportunity for transformation, find our wings and find ourselves on a path that leads us home.

I leave you with a wonderful example of land transformation in Norwich where an unused tarmac plot has metamorphosed into a thriving community garden. We visited the Grapes Hill Community Garden over the summer and were thrilled to find this oasis of lushness and abundance in the city. Enjoy x

Further Info: Transition Norwich blog - This Low Carbon Life | The Work of Byron Katie | Grapes Hill Community Garden