Roadway over historic and wild land

Here’s the link to the facebook album of pics, please use which ones you want. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150207242862032.312892.685332031&l=75437e31a3

Here’s the description of the day… The new road crosses the River Eden near to its mouth, as it enters the Solway Firth, after it has journeyed from deep within the Pennines, nourishing the fertile Eden Valley, which runs along the west side of the Northern Pennines. In this valley, millennia of occupation have left their mark with some of the most ancient and impressive stone circles and burial cairn systems in the whole of Northern Europe. Here, the concept of the stone circle as a meeting place and spiritual focal point became technologically honed and realised in the rock, over 5000 years ago. The land that has been used to make the road itself was once fertile farmland, wild flower meadows, marshes, and woodland. Many species of animal will have seen their habitats destroyed to cater for our incessant need for movement and progression. The road itself cuts through Hadrian’s Wall, a World Heritage Site, as well as a Mesolithic occupation site on the banks of the river Eden itself. 

So, we five met to offer healing and to offer love to this wounded place.

The rain abated just as we arrived on site. The warmth and the muskiness of the wet ground gave rise to such beautiful scents that it seemed the rain had helped us to open all our senses to the place. We went our separate ways for a while, to connect and listen to the land.

Three went up to an Iron Age hillfort, to take a good look at the view and to feel a deep sense of continuation, of ancientness. They made a triangle and blessed the hillfort, giving it to itself as part of the story of the place.

One went down to the river and took photos of the new bridge and the impressive flood works that have been created to master the unpredictability of the potent river. There she collected plants of potency; a dog rose, thistle, briar and grasses, which are first and most enduring to colonise damaged places. 

One went and sat by a bend in the river, and listened to the soundscape, to take a mental snap-shot of the undisturbed sounds of the busy river, the flapping of the swans’ wings, the chatter of the sand martins, the swish and glugging of the river, before the roar of the traffic changes it forever.

Then, we met up and shared our insights. We sat under an ancient willow, by the banks of the Eden and shared a box of chocolates. Themes of potency, of continuation and ebb and flow, of power, of an ancient story unfolding still, and of movement through space and time became alive as we shared our experiences. We tried to light candles but we were thwarted by the wind! We were visited by a robin, who eyed us with great curiosity. (Perhaps we were more interesting than the usual gentle cattle who graze the banks?) And we were spoken to by the Willow, who creaked and rustled its acceptance of our presence, and of our act of tying soft cloth strips to its branches in respect and love. And then we sang:

We are the flow and we are the ebb,

We are the weaver, we are the web.

The immense sense of OPTIMISM prevailed. This land will heal, as it has ever done…

Then, we returned to the embankment of the new road and committed an act of “guerrilla gardening”!!! Already, cheeringly, those responsible for the un-orphaning of the road from Mother Nature had planted holly bushes along the side of the cutting, to blur the edges between that which went before and that which will one day come to be ancient too. One or two of these had died, so we swapped a dead plant for an alive and beautiful young sycamore. Our final act of Love was to sing “we are flow and we are the ebb” as we went under the new pedestrian/ hedgehog-and-any-other-inhabitant tunnel which is there to allow safe passage.

And back to the beautiful day.

Quotes from participants:

“[A thought that I had was] to spend a moment giving offering at the beginning and end of each day to bring a joyful energy, singing, walking, sharing giving thanks…”

One participant quoted Wordsworth, in regard to our need for technological advancement:

“Getting and spending we lay waste our powers”- Wordsworth, Ode on Westminster Bridge.

“A deeply privileged experience shared with fellow earth-walkers”

“For me—deep inner peace, sense of connection, eternal power of Nature, Nature enduring, Nature can heal, can be healed, Humanity can be healed. Planting the baby sycamore was a fulfilment of a long held wish—unbeknownst to myself!”

Thank you SO much for helping us share this amazing, global day. We all felt its potency and a true sense of connectedness around the world. What a fantastic thing to have been part of.