“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” ― Sylvia Plath
Dear Reader,
I’ve written this letter twice over already. I don’t know why but each time the words were meant for ‘Rotscapes’. I haven’t told you about the book yet outside of splashing it’s title and cover everywhere. That’s mainly because I haven’t written it yet. Or at least, it’s in the process of being written very slowly and with care. I know this is technically my second book, but it’s written in a completely different way. I don’t have source material to rewrite or reference, I’m not using A.I. etc. It’s a different process and it feels different from just research. I think in a lot of ways it’s going to be a lot more personal too. So, I’ve been taking writing classes over on Domestika just to brush up a bit. ‘Creative Non-Fiction Writing Specialization‘ and ‘Reading for writing‘ if you are curious.
Other than that, this month has mainly just been me battling a cold, sinusitis, and bronchitis. I’m going into my third week of attempting to recover and trying not to get the dreaded post-viral CFS. It’s a tricky balance and I have no idea if I’m making it or not. My entire back is deeply bruised from coughing and it hurts more the more I try to walk around and do things. I forget at times that rest is a radical notion and anti-capitalist. That to rest is to regenerate so I can do more things later. That none of us are expendable and that can be hard when you’re sick because it’s not like you are ‘working’ you’re just trying to do little things like make a cup of tea. The entire concept of work has to be reframed in such times and unfortunately we don’t have care systems in place to help with that. Maybe one day we will, maybe one day things will be different. I hope it comes soon and I hope it comes without disaster having to have appeared first.
Links:
- The Hive Architect | Saving Britain’s Wild Bees
- Once Upon a Forest: A Twig Poet’s Rewilding Journey
- Vildhjärta’s Forest Prayer – A Poem of Grief and Wild Beauty
- Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration
- The Persistence of Decay
Reads:
- Thresholds: Getting Lost – Dark Mountain
- The ethics of off-earth mining: expanding the discussion – Thom van Dooren
- ‘Let’s Become Fungal!: Mycelium Teachings and the Arts: Based on Conversations with Indigenous Wisdom Keepers, Artists, Curators, Feminists and Mycologists’ by Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez
- ‘Green Pharmacy’ by Barbara Griggs
- ‘The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology’ by Theodore Roszak