Making Friends with the World

Blog post, May 28 2015

I have been astonished at the momentum that has built up since I made the decision to get to know the River Brue. All through the winter I was studying its history, which has been very interesting, but the spring has brought a wave of new connections, plans and possibilities.

Today my article about Making Friends with the River has gone up on the Black Line Initiative’s website – the story of being inspired last year by watching the film Aluna to go walking along the river and connecting with the source of the Brue and with the mouth of the Axe.

The Black Line Initiative: this has perhaps been the biggest new development. I have been organising for next Thursday a presentation at Glastonbury’s Red Brick Building to help promote this initiative. My friend Felipe, who is co-ordinating the BLI, will be the lead speaker; also taking part are myself and a long-standing activist, Grant Riley.

Also next month, over midsummer, I shall be walking for five days along the Brue and the Axe, doing the whole route in one walk and completing them original project. I shall take something from the source of the Brue as an offering to the mouth of the Axe. I have been deeply heartened by the offers of support and help, and by quite a number of people who would like to join me walking for a day or so.

After that I shall be busy writing. The history of the river will fill about two thirds of a book; I don’t quite know what the first third will look like yet, but it will come from the walk. I am calling the two parts ‘A Journey through Space’ and ‘A Journey through Time’.

I shall hope to have the book finished by October, when I have been invited back to the Red Brick Building to give a talk of my own about the river. It would be good to have the book for sale by then. In the new year I shall also be giving a talk, about the river’s history, to the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society. I am learning how to use Powerpoint, and how to speak in public – a whole new dimension.

Also in October I have been asked to lead a walk along part of the river as part of a Glastonbury Pacemakers event. This has drawn me into being one of the organising group for the event as a whole – which will also include a showing of Aluna as well as several interesting workshops. If it works, it will continue year on year.

Life is busy. As I go into ‘semi-retirement’ I seem to have more to do than ever. And, most important of course, I feel alive, happy and excited about it all.