Walking in the Moors

T

he dog and I have been for a stunning walk this morning. The sun was out (weather seems to have a large effect on my mood these days - or maybe I'm just more aware of it), the wind was up, and the clouds traced huge shadows on the hillsides. Again, that familiar feeling came of how small I am compared to the environment around me - small and insignificant. There is always a security in knowing that the world does not  centre around me and my life. The world goes on regardless.

We followed a stream up into the moors, crunching through a thin layer of snow which had fallen overnight, and emerged into a broad U-shaped valley, with several dead trees still standing, and some lonely stoops (old stone posts) punctuating the grassland.

The tour headed over the heather to Dove Stones, and our light passage upset many distant grouse, with their indignant calling as they flew off (Listen here). Their calls always make me smile! After some difficulty finding a path, we reached Dove Stones, and discovered a raised, basin-like valley (Hey Slack Clough) with Lad Law (517 metres) facing us on the other side.

We walked round the basin, and reached the trig point of Lad Law, the top point of Boulsworth Hill. The view stunned me. We could see over to the snow covered Yorkshire Dales, Pendle Hill, and to Winter Hill above Bolton. Stopping for a break and some bread, the wildness reenergised me. 

We took in Gorple Stones above Widdop Reservoir before heading back to the car three hours after we had left it. The snow and hail clouds that we had seen to the West finally reached us when we were 500 yards from the car - perfect timing!

I have done a lot of walking of late, but this walk was one of the best I've done for a long while. It was taken from Christopher Goddard's brilliant book: The west Yorkshire Moors which I have mentioned before.

References

Goddard, Christopher (2013): The West Yorkshire Moors: a hand-drawn guide to walking and exploring the county's open access moorland; Jeremy Mills Publishing Ltd

Connections

Hello, World!

"W

hitehead's process philosophy takes it further, proposing that there is actually no space between us, that we are all aspects of each other." (Neville, 2013. p. 392. bold text by me)

I read the above quote and felt as if my head was going to explode! What does Neville mean?

He says later on that "We are relational beings. We do not exist except in our connectedness. For the ecopsychologist that connectedness extends to all human and nonhuman being." (ibid. p. 392).

I am left thinking that maybe I am nothing except for the connections that I have within the world. Connections to people, oxygen, the sun, bacteria, cells, lungs, trees, water. A complex web of connections which come together to form the 'me' as I see myself. 

In a biological sense, I am nothing if not the complex organisation and connection of millions of cells in my body, arranged to make a 6' tall human male. And those cells are made up of a connection of particles, and those in turn made up of a complex connection or web of atoms. And so it could work the other way up: in the same way that liver cells are part of a larger-organism (me), so I am a part of a larger organism (the ecosystem of Earth, or the universe?),.

This is a challenge to the Western notion of individualism, and how we are separate entities, both from each other and from the world around us. Rather, this theory would state that we are all connected, on many levels. There is no such thing as a separate, individual human being.

This idea may change how I see myself.

References

Neville, B (2013): Setting therapy free; Person-centred & Experiential Psychotherapies: 12 (4), 382-395.

Curlews & Lapwings

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his afternoon I heard the first Curlews of the year near the barn. It made me smile as it is another sign that it is warming-up for spring as they travel from the coast - where they live during the winter months - inland for the spring and summer. On going out this evening I saw a flock of eight Curlews at Withens Clough Reservoir, with their distinctive long, curving bills. They are beautiful birds. For those who don't know what they sound like, click here and have a listen.

On our moorland walk at the weekend we saw four Lapwings, with their amazing call. I always think that they sound like they could have been used in a 1950's sci-fi movie! Here's a link to a lapwing call. We saw them while we were descending from Wolf Stones, just above Oakworth.