Harvesting hope

Harvesting apple rose and rosemary in Henri’s Field at Schumacher College on the Dartington estate

Before you practice EcoYoga with me, you might like to know a little about me. I have been teaching yoga for almost ten years, alongside working as a TV news journalist and following various studies in my spare time. Busy!

But in this crazy year, I have finally changed everything. I have stopped the day job and am doing an MA in Poetics of Imagination at Dartington Arts School in Devon. What does this have to do with EcoYoga, you might ask? A fair question!

Part of my inquiry has been listening to stories of the land and imagining new stories - how can we create a healthy world and healthy self (the macrocosm and microcosm spoken of in so much yoga philosophy)?

I have spent a lot of time connecting to the land near to my home, wondering – in this time of change, what does the land and other creatures that live on it have to tell us? What new stories want to be told? There are no definitive answers but listening and the art of staying in uncertainty are both very rich practices!

Last week in Devon, one of the things I enjoyed most was getting up at 6am at the full moon to harvest herbs and flowers for a community apothecary. Alongside other students, I gathered rose petals, looked for lime blossom and collected camomile flowers. I learnt a lot - including that you can eat both the flowers and leaves of lime trees!

There's abundant evidence that spending time in nature, getting to know the plant, animal and insect life that lives alongside us and observing our surroundings are Incredibly good for us - and in turn makes us more likely to care for our environment. These simple actions are a great gift at a time when it is so easy to feel overwhelmed.