My Walk for the Climate Talks in Paris. Woodbrooke Quaker Centre. Bournville, Birmingham.

A wooden finger labyrinth in the Silent Room. An alternative to a walk outside in the cold!

With the climate talks coming to an end I am posting one of my own recent walks for peace and climate justice to share with as many as possible.

We were fortunate enough to attend a conference at the Quaker Centre, Woodbrooke in November on Speaking up for Peace. For me, our relationship with nature, the soil, the air and the beauty of our blue and green planet is central to creating and sustaining peace. I also decided to focus on finding information from Syrian people involved in trying to stabilise their war torn region. I travelled through Syria and Lebanon in the 1970s and met so many hospitable and welcoming people. The human tragedy is unspeakable but needs to be heard somehow.

View from Holland house, Woodbrooke, Birmingham

I wish we could all be able to have access to peaceful havens such as Woodbrooke and live in peaceful and tolerant communities.

Here are some of the photos of the gardens and lake in the grounds  of Woodbrooke and of my walk up to Bournville village and Cadbury’s World. The Cadbury family were Quakers and invested in  a village for the people who worked making chocolate. In the past being a Quaker meant being outside the mainstream of established society, often persecuted. Some found alternatives such as being botanists or making chocolate. I’m sure not all were perfect but a social conscience often emerged. Times have  changed and I wonder what the new global corporation of Kraft that now owns Cadbury Chocolate will give back to local communities and the environment. The Cadbury family also gave the house and grounds of Woodbrooke to be an educational centre for Quaker practice.

Quaker Meetings are held in silence and all are equal in giving some words or ministry if there is inspiration to share. Equality and ‘that of God in everyone’ has been the cornerstone of Quaker practice. Respect for all people and the environment are the way Quakers use ideas from over the past 350 years as testimonies to acting for Peace, Truth, Simplicity and Sustainability.

Reflection of Woodbrooke in lake

it is good to know that the major religions are also trying to stand up and speak out at the climate talks. Maybe rather late  but we do need to secure a better future for this planet. It is not just being idealistic to wish for this; it will be a matter of practical action for peace and prosperity  and  hopefully for all species. The talks in Paris seem to be constantly overshadowed by the politics of war, prejudice and now flooding misery for folk in the North West of the UK. More extreme weather and more extreme views seem to be dominating but my insights from social media and alternative journalism seem to suggest that there are more  people willing to take action to create peace with non violent and justice central to solutions for challenging problems.

Boat house by lake

 

View through to Cadbury World, Chocolate factory!

Tourist information Centre and shop for Carilion visits in Bournville Village

Blue skies and tall pine for blue sky thinking!

Holland House from walled garden, Woodbrooke

Spring, Weddings, Blessings and Blossom

Cherry Tree in Brentford and Isleworth’s Quaker Meeting House Garden.

Have been away from blogging and spending time getting married! Quite time consuming too! I would  like to share some of my experiences, not least the cherry blossom tree being in full bloom on our wedding day. Very apt for us and for this blog. A week later and there was no more blossom. I can only take from this that marriage has to be like a tree, with many phases and blossom like a honeymoon, short lived!

I also  heard the Apache Indian Marriage Blessing for the first time at our own marriage where  we both felt very blessed and supported by friends when back in the UK for our wedding at Brentford and Isleworth Friends Meeting House. There was some deep silence before our declarations and some spoken words later on. I am putting more about this on a page on my blog about light and love . I also  hope to make  some reflections on how we often seem spiritually and emotionally challenged by relationships and support from others can be so helpful.

The blessing read out by Madeleine seems very appropriate to the nature focus of my blog and the inclusive nature of Quaker values. Although the blessing may not originate with American Indian  culture it may be popular in the States because it resonates with our need to reconnect with nature and acknowledge many  indigenous people who did live closely with nature and with a deep connection and respect for how to live sustainably in the natural world and with each other.

The joy of having a Quaker wedding was to be able to embrace diversity within a Christian tradition, to be silent and reflective and to make declarations not vows.  All present at our declarations were all also able and invited to sign the Quaker marriage certificate.

Apache Indian  Marriage Blessing

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there will be no loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you. May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead and through all the years. May happiness be your companion and your days together be good and long upon the earth.

Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought you together.  Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves. When frustration, difficulties and fear assail your relationship, as they threaten all relationships at one time or another, remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part which seems wrong. In this way, you can ride out the storms when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives- remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there. And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight.

On  researching some of the background to this blessing which apparently is popular in the USA I also found one that is attributed to the Cherokee. Again the forces of the natural world are linked into a respect for all that is sacred. Am also hoping we may grow forever young.

Cherokee Blessing.

“God in heaven above please protect the ones we love. We honor all you created as we pledge our hearts and lives together. We honor Mother Earth and ask for our marriage to be abundant and grow stronger through the seasons. We honor fire and ask that our union be warm and glowing with love in our hearts. We honor wind and ask that we sail through life safe and calm as in our father’s arms. We honor water to clean and soothe our relationship — that it may never thirst for love. With all the forces of the universe you created, we pray for harmony as we grow forever young together. Amen.”