Hello All

Interestingly I was talking about this with a friend yesterday, having not spoken to them in a while. They were saying how they're finding it increasingly difficult to interact with people, including family members, who simply 'don't get it', and what they were talking about wasn't just an awareness of the shift, but also the mass sleepwalking into this technological dystopian nightmare, the accelerating destruction of our natural environment, and the increasing polarisation of views and opinions (political, social, religious, cultural etc), and it's something I've also found to be more noticeable recently. My own 'divergence' began in earnest five years ago when I gave up my high-flying corporate career and the lifestyle that went with it, and moved into a caravan on a farm, surrounded by woodland. Reconnecting with the natural world was the best thing I could have done, and lead to me training as a Shinrin Yoku practitioner. I've also rediscovered my love of creative pastimes which I'd lost touch with (painting and drawing, music, photography), and have recently learned to weave (I've also found someone who is going to teach me how to spin wool). I don't know how many times I've heard phrases like "oh but aren't you lonely out there on your own?", and it's not always easy to explain to people that actually no, I'm not, because although I didn't realise it initially, what I was doing was taking the time to find or rediscover myself, who I really am, and what I'm really passionate about, to find the sense of purpose I had lost. Interestingly, the vibe I'm getting now is that my 'retreat' time is coming to an end, and now I need to get back out there and connect with my tribe (ironically at the end of this week I'm going away to spend a week in an off-grid cabin in the middle of nowhere, far more remote than where I live now, but actually my feeling is that this is going to be a 'chrysalis moment', a transformational experience, after which nothing will ever be the same again).