The cyclical nature of the seasons of the spirit is counter to our dominant cultural narrative of self-improvement, with its ethos of linear progression toward states of ever-increasing flourishing. It is counter, too, to the world’s major spiritual traditions, with their ideas of salvation and enlightenment, argued Maria Popova.
Growing herbs, seeing them, smelling them, touching them, eating them and I hope, soon sharing them (as plants and incorporated into recipes and remedies), makes me - as it does millions of others, i'm sure - just feel better.
Jekka McVicar is an inspiration - she now grows around 700 different herbs.
In 2018 I was privileged to spend a day in the company of the wonderful Jekka and her family. Jekka, with no fewer than 14 Chelsea Golds, probably knows as much about herbs as anyone in England. Then in 2021, I attended Jekka's first HerbFest, which was filled with expert talks, gardening workshops and cookery demonstrations from Jekka and her team and friends.
See also:
Options for "greening" your home include:
Installing a green "living" roof
Knowing the real price of a green home renovation
Knowing how to give your home a green makeover
According to the World Bank, more people now live inside this circle than outside of it - see @WorldBank pic.twitter.com/iN1gDHaFiV.
Imagine that we could build "start-up countries" and escape limiting, outdated forms of governance that hold people back. "Seasteading", according to its advocates, has the promise to do this, creating new "spaces for human freedom".
Inspiring the world for 50 years and counting...more than half a century since Dr King spoke, and still as powerful and relevant as ever...
In a tribute programme from the BBC, global figures celebrated the legacy of Dr King by reading the words of "I Have a Dream".
The Forum looked at "home" from a number of thought-provoking angles, by asking:
Ownership and interior decorations and garden designs may change over 30 years, but if location and bricks and mortar and dreams and memories remain the same, is somewhere still home?
Imagining a "new we"...emerging from the broad spectrum of lifestyle possibilities available in a variety of new sustainable communities around the world.
What are our houses but coffins towering up from the earth into the heavens. Cemeteries have more air for the skeletons of the dead than our cities for the lungs of the living - Frederick Kiesler
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result - Benjamin Franklin