Jubilee!
By Steph Bradley 5th June 2012
Shout with Joy!
Who would have thought it?
Very apt that today, on Jubilee day, my brand new website is born! Shout with Joy!
http://www.storyweaving.co.uk finally weaves together the various threads of my storytelling life, thanks to Nick Walters for photography and web design and hosting http://www.nickwalters.co.uk, Christoffer de Graal for early stages technical support http://christofferdegraal.com/home.html, the Creative Community Devon dance and arts community http://creativedevon.ning.com for egging me on by reading and regularly commenting on my blog posts, and encouraging me over cups of peppermint tea in Rumours Wine Bar after our weekly 5 Rhythms dance class, and my boyfriend, Ben Chadwick for on going support, technical assistance, bright ideas, and encouragement.
It’s been a magical week that started out with a wondrous Earth Wisdom Day with the TTT (Transition Town Totnes) education group led by Carlos Glover http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eqcKT28zT0 where we learnt to walk our talk with regard to sharing ensuring that all members were given equal space to share from first the personal, and then to input ideas into our new venture, the next Transition Education Conference. The process was slow, rich, and infinitely more satisfying than any rushed through agenda, incorporating Ben, as a new member into our group, as seamlessly as if he had always been one of us.
We learnt that foundations that include everything and everybody are infinitely stronger than any that push forward any one person’s new idea, and that our various perspectives and experiences all added value to our group’s sense of well being and to our new project in the making.
We ate well, sitting round the kitchen table together, local seasonal freshly prepared almost exclusively vegetarian fare, and had time out to reflect on a question of personal import as we wandered at will in Carlos’ smallholding.
This day followed on for me from a weekend of dancing hosted by 5 Rhythms teacher Jo Hardy, where we learnt to express our emotions through our dance, and experience the joy of them moving through us. I learnt that my power is all tied up with my struggle to express anger, and began to experience the inner strength I have. I felt the deepening bonds of friendship within our dance community.
My week was about nourishing life in the moment; the only certainty we ever have.
We planted vegetables in newly dug beds, cooked fresh local food over a fire outside, walked the softly undulating hills and dells of the South Hams landscape, stayed up late talking and laughing as if there was no rush to ever accomplish anything again, slept in, and discovered how many different varieties of snail live on a Rattery cottage wall.
Last night the talented Rebecca Mayes http://rebeccamayes.com sang her heart out to an appreciative audience at Studio Lounge, and accompanied my tale telling on her harp.
Jubilee!
Shout with Joy!
There is no time like the present, and the present is all there is.
The Tales of Our Times they are in the making….and we… we are the characters that inhabit their pages…