I AM REPOSTING THIS CONTENT, originally authored some time ago, as it feels more prescient than ever in light of current events. PLEASE KNOW that if you find yourself currently 'stuck' in a city, especially without access to places in nature, I am holding you in my heart and sending you courage and love. In the time between writing this and the article below, I 'lost' access to the natural world that I documented herein, and whilst I'm fortunate to have a little garden and live in a semi-rural location, it's nothing like the freedom described in the post that follows. And I know what it's like to live in a home without an outdoor space at all. I can well imagine how challenging that would be in a 'house arrest'/lockdown situation.
If you're a city-dweller, do you have a window? Is there an option to attract wildlife to it, or watch nature - even if it's only the sky - from it?
Can you GO INSIDE if you can't get outside? Easy to say, I know, but it may be the only viable alternative to outdoor access. And it's ALWAYS well worth reconnecting with your own inner landscape in a purposeful, conscious manner. It's the only place of wisdom and courage that one can access freely at all times, even if a state of chaos and fearfulness rages all around.
You will be met within by all the light and love in existence. You will access all the knowing you might ever need.
Go to the Garden within you, where you are known and loved. For you ARE love, personified. You are witness to all, the recorder of all. You are light, brought to Earth to matter. In fact, you are the light of existence, shining forth a beacon of consciousness back out into the eternal One...
Be free, Brothers and Sisters. BE FREE...
ORIGINAL POST:
Now more than ever, I have a strong urge to "stay away from places that suck!" as comedian Doug Stanhope once said...
Not to diss Manchester (the city of my birth) specifically, but I accompanied someone there as a favour a few days ago, and it truly, truly sucks. Sorry, NOT sorry, Manchester! It's really nothing personal, and I know this is not a popular opinion, but it is my truth and it has to be told... The first sight of note that greeted us was a homeless bloke vomiting in a projectile manner on a bench in Picadilly Gardens. Then there was this sorry sight, a statement on the city condition if ever I saw one - one pigeon with only one leg and his even-worse-off companion with only one footless leg:
City Pigeons by Jay Taylor
I've preferred to live in rural locations my whole life. Like the Mancunian pigeons in my photograph, large towns and cities have always caused me dysfunction and distress, emotionally, physically and mentally. It's a mystery to me that anyone can live in such places - I just don't get it. I go there, and I literally cannot wait to get away.
And it's getting worse, in case you hadn't noticed - the disconnect in this 'connected world' is so profound that I literally cannot find words... The behaviour and dis-ease I saw in Manchester? Toxic to the soul, pure and simple.
Spending time in Nature has always been my way to detox and refill my cup. Nature speaks to me in ways nothing manmade ever could. Nature is alive in ways most Westernised humans utterly fail to discern, separated from her as they have become.
With my tiny wild friend, Button, who in his short life spoke to me of very many things...
I am profoundly grateful in ways I can never fully express that I have manifested a life where I can listen to Nature and be ALIVE with her every single day. My art is one of the ways I am able to convey something of that connectedness to Nature and to a natural life. I hope and trust that a sense of my connection to the earth and her creations is evident in my own. If I could share only one message with the world of man, it would certainly echo Terence McKenna's observation:
So, yes, unless there's a compelling reason, you will not find me in cities - I am so done with that shit.
Whether humanity wants to hear it or not, cities fuck people up. Religion fucks people up. Ideology fucks people up. The illusion of 'authority' fucks people up. Hell, just let's say it how it is - THE WORLD OF MAN FUCKS PEOPLE UP.
Nature does no such thing. Nature is still here waiting for you to rediscover her and all you EVER have to do is shut the fuck up and LISTEN. Are you interested in what Nature has to say? It's amazing how chatty she is once she realises that you're willing to converse:
Hanging with Spud, a wild Field Vole who stops by for a chat with me occasionally
Nobody ever detonated their suicide vest in the middle of the forest. Nobody rampages through wildflower meadows stabbing people. Nobody feels compelled to murder scores of rabbits of squirrels with stolen lorries. Nobody. Never. Seriously.
The world of man is rife with conflict. It places that conflict IN US from the moment we are born - before, even, whilst we are still in utero. Our parents, our peers, are tasked with breaking us to the mores of our particular culture - a culture which is NOT our friend. We are presented with a version of humanity which is so far removed from our true nature that it's no wonder we don't know who or what we are.
If you want to know that, get outside. Leave the damed phone at home. Don't even take a camera. Just take yourself. Push past your discomfort. Go through the 'boredom' and out the other side. Take off your shoes. Take off everything, if you like. Sit on the earth. Ask her for help. And then LISTEN. Just for once. Stop thinking and start listening...
Hanging with my Pheasant friends. They're teaching me how to 'melt'...
Nature is constantly reflecting our own true nature back to us. Nature IS alive and speaking DIRECTLY to us. It's all right there. AT ALL TIMES.
Are we listening yet?
I hope you've enjoyed this post. As an independent creative, and radically unschooling Mama, your support, kind-ness, and appreciation of my always-original content are most welcome!
With love,
Jay x