Lots and lots of people walking, cycling, talking

People who can step out into their own garden

are fortunate indeed.

But even window boxes can put us in touch

with the natural world.

One of mine now has 'bee-friendly'

wildflower seedlings coming up.

Looking forward to seeing what theyre like

and if they really do attract bees

Nations and people around the world have lost touch with what’s truly important. We pursue economic growth and wealth accumulation at the expense of our physical and mental health and at the expense of our planet’s welfare. In the midst and the noise of our speedy busy lives we forget the importance of the simple things.

Perhaps this pandemic offers the opportunity for some introspection and re-evaluation of how we measure a Nation’s prosperity by measuring people’s and Nature’s wellbeing before economic growth and financial accumulation.

It is easy to look at the natural environment and say "look how good it is" without appreciating that things were as they were for a reason.

We do eventually have to get back to work, when safe to do so. We should all question how imperative it is to be based in the city, a particular city such as the capital for that matter. This is an opportunity to reduce the overcrowding in some areas, because previous times made it a necessity. Embracing technology to reduce the rat race in cities is the key to happiness for millions of people

 in the countryside and around here life has just gone on, quietly, simply and politely.

Lots and lots of people walking, cycling, talking to each other from across the road.

The local pub sells takeaway food, the village store is open for when people need to buy provisions.

VE Day was celebrated with flags, bunting and friendly conversation

over garden hedges and social distancing.
But country folk knew and did all this stuff already. We know whether it’s a full moon or no moon tonight. We always did take our kids to the sheep field and so on.
Maybe city-dwellers think that’s all boring but now they’ve been forced to slow down they too can now have time to smell the roses and learn what country folk already knew....the natural world is a balm to the human soul.
Life will gradually return to normal. One day, theaters will be open again.

London will get busy.

But I think (hope) many people learn life-changing lessons from this enforced slowdown to life. For some, it might even turn out the best thing to have happened to them.

We have become a consumer society, ordering stuff from the other side of the world, then discarding it before paying to send it back for landfill for the same part of the planet.

The simple pleasures of which you speak were parts of ordinary life sixty and seventy years ago, yet "novel" for many now .... but only for a few weeks so far, and already many are getting bored with it!

Imagine this as all there is. Plus gas mantles, candles, cold houses, a bike as the only personal means of transport, just the wireless, no fresh fruit in late winter/spring, the "dilly-cart" on a Monday morning, ...... life as it was for 15 years after VE day for most people. but hey, about 1% of state school children could go to university and have their tuition fees paid, and we could buy cheap houses - except wages were so low that virtually no-one could afford to buy one anyway. So we are told repeatedly by people who buy today and chuck away tomorrow.

Nature is who we are. It is what we are and it is why we are. To consider that we are in any way separate from nature is psychotic and delusional. There is nothing 'wrong' with the world or the virus it manifests. Balance will be wrought come what may.

I think we sometimes forget how fast human society has changed in recent times. Speed, in fact, is a good indicator. There were no aeroplanes 120 years ago. Go back another 120 and the fastest means of transport was the horse, and that’s how it had been for centuries before. What was important about human life had not changed, however. Maybe the experience of this epidemic will persuade us it’s time to slow down a bit. Modern rail technology is quite spectacular, for example, but do we really need to travel between Paris and Marseille twenty minutes faster than we do now? It would be a good idea, I think, if life were led more calmly. Let’s keep the cruise ships out of the newly clean waters of Venice, while still catering for those whose livelihoods depended on making them dirty.

 lockdown has been rather beautiful. The peace and quiet that has descended upon us is magical. Everyone will have noticed how much louder the bird song is and just how noise polluting motor vehicles are.

 we are beginning to really look at the Natural World and to think about its rhythms and what we have gained by having the time to do this and what we have lost and what we may face losing…

But this is like the view through a crack of a mighty door that is about to slam firmly and possibly eternally shut…

Beginning to realise some things as they are about to be lost to us is one thing but preventing it from happening and then all..the whole World of us, working together to push this door open and allow us once more to escape our own created nightmarish future and to live in some sort of harmony with the rest of the Planet…

is going to be the greatest battle that Humanity has ever had to fight and unless enough people genuinely realise this and this includes enough with the power and the vision to start to do something about it, then this vision we have is going to be nothing but that….

And a most fleeting valediction at that.

They said the same thing 220 years ago.

Nothing changed.

They said the same thing

They said same thing 50 years ago.

Nothing changed.

They said the same thing 30 years ago.

Nothing changed.

Will it change now?