🤒
So, I was poorly this week. Which meant battling presenteeism for a little while.
I did get to see a friend visiting from overseas tho.
Margins’ organisers did an amazing job – assigning each workshop leader and speaker with their own assistant. I found this so useful, and really helped me not stress. And they graciously gave me some leftover stationery, so now my travelling facilitator kit is even more awesome. 😀
Wish you were there?
Check out my slides and the awesome tips for recovering from burnout that participants put together.
Artistry doings
So, I’ve been musing back and forth, round and round, on Artist Dates. I’ve not had one, in the purist sense, this week, but I did treat my artist in a few ways.
- Bought ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ in an art gallery, and read some of it, musing in wonder at their secrets. Did you know trees can taste and smell?!
- Went out for dinner on my own at Mowgli and Dash Vegan Cafe
- Bought some delicious loose leaf tea by some company whose name I forgot to write down
- Saw and heard Lis Rhodes’ exhibition Dissident Lines at Nottingham Contemporary art gallery
Beech nuts 
Cherry fruits
Since I stopped supporting Amazon, I’ve started buying books elsewhere again. I’d never bought books at art galleries before. I figured I could get them cheaper elsewhere. And I probably could. But the delight of buying books right when I’m most excited by them is awesome. And this is an area where there’s no downside or vice to instant gratification. Yay! Also has the benefit that I won’t forget… 😅
When my fatigue is affecting me more strongly, I experience time as moving faster. (I suspect I’m the one going more slowly…)
Reading about trees, and seeing them whizz by from this train, is helping me change my relationship to this experience/feeling. Trees move extremely slowly too, they grow slowly, they react slowly, and they’re frickin’ awesome and wise. So, yeah, I’m more like trees than even I knew. And I’m embracing that.
Like a tree, I’ll move and grow slowly to conserve energy and be stronger & more resilient. Lovely.
Trees plan lots. I do too.
I used to think I’d be an arborist in another life. And maybe I would. But, more than that, I’d be a tree. I’ve thought as much, now and then, before. Now, I’m certain.
I’d be a tree that’s sheltered / blocked from the light for decades, until a mother tree falls. I’d grow this way and that, overtaken by other trees. I’d return to the earth as hummus. And nurture the forest and it’s trees.
So many London planes. Birches. And a crow. Two crows. To welcome me back to London. I smile.
And the first person I see on the platform is a black person.
“Don’t hurry, be happy”… the universe sends me a message not to slip back into old habits of London life.
I’ve arrived.