Natural Thinking

A new report has been produced by Dr William Bird for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) which highlights that the 'wild world has a measurable, a computable, value in society.'

Dr Bird states '"A natural environment can reduce violent behaviour because its restorative process in the main helps reduce irritability and impulsive behaviour"

The Times Newspaper June 11th 2007  timesonline.co.uk/health 

Divine Beauty - The Invisable Embrace.

'When we acknowledge the wild beauty of God, we begin to glimpse the potential holiness of our neglected wilderness. As humans, citizens and believers, we have become domesticated beyond belief.  We have fallen out of rhythm with our natural wildness.  What we now call "being wild" is often mishappen, destructive and violent.  The natural wildness as the fluency of the soul at one with beauty is foreign to us.  The call of the wild is a call to the elemental levels of the soul, the places of intuition, kinship, swiftness, fluency and consolation of the lonesome that is not lonely.  Our fear of our own wildness derives in part from our fear of formless - it holds immense refinement and, indeed, clarity.  The wild has a profound simplicity that carries none of the false burdens of brokenness or self-conflict: it flows naturally as one elegant and seamless.'

'Divine Beauty - The Invisible Embrace' by John O'Donohue.  Transworld Publications, Bantom Press 2003

John O'Donohue is a superb writer, highly recommend for insights into celtic and universal wisdom with a rich and beautiful understanding of place and landscape.

'It seems a rather unpalatable conclusion to reach - but it would appear that, unless we arrive at something approaching an environmental miracle, most of England's surviving native wildlife - and that of the rest of Britain for that matter - is doomed.  And it is doomed largely because of the terrific expansion of population and of urban living.'

'The Forests of England' by Peter J Neville Havens.  Robert Hale & Company 1976

Lovely book with a vivid description of the destruction of our forests and commonlands.

'It seems to me that the time has come for Advanced Guards - philosophic, educational, poetic, scientific - to cohere for once and make their countrymen conscious of the ecological situration'

'Rather we should say, more broadly - Nature always has the last word.  And having said that, should we not be glad?  The issue may sometimes be physically painful, but it is at all times metaphysically inspiring.  'Man is no more than the servant and interpreter of Nature,' said Sir Francis Bacon in his Novum Organum.  And he added - 'Nature cannot be commanded excepted by being obeyed'.  Such words are scarcely out of date. 

'The Vision Of Glory'  by John Stewart Collis. Pub. Charles Knight 1972 and Penguin Books 1975

A wonderful book with a deep ecological vision.