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N.B. This Blog is in three parts:
Part I- Moth and Ranor Winn’s Amazing Story
Part II- The Book
Part II- The Movie
The Healing Power of Storytelling
Storytelling for the Common Good:
Telling our Stories, Sharing the Wisdom
‘Home is a state of mind. You don’t need walls’: The Story of Moth and Raynor Winn, as told by Sam Wollaston, a Guardian feature writer*
‘Facing homelessness and terminal illness, Raynor Winn and her husband decided to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path. Raynor talks about that time and the Costa-nominated memoir their experience inspired.’
Raynor Winn, in Polruan, Cornwall, with her husband, Moth, and their dog Monty. Photograph: Jim Wileman for the Guardian
‘On a Thursday afternoon in August 2013, Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth, set off from Minehead in Somerset to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path. She was 50, he was 53. They had a tent bought on eBay, a couple of cheap, thin sleeping bags, £115 in cash and a bankcard with which to draw out the £48 a week they were due in tax credits. They were broke and broken.
Through a combination of bad decisions and bad luck – a friend who turned out not to be a friend, and a toxic investment – they had lost the farmhouse that was their home and their source of income – renting to holidaymakers. It was also the place where their children had grown up and to which they returned during university holidays.
When the bailiffs came banging on the door, it seemed things could not get worse. But the bombshells didn’t stop. Around the same time, Moth was diagnosed with a rare degenerative brain disease, CBD. The specialist told him that death usually comes six to eight years after the onset – and that he had probably had it for about six years. “You can’t be ill, I still love you,” Raynor told the man with whom she had been since sixth-form college.
The idea of walking the coast path came to Raynor when she spotted a book she had read in her 20s in one of their packing cases. Five Hundred Mile Walkies was written by a man who had done the South West Coast Path with his dog. The walk gave Moth and Raynor some sense of purpose, and, she says: “We really didn’t have anything better to do.”
Their journey – which they split over two summers, wintering in a friend’s shed – ended a year later, in Polruan, Cornwall, with an offer from a kind stranger of accommodation – a flat at the back of an old chapel. That is where I have come today, over on the little ferry from Fowey, bearing well-wrapped fish and chips.
Moth is not here – he has gone for a walk. He is not as well as he was when they finished the big trek in summer 2014 (walking all day, with a big pack, kept his physical and mental deterioration at arm’s length), but he is still here, and still walking. He can have his fish and chips later, heated up, says Raynor. There is a microwave, plus a cooker, fridge, washing machine, pictures on the walls … and a kettle. She makes tea. On the coast path, they scrounged hot water and shared teabags. On a few indulgent occasions, they shared a bag of chips.’...Continue to read
*This article was first published in the Guardian on 6 December 2018
Read the Book
The true story of a couple who lost everything and embarked on a transformative journey walking the South West Coast Path in England
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER & SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD & WAINWRIGHT GOLDEN BEER BOOK PRIZE 2018
Photo:amazon.com
'The landscape is magical: shape-shifting seas and smugglers' coves; myriads of sea birds and mauve skies. Raynor writes exquisitely . . . It's a tale of triumph: of hope over despair; of love over everything . . . home was no longer about bricks and mortar. It was a state of mind' The Sunday Times
Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home is taken away and they lose their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.
Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.
The Salt Path is an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.
'The Salt Path is a life-affirming tale of enduring love that smells of the sea and tastes of a rich life. With beautiful, immersive writing, it is a story heart-achingly and beautifully told.' Jackie Morris
See the Movie
‘I’m not sure if I’d … ever … camped … before’ … Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs as Raynor and Moth Winn in The Salt Path. Photo: Via The Guardian
'Raynor Winn’s bestselling memoir about her and her husband’s 630-mile trek around England’s south coast has become a film. Its stars, makers and Winn talk floods, fog and forgiveness.'
THE SALT PATH | Official Trailer
Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs star in Tony Award-winning director Marianne Elliott’s exhilarating adaptation of Raynor Winn’s prize-winning memoir.
After a series of crises in their lives, Raynor (Anderson) and Moth (Isaacs) Winn decide to walk the South West Coast Path, a breathtaking 630-mile trek along the rugged coastline of Somerset, Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. Though challenging, the journey also proves liberating, giving Raynor and Moth a renewed vitality and a deeper connection to both the natural world and each other. Boasting gorgeous cinematography and immersive sound design, The Salt Path is an affecting portrait of mid-life loss and rebirth.
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Our Journey of Hope, caring for Our Sacred Earth
Conference Presentations: The Videos
14th GCGI International Conference
And
The Fourth GCGI and SES Joint Conference, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy
‘OUR SACRED EARTH: Spiritual Ecology, Values-led Economics, Education and Society Responding to Ecological Crisis’
Villa Boccella, Tuscany, Italy, 28 August-1 September 2018
Part I- A bird's-eye view about the Forum
2- The Book of Abstracts (The title of presentations and a short bio of speakers)
3- Post-Conference Reflections
And Now The Videos
(With special thanks and gratitude to Peter Watson, our Video Editor)
Our Journey of Hope, Caring for Our Sacred Earth
The morning mist and the sunrise, Podere Belvedere in the Val D'orcia Tuscany. Photo:locationscout.net
OUR SACRED EARTH Tuscany Forum: The Videos
Day 1- Wednesday 29 August
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- "Founder's Welcome" Kamran Mofid 19 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaw00ISLs-fZOn_JlO
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- "One Humanity" Nina Meyerhof & Domen Kocevar 38 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaw06qGACp0bK7hBSx
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- Unheard Invitations: All Life is Calling Susan B. Eirich 19 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaw1DpyQHYYTJt70s_
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4. "Honouring our Relations. Plants and Plant Consciousness" Maya Shetreat 22 mins https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaw0somSuOsnabBQmy
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- "The Call of Mother Earth" John Thompson 19 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaxRLYwK_3r9ylI591
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- "The Legal Rights of Nature" Mumta Ito 20 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeawWgqWSuEp8q_htRW
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- "A Question of Prosperity" Anthony Jones 25 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaw0x4_3vsvI7K0jPl
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- "Land Ethics in the Context of Economics and Commercialisation Effects" Knut Ims 18 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaw0luruCdvxMRxvUF
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- "What is Needed for the UN Development Goals to be Achieved?" Peter Bowman 20 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaw0oB_uAOGAt7wFcR
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- "The Birth of the Earthfire Institute" Susan B. Eirich 51 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaw1Hv0JgXmkICqkwc
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- "Can You be Happy Paying Tax?" Andrew Purves 7 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaw08ubyX2nZD4fPJA
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Day 2- Thursday 30 August
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"On the Ground with Earth School" Patricia Walsh-Collins 28 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaxHuvI40sLKc1SUhS
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"Integrating Spiritual Values with Practical Action" Amrita Bhohi 28 mins.
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaxHpERz_K6XkHeFA2
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"Commoning as a Fundamental Economic Logic" Tamas Veress 20 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaxQcGGrZQREAGfGPV
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"Making Peace with the Earth" Linda Goff 23 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaxQmfgMM8V59QCK6R
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"Changes in Attitude to Climate Change" Gherado Girardi 29 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaxQp8BTWm84T3qW32
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"Contemplative Vision and Prophetic Action" Alan Rice 22 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaxQsC4AdBGUPh2WZR
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"Evolution not Revolution" John Thompson 1hr 2 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaxQxGnK9oR0YV7QnM
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Day 3-Friday 30 August
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"For the Love of Humanity" Ian Mason 29 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaxQ-HkjG0xcuJ9c6g
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"Looking into Practical Solutions to End Poverty" Jamshid Damooei 28 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaxRE7pNXm6oOQUsM3
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"New Categories for a Sustainable and Spirit-based Company" Mara Del Baldo 27 mins
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiyPs3OswBeaxRCcEG4oIFdJ41YD
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"What is Life? A Scientific and Spiritual look at Life in All its Manifestations" Pier Luigi Luisi 40 mins
In the wonderful and wise words of Rumi:
Tender words we spoke
to one another
are sealed
in the secret vaults of heaven.
One day like rain,
they will fall to earth
and grow green
all over the world.
Lest We Forget:
‘Strong communities, lasting friendships, healthy and worthwhile living, a just and fairer world, are all built on shared dreams and the practical tools to express those dreams.’
GCGI-SES Lucca 2018 Group Photo
Photo Credit: Angela Bowman
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A van displaying a EU referendum poster of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in London, June 16. Anti-immigrant rhetoric was commonplace in Britain's EU referendum campaign. -Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
Bias in Britain: the truth about modern racism
Racial bias in Britain – what it feels like
My name is Nish Kumar – so please stop calling me Nish Patel*
For goodness sake, I am Nish Kumar and not Nish Patel-Photo:theguardian.com
‘I honestly don’t know why this has happened, but in the last couple of weeks people have been pathologically incapable of not calling me Nish Patel.
If you’re looking for an example of unconscious bias, there you go. Metro ran a piece about a travel show I did with my friend Joel Dommett and called me Nish Patel. And worse than that is the booking for when I go back on tour in the new year. A company my promoters found sorted my accommodation, but they’ve booked all of it for … Nish Patel.
It’s absolute insanity. I don’t mind if people misspell my name. I wouldn’t even mind Nish Kapur – at least that’s an Indian name that’s close to mine. But Patel? It’s literally like they’ve just gone: “Ahh, they’re all Patels, in some way they’re all Patels.” And people don’t think it’s a big deal. In one case that’s somebody I’m paying – and they can’t be bothered to learn my name. They just guess at an Indian name.
I think I have less of a sense of humour about it post-Brexit. When I think about that thing in Metro, I think: you’ve gone out of your way to make that mistake. Because this person would have had a press release about the show, so it’s literally a copy and paste. It’s easier to not do that than to do it.
It’s not like it applies evenly. The one that goes around on Twitter is we’re expected to learn the difference between Chris Pine, Chris Pratt and Chris Evans. I think they are all wonderful actors and very handsome, but that’s an expectation that’s placed on us.
One of the things I’ve stopped doing is going out of my way to make people feel OK about their mistakes. I’m 33, and when I was growing up there was this thing where you were encouraged not to bring it up because broadly things were improving. That was the perception when I was growing up. The phrase “post-racial Britain” was banded around. Now, I feel this weird responsibility to bring up race as much as possible.
We were in denial about the extent to which Britain had cured itself of the poison of racism. We’re definitely not in denial about it now. If that makes people feel uncomfortable, well, they should feel uncomfortable. We should feel uncomfortable as a nation that we sided with the “breaking point” poster. I understand there are people who aren’t racist who voted leave, but ultimately, as a nation, we saw the breaking point poster and we said: I’m going to vote the same way as that guy.
have had conversations with leave voters who get very uncomfortable when I say things like that because they say “I’m not racist, it was an issue of sovereignty.” But at the same time, you saw the breaking point poster and you calculated the damage that would do, or you didn’t consider the damage that would do, and you decided to act on it anyway. You didn’t think about us either because we don’t factor into your version of what this country looks like, or because you don’t care.
It’s just about fundamentally reimagining the concept of Britain as a country. Whenever British values are talked about, there is an inherit implication that they are white values. When we were growing up we were all asked to accept ourselves as British citizens, and I still hold on to this idea that multicultural Britain is possible. It’s perfectly possible that I can be a completely British man who also celebrates Diwali with his family and doesn’t have to explicitly bow down to white culture and completely deny my entire family up until the moment of my birth. I have to believe in that idea, otherwise I wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning.
As I get older I realise I don’t just get angry at random. And I’m not out of control with my temper. And it is good to act on it. When I say act on it, I’m not just running around smashing people in the face. But I mean I’m standing my ground in a way that I wasn’t 10 years ago. Sometimes, when I get angry, it’s for a perfectly good reason.
For example: I’ve got a zero-tolerance policy on any kind of unconscious bias when I’m paying you. Like when I was in the Soho theatre and they printed a ticket for me for a show under Ahir Shah’s name, who’s a different Asian comedian.
There are literally pictures of me on the wall in that theatre. They produced my DVD. The person who printed the ticket – there was a DVD of me behind them. And I love everyone that runs the theatre, and I do loads of fundraising and I do benefit gigs for them.
That’s a completely different thing from a drunk guy in a kebab shop saying: “Hey Romesh, I love that show with you and your mum.” That to me is like … fine, I can walk away from that. But not when it’s an institution that gets money from me. When you make money off my name, you learn my damn name.’
*Nish Kumar, as told to Aamna Mohdin
See the original article which was first published in the Guardian on Monday 3 December 2019
"To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it”- Martin Luther King
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”- Edmund Burke
Daily we are hearing news on the global refugee crisis. We need to respond, and be a neighbor to the stranger, like God commands.
“Do not oppress and alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt". (Exodus 23:9)
"Injustice flourishes in soil where empathy has been uprooted.” -Ken Wytsma
Watch the Video (Brexit: Facts vs Fear) by Stephen Fry Explaining the Lies and Racism of Brexit
“By the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.”