‘Listen to your hearts
Find the truth that’s beating there.
Open to your longing
For right living in the world.
Know that it is possible
For the point of power is now.
These are the most important things:
Hold your vision. Love with passion.
Speak your truth, and also listen.
Open to the dreams that call you
To a truer manifestation
Of the spirit of creation
And honouring of sacredness.’
Hi everyone! Hello and welcome to my website.
If you’ve not already done so I invite you to watch the ‘Visions of Transition’ video as an introduction to me and what I’m ‘here to do’. More and more the question that guides my choices in life is “Who do I want to be in the face of the inevitable collapse of this ‘sick civilisation?”
I am a Bard, the Elder Bard for Poetry for the Bardic Order of Ynys Witrin to be precise. A couple of years ago when I was with a gathering of people from all over Europe, who do the Work that Re-connects I was asked to lead a circle looking at he question “What’s the relationship between Bardism and the Work that Re-connects?”
What a gift! It was absolutely the best question that anyone could possibly have asked me because it helped me see the interweaving of the two strands running though my life – the role creative expression has in healing our relationship with the Earth.
Please subscribe to the blog I am keeping this year reflecting on what I think it means to be a Bard in the 21st century and report on how I’m managing to carry out the responsibilities of the role. Do Bards now fulfil the same social role that our predecessors had within their communities; that is to reflect to the ‘people’ the issues we collectively need to address? The Visions of Transition showcase is a starting point to get people looking at how we are ‘bringing through the new’ and the more opportunities I have to perform this set the better, so please get in touch if you are running an event where I could contribute in this way.
Now that I am sound of mind and body I want to engage more fully in the Great Turning, to take my commitment to being an “effective agent of change” to the next level. I’ve put myself off benefits. There is no way that I want to be that clique, someone who is fit and well claiming money on the basis that they are ill. Having taught Social Sciences for years, I am in awe of the idealism of the generation who set up the Welfare State and even if no-one else does it, I would like to live in honour to their principles. If all the people who are not legitimately in receipt of benefits stopped claiming them, then there would be enough for the people I know who suffer long-term illnesses and get treated like criminals.
What is challenging in opting for this engagement with the Great Turning, is that I can’t work out how to reconcile the need to earn a living with doing what I think is important. Right now I’ve plumbed for the idea that if I do what matters, my needs will be taken care of. So I performed the ‘Visions of Transition’ showcase and ran WTR taster sessions at various festivals ending the summer with some WTR events in Ireland. I am longing to do more of this work, so please contact me if you’d like me to facilitate a circle as part of a longer event or to run weekend or day-long workshops.
Love and light to you all,
Dearbhaile
