It’s been a reflective month. I’ve been busy with the volunteering (parks are the place to be in summer), family and friends visiting, plus lots of activity in the build up to COP26. The IPCC has just released it’s Climate Change 2021 report, stark reading indeed. We fought (and lost) for a Community Wildflower Verge, mowed six weeks before the ideal time. Tears are shed because sometimes, having to fight for something so simple can become overwhelming when surrounded by terrible fires and loss, knowing that worse is still to come.

The enormity of the challenges means we don’t process the information and act. Our brains find it incredibly difficult to deal with a hard reality. Instead, the constructs of our age keep advertising their wares, lulling and comforting consumptive societies; sparkly baubles easier to view than the murky truths seemingly far away. We seek that which bolsters our own world view. Applauding billionaires for their space flights of fancy whilst ignoring our cruelty and apathy for the non-human.

I am not the only one to feel this way. When we open our hearts, connecting and supporting, reaching out and learning, new paths open ahead, energy and hope can be grown. Here is where we need to push the pivots.

A beautiful reconnection with Dave Hampton, the Carbon Coach and same-spirited activist, gave us both joy and learning. He passed along my details to a friend, so then a further meeting with Gwyn Jones has led me to becoming a member of the Association of Sustainability Practitioners. What joy to become part of an organisation that I feel confident in! These are passionate people, caring and clever. I look forward to working with others in the network and seeing what opportunities lie ahead.

For now I’ll leave you with this. In this beautifully animated clip from Dirt! The Movie, Wangari Maathai tells an inspiring tale of doing the best you can under seemingly interminable odds – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw. We are all Hummingbirds.