Soulful Nature

Howard Green, Brian Draper

Description

In Soulful Nature, Brian Draper and Howard Green encourage you to get outside and make deeper connections with creation and its creator. They chart walking journeys through rural landscapes and town streets over the course of a year, showing how the natural cycle of the changing seasons can awaken us to the rhythms of our own lives.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Living
• Philosophie et théologie
• Devotional

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern
• Date de parution: 25 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786221490
• Langue: English

Extrait

Soulful Nature
A Spiritual Fiel d Guide
Brian Draper and Howard Green






© Brian Draper and Howard Green 2020
First published in 2020 by the Canterbury Press Norwich
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www.canterburypress.co.uk
Canterbury Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd (a registered charity)

Hymns Ancient & Modern® is a registered trademark of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd
13A Hellesdon Park Road, Norwich,
Norfolk NR6 5DR, UK
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, Canterbury Press.
The Authors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Authors of this Work
Acknowledgement is made of poetry under copyright: ‘Lent’, copyright © 1995 Jean Macdonald Watt, in A Skirt Without Pockets , Geddes & Grosset. Reproduced with permission.
Nadine Swan, ‘Pluviophile’, www.mirakee.com . Permission applied for.
Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, a member of Hodder Headline Group.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
978 1 78622 147 6
Typeset by Regent Typesetting
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI (Group) UK Ltd




Contents
Foreword
About the Authors
The ‘South Country’
Introduction

1. January: Stories from Deep Time
2. February: Finding Rhythm
3. March: A Wooded Corner of Hampshire
4. April: In Pursuit of Spring
5. May: For a New Beginning
6. June: Let There Be Light!
7. July: A Truly Ancient Pathway
8. August: The Story of My Heart
9. September: Real and Colourful, Fruitful and Whole
10. October: An Ode to Autumn
11. November: To Deepen the Love
12. December: The Winter Wander on the Solstice

Epilogue
Bibliography
Appendix: Finding the Twelve Walks






To our children and grandchildren:
may you savour these places, people and pathways as much as we have done,
and find yourselves whole, and wholly loved, here upon God’s good Earth.




Foreword
BY ALAN TITCHMARSH MBE
We live in a world where speed is of the essence and where technology occupies the front seat. We have come to rely on technological advances so much that the old adage ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ has been stood on its head. Nowadays the technocrats invent something and then we have to work out how to use it. The upshot is that we then wonder how on earth we managed without it.
I am not a Luddite, who thinks that every modern invention is a bad one. Far from it: I am writing this on a laptop, my mobile phone is beside me; but alongside it is a fountain pen and through the window is my wildlife pond and wildflower meadow. The natural world is much more important to me and to my physical and spiritual wellbeing than the latest gizmo that enables me to write and broadcast more effectively.
Nature and the great outdoors is my sheet anchor – my deep and true connection with the real world. The worries that are fed to us hourly via news media might take up far more brain space than that view out of the window, but tomorrow they will have evaporated and been replaced with another series of problems and worries which we will feel powerless to influence. The trees and the meadow, the streams and the mountains will remain, provided we have the sense to realize that they need to be cherished and cared for.
I despair at the disconnection that can exist between children and the countryside; that they can name dozens of Pokemon cards (whatever they are) but barely three or four wild flowers or trees – if that. You could dismiss my opinion as the musings of a grumpy old man, but I would argue against that.
Wildlife in all its forms – plants, flowers, trees, animals, birds and insects – have given me more joy since childhood than I can possibly express, and being in their presence in the British countryside affects me deeply. It is something that I cannot adequately put into words, and words are the means by which I earn my living. To cherish the countryside we need to understand it. To understand it is to marvel at it and to love it. To love it and to want to be surrounded by it and to understand the true importance of existence. It really is as simple as that.
As this timely book explains, we need to let nature into our lives and to feel its healing properties. This is not some cranky alternative philosophy; it is the stuff of real life. A day by the sea, the view from the top of a mountain, a walk in the woods or sitting by a river will lift the spirits of even the most dyed-in-the-wool city dweller. We all know that. Each and every one of us needs to make sure that our physical and spiritual connection with nature is nurtured and encouraged. Only then will the planet be in safe hands, and only then will we feel reconciled to the true meaning of life on earth.
Alan Titchmarsh MBE




About the Authors (in each other’s words)
Brian Draper is an experienced retreat leader, author, speaker and creative consultant. He regularly contributes to BBC Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’, and has pioneered the introduction of ‘soulful leadership’ within organizations. He is an honorary fellow of the University of Winchester.
But for me, Brian has become a spiritual mentor, a walking companion and a close friend. He has helped to open my eyes to a deeper, broader, more contemplative and inclusive form of Christianity. At least I now know the difference between a labyrinth (designed to bring you to its ‘centre’) and a maze (designed to get you lost)! Brian loves the countryside, and our walks together have enabled me to step back and enjoy the great outdoors in a more holistic way, rather than constantly trying to identify and analyse what I am sensing. However, from time to time I do point out to Brian, who delights in walking through a meadow with bare feet, that ticks may be lurking in the grass! The pleasure of these walks has enabled me to renew an acquaintance with some of the great nature writers and to draw from Brian’s rich knowledge of poetry, literature and the best of writing about Christian spirituality. Above all, Brian is a person of integrity who walks the talk, aims to tread lightly on the Earth and is full to overflowing with love and compassion for others. I have learned so much.
Howard Green was trained as a botanist, becoming a teacher and then a secondary head teacher. Later he moved into leadership development and educational research. He now volunteers as an outdoor guide with the National Trust at Mottisfont in Hampshire and enjoys the benefits of retirement, including his grandchildren and, as a complete novice, exploring local history.
But beyond that, Howard is one of those rare souls that you count yourself truly blessed to have encountered; a fount not just of knowledge, but of wisdom. A kind and caring fellow traveller, who will usually have an answer to your question about when the migrating birds arrive, or what kind of leaf this is … but will always go away and find the answer if he doesn’t. That spirit of enquiry has poured through his own spiritual search, too. He has faced tragedy in his own life, which has served to deepen his compassion for, and connection with, the world around him, yielding a strongly gentle, wise and deepening form of Christian spirituality that is able to hold the paradoxes of life with loving care within his heart. To top it all off, he usually comes armed with a flask of coffee and a Tupperware of flapjacks, which makes him just about the perfect travelling companion!



The ‘South Country’
A word about the area in which we walked
Our selection of twelve places to walk has been inspired by some of the great nature writers, from the late eighteenth century through to the present day. Among them is Edward Thomas, who found particular solace in walking what he called the ‘South Country’. This is also the title of one of Thomas’s books, in which he acknowledges that the phrase came from a poem by Hilaire Belloc, who would dream of ‘The great hills of the South Country’ when living in the Midlands.
Thomas explains that for him the South Country ‘includes the counties of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and part of Somerset. East and west across (the South Country) go ranges of chalk hills, their sides smoothly hollowed by Nature, or sharply scored by old roads. On their lower slopes they carry the chief woods of the south country.’ Although we have not walked in all these counties, we have at least seen them from various vantage points on the chalk hills along the way.
We also decided to walk in three urban areas: Romsey and Winchester in Hampshire and Salisbury in Wiltshire; all with great churches or cathedrals. Most of us now live in towns or cities and we’d love our readers to explore green spaces on their doorsteps without necessarily having to drive anywhere. And we had a strong urge to see the sea, so we included a visit to the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.
The directions at the back of the book will hopefully get you to the twelve places and provide an outline of where we walked. However, we would be delighted if you made each walk your own by getting a pape