can I kick it?

Tintern Abbey, Wye valley.

River Wye view point

Tony's cider press!

Ludlow castle

Camp spot and beautiful oak in Shropshire near Church Stretton

Ironbridge, the birth place of the industrial revolution. In the 18th century a guy called Abraham Darby perfected the method of smelting iron with coal rather than charcoal. This meant steel could be produced as fast as coal could be dug.

The bridge was the first ever iron bridge and was used as a showpiece for the wonders and potential of steel engineering. It attracted huge international interest not only for it's ingenuity but for the way it symbolised the growing optimism and mindset of the time that anything was possible.

The rest, as they say, is history with a exponential leap in the production of machines, tools, infrastructure etc which spread across the globe and radically changed life as we know it today.

It was indeed a strange thing to look up at this bridge, glinting in the sunlight,and to consider its symbolism. Undoubtedly the industrial revolution has brought us many positive things and made life easier and more fulfilling in many ways. Yet the mentality that it seemed to perpetuate en masse- that our earth is one great resource to be utilised and profitted from has been catastrophic.

While at Buddhafield, I attended a series of workshops based on the Work that Reconnects by Joanna Macy. I was fascinated by the way her work views humanity as a process of evolution. If I understand correctly, it seems we are at a new and critical crossroads in our evolutionary process.

On one hand, never before have we posessed such huge potential to destroy ourselves and the earth we live on. Yet on the other hand the last few decades have seen the beginnings of a radical change in our ability to think for ourselves outside powerful institutions.

This momentum of free thought has born a growing sense amongst many that we are deeply interconnected with the earth and all that lives on it. Respect and compassion natually arise from this realisation and if those qualities can be harnessed with our scientific and technical skills we can potentially effect great and positive change.

In short, the unerring optimism of the the Industrial revolution is finally giving way to the reality of what we are doing to the earth and each other. This is a critical point in our human story and it can be scary yet also very exciting.Here's a quote from the homepage of http://www.greaturningtimes.org/

"Many great tales of adventure begin with the appearance of an overwhelming threat. But what makes these stories compelling is the way the central characters rise to the challenge and respond. The same can be true with our lives too. If we succeed in making the changes required in our times, future generations may look back on the early twenty-first century and talk of it as the time of The Great Turning."

I truly believe there is a change- whether it is too late or not I don't know but I for one would rather kick than sit back and be slowly smothered.