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Thank you for your words and explorations as always. I've just returned from 4 days away, sleeping in an unheated yurt, gathering in circle every day, listening to the land, eating in community and with my phone turned off (I took a couple of snaps just before leaving). It felt like I'd be away for weeks! Now I can't quite believe that I've been home as long as I was away, and feel unsettled and overwhelmed! And then there were your words, and somehow they're soothing and reassuring. Thank you x

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Feb 11, 2023·edited Feb 11, 2023Liked by Jo Hanlon-Moores

Fascinating. You have such a wonderful way of articulating the complexities of modern, and ancient, life. I mostly feel super grateful for the modern amenities we have, certainly don't want to live without plumbing and even a/c in climates that get very hot. Also very much appreciate modern medicine/science because without that I may not be here at 60, either. As humans we always strive for convenience, comfort and safety. I think in many ways we have actually reached the pinnacle of this but now, instead of working on making it accessible for most humans while reducing the damaging side effects on our planet, we disconnect from nature, community and our very (ancient) selves for what? More greed, more profit, more, more, more... That's what gets me, it's never enough. And I think that's why the call for a simpler life, for the ancient ways, and remembering our oneness with this planet is so strong for some of us - we are at the edge of the enoughness and we don't want to step into the void where our souls are indefinitely lost.

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I agree Kerstin, I think we’ve reached and even perhaps passed the pinnacle of comfort and convenience and availability - at least in the developed world where we’re still so privileged. My daughter’s future looks very different to my past. We have to find a way to bring old values to modern ways of living. Simple eh? 🤣 I was reading yesterday about how folk customs (as rebellion) are increasingly popular with younger generations. I think this may be a good sign.

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I think that's a very good sign!

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I could have written half these words. So relate. Thank you for how honest your words are. I feel the same about wanting to live closer to the land while loving my modern comforts!

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You’re in my head a bit again, aren’t you, Jo? Cause yeah, much as I try to shake “comfort culture” - I was born into it, so it’s kinda ingrained and sometimes hard to even see. But I follow a bunch of zero waste people on Instagram, and I pick up and use what I can. I clean with vinegar most of the time now, use tea towels instead of paper towels, use “earth breeze” laundry sheets instead of buying huge plastic bottles of laundry soap ... but then, I still buy plastic bags (the ultimate in comfort culture, I think). Sure I try to offset that by washing and reusing them until I can’t wash and reuse them anymore ... but as you say (if not directly) there’s no way to do it perfectly unless we DO live off the grid (and even then: perfectly? Nah...impossible.) We have to make some kind of peace with this because it’s what it is, and it’s all we have, and it’s what we are.

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I think my “I must be all or I’m nothing” voice that whispers at me some nights, is just one aspect of social conditioning to keep us in our place; distracted and hesitant. The details specific to me are irrelevant. We’re all just quietly told that we’re not enough of anything to make a difference. “Perfect” is held over us and I think I’m done with it. : )

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Love this. We're such post-enlightenment creatures, we Moderns with our black-&-white thinking. I've come to accept that I'm embedded within the era I was born, and I'm such a product of it too. It's a System we're born into and we're so deeply enmeshed in its shit and its blessings. There's a lot of shaming and blame-shifting onto individuals for not being able - or willing - to step outside of the behemoth and reclaim some kind of glorious ancient & more "authentic" way of being. It's like telling someone caught in a rip-tide to "just swim faster!"

Having said that, I lived off-grid (90% off-grid anyway), for 5 years, and I do long to return to that way of living - though it's not easy. My bones and nervous system settle peacefully into that way of life, but it's not for everyone. The irony of it is that it's a privilege these days...

Thanks for pointing out Red Bead Woman! I ordered Shaw's Bard Skull recently, but didn't know about this one. And there I go, ordering a book that has to fly across the world to me. I'm too tired for guilt. xx

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I agree completely! Enmeshed is a great word for it.

I’m loving MS’s A Liturgy For The Wild series on his Substack. As a non-Christian I’m a little fascinated by the sudden crop

of conversions among the people I follow, and his exploration is wonderful. X

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Vendana Shiva is a force! (Thank you for the link to that interview. I hadn't seen it.)

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She’s extraordinary isn’t she?!

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Feb 9, 2023Liked by Jo Hanlon-Moores

Ah yes, the black and white thinking conundrum... we keep getting tangled. I love maths. And stories. In my head they are linked. I love nature but I have no ambition to live off the grid, because I don’t think I could. Also I don’t really want to. I also greet magpies. And my neighbours. And I take a million photos with a device that would terrify my ancestors and annoy the hell out of my grandmother. So yeah the answer is yes to all the pulls or at least a shy maybe.

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Oh and overthink it. A lot.

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We are here now, with all the toys and also a soul that is timeless. What’s a girl to do but let life know it all?😊

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Feb 9, 2023Liked by Jo Hanlon-Moores

Funny, I didn’t hear anyone rooting around in my brain...seriously can’t tell you how much this resonates. Thank you for making me feel less of a fraud, and less alone.

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I’m light on my feet 😊. Thank you for your receiving of it.

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deletedFeb 9, 2023Liked by Jo Hanlon-Moores
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We too are new to Lucifer after all these years. I cringed through episode 1 and now suddenly we’re halfway through Season 3 🤣

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deletedFeb 9, 2023Liked by Jo Hanlon-Moores
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😈

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