A journey of 10,768 miles starts with a dream.

The first step is the hardest by Rhys Markham

We all have dreams, and to manifest our dreams we need goals. These are the markers on the path towards those dreams.

My dream is to live a sustainable life with the woman I love.

My goal is to purchase a smallholding where self-sufficiency, while living within our means from the land, does not take from the earth but rather supports it.

Our relationship is somewhat unusual. I am in the UK and she is in Australia. 2020 was the year for our adventure to begin, but as you know it has not been the year we thought it would be.

Looking for my dream down under. By Rhys Markham

This year for health reasons, I decided to quit my job. I began realising, even though my job was making me unwell in the physical and emotional realm. It was also distracting me from tasks I desired to accomplish.

Between quitting work, ordering books and these few weeks of pottering around, I can clearly see the scale of the tasks in front of me. Moving to Australia and how to live sustainably.

There are so many first steps we all can take towards every dream we desire. Through the admittance of what I lack in knowledge and understanding, helps leapfrog me to realities I need to learn from those who know and have walked this same desire before me. 

Even here in the city there are ways to start the journey. Stepping away from the convenience of the prepackaged and plastic wrapped and utilising the ‘local’ butcher and greengrocer.

My end goal of the smallholding will be far from convenient, so to start now being ‘local’ brings me back to an appreciation of the true value of food. 

Melborne by Rhys Markham

And here I stand, mid point in my life. Leaning on lessons learnt in my young adult life to guide me through what is before me in the coming second half.

The happiest memories were when I was in the wilderness, listening to the sounds of the wild. Sensing the earth beneath me, surrounding my being. In the silence of writing this, I reflect on how much it’s equipped my inner dream.

As my life kept moving, choices seemed to remove me further from nature, my life full of the noise of work and bills, and the flotsum and jetsum of the modem world.

It’s quite funny how timing mixed with significant events collide life and people together. My lil Aussie, from the moment we first spoke, challenged me, stopped me in my tracks. She awoke something which had been long dormant in me.

Even this subtle shift was unclear to me, my life went on as it always had. It was only after a personal tragedy did I stop to see the signs, forced to acknowledge my awakening and embrace our worth in my life.

Within all this, the 10,768 miles no longer holds a gap. It ignited and guided my happiness. I know, I want to live a sustainable life. I know who I want to live it with. Through this deeper understanding of nature, from my youth, my dream is sustained. 

the beauty is in the detail. By Rhys Markham

Thank you so much.

Don’t lose the magic.

Previously, I have spoken about reconnecting to the Earth. Since then, I have been inspired to attempt to understand by delving into burrows and river beds of my inner being. 

Now, in this post, I would like to share with you my own personal journey of reconnection.

Seeing how my fingers and feet in the soil have rooted my grounding deeper.

There is something older embedded within the land, tied with the natural rhythms of the Earth. The stories of the soil, its mythology, it is this we can use to embrace the beating heart of the Earth. And it is this that we are losing.

Its a magical Earth. by Angel Butafly.

One of the greatest tools we have in this quest to understand is observation. There is a spiritual aspect – intuitive listening. It’s here where stories and native mythology play a key role.

Forgetting these old stories, watering down the critical lessons buried within them, has the power to numb our innate connection with the Earth. Folk tales are as much a part of the land as the plants which grow in it.

As we seek to return to the origins of these myths and legends, the removal of the mouse manipulated versions becomes more evident.

It’s here, the beginnings of our own archeological diggings for reconnection, our intuitive listening strengthens. 

These stories can teach us about the plants that surround us and the animals around us, and the landscape we live within. Most of all they teach us humility and respect, we are not in control of everything out in the world, we must respect and be grateful for all we have as we can lose it in moments.

Mythical world by Angel Butafly

The spirit of the land, or Gaia has been communicating with us for as long as we have been on this planet. We are far from where we started as hunter gatherers, and far from the first farmers.

I grew up in a small town surrounded by a patchwork quilt of fields separated by ancient hedgerows and I remember the adventures I had in the lanes and bridleways.I go back and most of those hedge rows are gone as the fields are expanded and the march of the corporate mega farm wrestles the land from Gaia’s grip.

I want to reverse this, and knowing I am not the only one or even the first one I believe that our re connection to the land can be made through our reconnection to the myths of the land. It is those stories of giants, trolls and fairies that contain the magic that the modern world has removed.

Remember, we are part of the Earth. Through the wonders of technology we can do many things but we can not deny our relationship with the Earth. Now I live in a large city and it does its best to separate its population from the Spiritual Earth.

However, it hasn’t caged me. As I am within walking distance of a large wood. Within that wood, I have a log I sit on, and after sitting for a while something quite magical happens.  I feel stress and strain lift off me. I become aware of the sounds and sights of the forest. My intuitive listening kicks in, reconnection happens.

Sun beams by Angel Butafly

There are tales lost and hidden wherever you are, and through the discovery of these tales and the rebirth of our oral history and the magic of storytelling we not only reconnect with the Earth but with each other. 

Everything has its time, and now is the time for connection.