Is A River Alive?…..From ‘Emergence’ Magazine……
by Bernie Bell - 07:45 on 07 May 2025
Is A River Alive?…..
I’ve started reading Robert MacFarlane’s most recent book…’Is a River Alive?’…..
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/455147/is-a-river-alive-by-macfarlane-robert/9780241624814
……and it occurs to me that he’s being a River Shaman – like a Rock Shaman –
https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/01/03/imagine-being-a-rock-shaman/
…only with rivers.
He’s feeling the rivers, through time.
I’m looking forward to reading more.
It’s kind-of something along the lines of ‘Underland’ – which I also very much appreciated…..
https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/07/08/down-down-deeper-and-down/
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My rivery tuppenceworth...
When I’m finding it hard to deal with today’s world, I follow a meditation by Matthew Manning …
I begin as a small stream, up on a hill. I flow down the hill, babbling away, quite thoughtlessly.
I become a river, and encounter some rocks, which I flow round – they don’t bother me or obstruct my progress.
I get bigger and stronger, and then flow into the Ocean - which in one way feels good - to open out in that way - but also feels a bit ‘Ooo-er’.
The bit I like best is when I’m a babbling stream, but the bit that does me most good is when I encounter the rocks and simply flow round and among them.
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From ‘Emergence’ Magazine…..
by Daisy Hildyard, read by Colin Salmon
English novelist Daisy Hildyard envisions the deep time evolution of the coastline of Scarborough, North Yorkshire: from a prehistoric meteor strike, to a 19th-century seaside aquarium devoid of fish, a present-day spate of dead tides, and a future where part of the human population has evolved into a hybrid marine species, drawn back to the cradle of the sea to care for its degraded waters. Vividly narrated by acclaimed British actor Colin Salmon, and created as part of Wild Eye—an art and nature trail in Yorkshire that raises awareness about coastal erosion in the face of climate change—this short story traces the forever-shifting tides of our relationship with the sea.
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The ‘hybrid marine species‘ echoes Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘Galapagos’…
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/04/20/galapagos-by-kurt-vonnegut-a-tale-for-our-times/
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