Observations On Reading ‘Is A River Alive?’ by Robert MacFarlane.
by Bernie Bell - 08:22 on 26 June 2025
Observations On Reading ‘Is A River Alive?’ by Robert MacFarlane.
Which might tempt you, to read it too….
1) When I 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
……it occurred 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.
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/
2) 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.
3) ‘Is a River Alive’?……..I simply accept that they are…alive. I’m also thinking that even just a cup of water is alive. All water – is alive. It just …is.
It has memory, that’s for sure.
Water is alive, as stone is alive, all part of LIFE……
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/11/13/how-i-see-the-whole-life-lovelightgodreiki-etc-etc-thing/
4) Re. Holy Water. My Mum used to sprinkle us with Holy Water from Knock when there were thunder-storms, to protect us.
I’ll explain Knock…….
Sometime in the 18 hundreds the Virgin Mary appeared at the gable-end of the church there ( I’m not saying what I make of this, I’m just telling the tale). She appeared to a group of children. This became a place of pilgrimage.
When I was a little girl my Mum & Dad used to take me there to drink the ‘Holy Water’ as I had Asthma. I should mention that, by this time, the ‘Holy Water’ was dispensed from a row of taps which were periodically blessed by a priest. Maybe that still makes it ‘Holy Water’ – maybe it’s the faith that makes it Holy Water?
5) The idea that damage produces damage in people is something I’ve written of many times.
I wrote the following based on ‘Big fleas have little fleas, on their backs, to bite 'em' etc.
A spoilt child, spoils their child,
If no-one tries to right 'em,
Then that child, spoils another child
And so, ad infinitum.
By spoilt I mean spoilt as in taking something good and ....spoiling it.
It continues until someone along the way breaks the pattern.
I had an exchange with my nephew about how rescue dogs with a ‘history’ are hard to re-home. Jimmy and his family have just adopted one, and I said to Jimmy ….”As with all dogs - and people - it depends on how they're treated.“
It’s amazing how animals and people, who are animals, can restore themselves.
I’ve also come across hurt folk whose attitude is – ‘I had a hard time. This is how I am. You have to deal with it’. But I’m a firm believer in the ability to come through and past these times in our lives, if we choose to. I’ve known people who have had appalling early years, and worked themselves away from them, cleared.
It’s not easy – and many aren’t prepared to make the effort – also – some choose the easy option of getting away with being dreadful on the back of having had a hard time!
6) Page 169 ends with the words…
“There are many monsters and they are powerful and we can see them all around us.”
Previously, on the same page Mr. Mac has written of how…
“A green bee-eater turns two emerald loops, then lands by an ash-pile.”
“A golden plover cries like rain.”
“A blue-faced malkoha cackles past, it eye-ring lustrous as deep water in the light.”
I’m pretty sure he did this on purpose ….mentioning the life around him, then the monsters.
LIFE triumphs - given even less than half a chance.
7) Page 180 +…..the young man who, when asked why he does the Turtle Patrol, replied…. ’For Life’ reminded me of Martin Murphy’s ….. ‘Let Life Live’ carved on the Kilmartin Stone and placed near the Kilmartin kirkyard in 2005……
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/10/01/bernie-bell-bernie-mikes-road-trip-spring-2017-3/
And – the general theme of death around those pages….friend Fred sent me this poem ……
Against the Fear of Death
How wise James was to call his friend
“The real distinguished thing:”
The higher purpose as the end,
The final reckoning.
Respect your death, and do not shun him,
Nor keep him waiting long.
He is life’s prize: when you have won him.
Let it be worth a song.
But do not fear him: if you lost,
You’ll never lose again.
And if you won, he pays the cost;
So, what’s the trouble then?
https://frederickturnerpoet.com/
And my response was…
“I read your poem, and it rang a bell – in Philip Pullman’s ‘Dark Materials’ trilogy (to me, the rest of the series is pointless), when Lyra and Will go to the land of the dead to rescue Roger, they come across the idea that a person’s death is with them, right from the start – which, of course, it/he/she is.
I’m not using ‘it/he/she’ to go with the modern trend – I’m putting it that way as …..is your death the same gender as you, or no gender at all? I don’t know!”
8) Page 204….
The asteroid crater which is now a reservoir!!! I’m not quite sure what I want to express about this – something to do with what Nature can do, compared to our messing about.
Humans have used what Nature made, but the crater tells us what Nature can do – and un-do.
Something like that!
9) I posted this on my FB page….
“I’ve just finished reading ‘Is A River Alive’ by Robert MacFarlane, in which he encounters a tiny tree, growing from a rock in a wild river and thinks to himself …..that’s resistance.
And I’m thinking of the people in America who are resisting.
Spoiler alert ….it is…alive …that is.”
10) Mike then started to read ‘Is A River Alive?’ and he was saying that…..it contains rhymes, echoes and lines - some flow along as in a river, some weave about – eddies and flows and lines. There’s a kind of turbulence when the anticipated further rhyme doesn’t arrive. He’s finding that he’s reading the prose once for form, then again for content – it’s writing that demands attention.
I said…it’s like a plait – which starts with just three strands then more strands weave in and add, and develop, but all part of the plait – all holding together as one from start to finish.
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