Yes Yes People,

Today is Diwali - the festival of life celebrating Ram's return from Lanka after defeating Ravana. We celebrate by Jelado Diya (lighting/burning lamps) among other things. I don't know for how long it has been traditional, but apparently one buys new clothes/paraphernalia at Diwali. You can take the Christ out of Christmas, but the plastic trinkets will continue to flood the landfills.

On this note, I accompanied my host to a funeral for an elderly member of the community yesterday. It was a little saddening to be offered delicious food on a polystyrene platter. Where once there was probably just the tang of cow dung in the air, now as dusk falls in any small town or big city, one's nostrils are accosted by the perfume of plastic fires that punctuate the roadsides and alleys like an acne for the earth.

The Shamaic worldview does not see innately positive or negative energy, but rather energy that is in harmony or discord with its surroundings. I feel it is in this light that we must view the vast swathes of plastic that flow like a river through our lives. Building on examples such as David de Rothschild - http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/12/david-de-rothschild-plastiki-pacific - it is essential that we begin utilising our species abundant ingenuity to turn waste plastic from a curse into a resource. Perhaps someone who knows more about chemistry than me can tell me why we cannot distill/refine plastic back into its component parts?

On a more natural note, those who have been privy to my parts of my reality will know my love of trees. I have been overjoyed to discover there are two beautiful Pipal trees a short walk from the house. The Pipal is a sacred tree in Indian culture – perhaps paralleling our oak – it is one of the few trees that produce oxygen both day and night, and is the subject of many myths involving divinities such as Lord Vishnu (one of the Hindu trinity) and Lord Shani (the hindu divinity figure of the planet Saturn)

It is truly beautiful in appearance – seeming like innumerable strands of svelte tree-trunk interwoven to create a greater whole. It is known also by the name 'sacred fig' tree and we are all aware of the fig's place in the mythos of our planet.

I have been assessing ways to develop a space to build some cricket nets, and I write off now because I am told there are plans afoot to level off an area of ground in front of the proposed community centre for just this purpose.

Photos do exist, and I'll get them up either today or tomorrow.

Massive love.

xx