Where haven't we been?!

It’s been nearly three months since we last blogged and you may well have been wondering where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to. (You may not, of course. We’re not so conceited that we think your days and nights are taken up with wondering what Emergence has been up to lately...)

In short, we’ve been busy. Very busy. Silly mad bonkers-tastic busy. And we have lots and lots to tell you about. But... we’re not going to do it here. This is August after all and most - if not all - of you will, we hope, be taking well earned breaks from your busy lives and not really be that keen to read a long blog from us about our adventures. So, we’ll keep this brief and simply highlight what we’re doing next and what we’re going to be talking about over the coming weeks and months.

Firstly, our next event is entitled The Gower Harvest Walk and Talk – sharing the gifts of Gower – and takes place on Sunday 27th September between 11am and 7pm at Stouthall country mansion near Reynoldston on Gower.

Stouthall

Inspired by the ancient tradition of thanksgiving for the fruits of the Earth, we’re celebrating harvest this year with this day long event. There will be a walk to Arthur’s Stone, the beautiful ancient burial site on top of Cefyn Bryn; a fascinating talk by Ian Rees of the Annwn Foundation about the deep mythology of Gower, followed by a harvest supper and veg swap.

Arthur's Stone

For more details and to book your tickets – which are selling fast – follow the links to our Eventbrite page. Tickets are limited and are £10 waged and £5 no/low wage.

Satish Kumar

Secondly, those of you who are followers of Emergence will doubtless remember that we ran our first crowdfunding campaign earlier this year and raised £25,000 to enable us to make our landmark documentary series about activist and Earth Pilgrim Satish Kumar.

We shot the documentary in late July over six days, first at Satish’s home in Devon and then, for one night only, at Schumacher College near Totnes. We now have in our hot little hard drives twelve hours of the most wonderful, rich and thrilling footage of Satish and Jane Davidson in deep and wide-ranging conversations. We’ll tell you more about the process of shooting (and the steepness of the learning curve!) and how we’re going to proceed with the project when we blog again in September. For now, suffice it to say that we were bowled over by Satish’s energy, insight and inspiration and we can’t wait for you to see the documentaries when we launch them in 2016.

Jane and Satish at Schumacher College

You can still pre-order your copy on limited edition DVD by emailing fern(at)emergence(dash)uk(dot)org

Thirdly, we were absolutely thrilled to host both Satish and the wonderful Meg Wheatley – core inspirations behind Emergence from the start – at our first Station to the Sea Peace Walk in Swansea on the 27^th of July. 

Peace walkers in silence on Swansea beach

Timed to commemorate the 75^th anniversary of the first German bombs to fall on Swansea, this was a truly beautiful day of deep connection, listening, walking and talking when we were joined by some thirty walkers to journey together from the heart of Swansea - destroyed in the second World War - to Mumbles Hill, site of gun emplacements during the same conflict. Again, we will blog about this day in more detail in due course but we’re taking this opportunity to share some of the images taken by our friend Erin Rickard.

Peace walkers encounter Armed Services Day in Swansea's Castle Square

In particular, check out the fantastic installation of prayer flags created by Sean Puleston and Erin who also created together our now near legendary labyrinth on Rhossilli beach on the final day of the Walk That Reconnects in September 2014. Our walkers carried these handkerchiefs along the length of the walk, writing their own personal questions around peace on them before tying them in to Sean and Erin's installation.

The sight of the flags flying in the breeze as we all stood together in silence will live with me – and I’m sure many others – for years to come.

That’s all for now. Don’t forget to book your tickets for our next event here. If you haven't already, then do sign up to our mailing list by visiting our website - www.emergence-uk.org - and clicking on the button at the top of the page. We don't send out masses of emails, promise!

Enjoy these rich, peaceful final days of summer.

Phil & Fern