Hello and welcome to 5 minutes in nature with me Liz Scott.
Up on Dartmoor.
I'm actually still walking,
I'm on the same walk I was on yesterday and something arose within me that I wanted to share.
So here I am still in the mist,
Still in this sort of strange moorland mysterious pixie place.
Dartmoor is really renowned for pixies which are like little elves.
It's like the folklore of Dartmoor is intertwined with the little people which are pixies and this certainly is pixie weather if ever there was pixie weather.
I can just see below me there's two very excited dogs chasing a ball,
Having a whale of a time,
Having a great run out in the open air.
And if you remember yesterday I was talking about a comment I received that kind of felt a bit unsettling and then I reflected on it and had a real sense that this was probably a good way of me realising that the more that I find my voice and the more I express myself and the more I am out in the world the more likely I'm going to receive comments like this,
Push back,
Sort of comments that feel as though they've got an edge to them,
That they're being unkind.
As I continued my walk images started to appear in my mind of all the people that have gone before in history that have made a stand for something.
Now I'm not putting myself in the same arena as these people but I just want to share what I'm seeing is that people like Martin Luther King put himself out there.
Just as I'm speaking to you the rain is starting to come down so excuse the the pitter patter if you can hear it.
The suffragettes,
They would have had immense pushback in what they did.
Just people making a stand,
Even today,
Let me just put my hood up,
There you go,
Put my hood up and hopefully shelter.
You'll probably hear it tapping on the roof of my hood here but even people today who are just making a stand,
Who are standing up for what feels right and true and kind and compassionate and for the greater good of the world,
They might do that and get pushback and a sense of people not being kind or compassionate to them.
And so today I really see that,
I just see that as I speak out and I'm not doing this in a way of being an activist but just speaking up for older women,
Older women who have traditionally been sort of the butt of jokes,
Who have traditionally been ignored,
Who have traditionally been unacknowledged for what they contribute and give to the world.
As I make a stand for older women and I am an older woman,
I've got to realise that this is going to be probably part and parcel of what is to come for me.
So I am pausing on my walk,
Wondering whether to continue it or turn around.
I can see that the dog walkers are making their way back to the car and this rain is either going to heave down and I'm going to get soaked or it might just pass on through and I might just get away with a bit of a damp coat.
But there we go,
That's what I really want to share.
When I stand up for what feels right and true,
What feels respectful,
What feels authentic,
What is looking out for other people,
What is looking out for the people in our world who are downtrodden,
Who don't have a voice,
When we look out for them and we listen to them and we give them a voice,
Then there will be pushback and that's probably just part and parcel of what it is to make a stand in the world.
So I am curious about what happens next and that just felt like an important message for me to share with you and now as I'm coming to the end of this message,
As you can probably hear,
The rain has passed on through.
I'm hoping I might have got away with it and it's very mucky and muddy underfoot so I'm just going to head on,
Finish my walk and make my way back home and dry off.
And I'd just be really curious if this message resonates for you,
If you feel that you've got something to say,
If you feel as though you want to express yourself with authenticity and if you feel as though there's a part of you that is reluctant to do so because of the comments or pushback that you might get.
I'd be really curious just to hear your reflections on that and to understand how you perceive this for you in your life.
