Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott.
I'm just sheltering in a gully here in Dartmoor.
This is actually a temporary stream when the weather has turned bad and the rains come down particularly in the winter.
This valley bed which is dry at the moment just becomes a stream as water finds its way off Dartmoor down into the rivers.
So it's quite nice to be standing here and seeing that it is at least green here,
The grass has turned green from the crunchy yellow dryness of the summer that we've had and all the vegetation that went yellow and almost looked dead.
It feels as though life has revived here and soon when the rains return for the winter this will become a stream once again.
And today's reflection is very much tuning in to slowing down.
As you know,
I've been away in the island of Ireland for a little while,
Just a few nights.
And one of the things I find about going away is really feeling this sense of slowing down,
How much I appreciate it.
And particularly on the roads in Ireland,
I don't know if you've ever driven there,
But the roads are very narrow in rural Ireland.
Walls on either side.
Often there's only space for one car to pass,
Even though the road is a two-way road and you just have to go slowly.
Tractors trundle along,
Just taking their time.
And if you're stuck behind a tractor,
Well,
You can't go very fast.
And I rather like this real reminder of slowing down.
When we returned from our trip,
We got an aeroplane that was late and delayed and it meant that we were late and delayed home but also what happened is that because we were traveling back in the early hours of the morning in our car many road works were being completed at night time which aren't completed during the daytime so our journey became even slower as we had to take diversions off some of the main roads and it just seemed to be a reminder of slowing down just slow down.
In Ireland itself we went to see a dolmen.
Now a dolmen is a stone structure which,
This one particularly,
Looked a bit like a table.
Huge stones propping up a flat stone.
So it was like the four legs propping up a flat stone on top,
Which must have been at least five foot,
Six foot tall,
Something like that.
And the information said that this had been put in the landscape probably five,
6,
000 years ago.
And it reminded me of slowing down and it also reminded me of leaving a legacy.
The people that constructed this particular dolmen,
And it was probably part of a bigger complex,
And what we're seeing now is just the bare remains of what's left over,
But the people that constructed this particular dolmen,
They might not have lived to see it constructed.
And certainly that's the case when I go into some of the churches I visited in Ireland as well,
Some of the medieval churches that were built,
And they were probably built by people who never saw the finished church being completed.
It's like you start something but you don't see the end of it.
And so for me this really ties in with the idea of slowing down.
That you don't have to do things quickly.
You don't have to see a big impact straight away.
I guess the question it's got me to ask myself,
And I want you to ask yourself,
Is are you making a contribution that is a slow burn contribution,
One that will make a difference to generations to come,
A positive difference to generations to come?
It doesn't have to be about a building,
You don't have to build a dolmen,
You don't have to build a cathedral or a church,
But are you making a positive difference?
Are you making choices?
That are honoring future generations.
And I'm not doing this or saying this from a pedestal as though I am perfect in this at all,
But I am saying this from a place of reflection,
Which is I would like to be someone that is remembered for leaving behind the world in a slightly better place than they found it.
Whether that's through kindness and compassion,
Whether it's about listening to people so they feel heard,
Whether it's about sharing what others are doing in the world so we can amplify the goodness in the world.
It doesn't matter what it looks like.
It's asking myself the question,
Am I sharing a legacy,
Whether that's mine or someone else's,
Which is putting kindness,
Compassion,
And love back into the language of the world?
And to do it in slow time,
There's no rush.
I can do things today that won't make a difference tomorrow or next week or next year.
Year,
But they might make a difference in the future.
Let me know your reflections on this and don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another five minutes in nature.
