Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again

I know, this has been a bruising time for many of us, and will continue to be so for many many more.  It’s important to take some time for ourselves to grieve over what might have been.

But after that, it’s really really important to pick ourselves up and get ready for what comes next.

A selection of my badges from the 1970s and 1980s -they seem to have aged depressingly well

Over the past few days (less than a week!  I can hardly believe it) I have yo-yo’d between feeling desperate, afraid and frankly desolate, and unexpectedly fizzing with positive ideas.  The fact is that, even more than ever, the only way that anything good will happen is if we join together and make it ourselves.

Seasonal cheer at Pulteney Weir, last Saturday

I am inspired by what has been achieved in 3 places in particular:

• Preston in Lancashire
• Frome, nearby in Somerset
• Freiburg, in southern Germany

I am also inspired by the very timely book I read last week – From What Is to What If, by Rob Hopkins (of Transition Towns fame).  The book is frankly a fairly slim read, but one which encourages us to set our imagination free, to not be constrained by how it is right now, and to ask ‘what if?’ and ‘why not?’ – and go on to think about how.  It is peppered with examples of projects that already exist – the fact is that many of things we would like to see, they probably already exist somewhere else.  And if they don’t, well we can invent them ourselves.

Yesterday I sent an impassioned email to the leader of our local council and to our newly-re-elected MP, asking them to initiate a local collaboration and partnership between the two universities in Bath, the NHS locally, the council, all the many talented and skilled businesses in our area, and the many civil society organisations already desperate for change.

Today I discovered via Twitter that they got there before me: there is a public meeting planned led by the council and one of the universities early in January.  I’m booked to go.

Today I contacted my local street group to make contact with anyone else who wants to get together to reduce our footprint on this earth.  Maybe something will come of it, maybe it won’t.  We’ll see.

So.  Enjoy your seasonal break, I’m sure you need it, and I wish you happiness and fun whatever variety of celebration you’re going to have.

A different kind of Christmas tree

After that, we return.  We can each make our own mark in our own communities, limited by our other commitments but not limited by our imaginations.

Let’s get on with it.