Muddy Care Blog Week 9
Written by Muddy Care Participant ‘N’
This Sunday the Muddy Care team headed back down to The Gower to the beach at Port Eynon.
It’s a long bus ride there but that gives us a chance to talk, socialise or rest, and also to watch the engaging scenery pass by.
When we arrived we completed our very well provided outfits with wellies...it was a sometimes sunny but blustery day and keeping dry and warm was a priority. Many of us with chronic conditions can find thermoregulation a challenge and good gear and many layers are key to managing this. Also the implications of getting over heated or too cold tend to be more problematic than for people with normal health. Thankfully it’s something that the Muddy Care team take seriously.
We ate our lunch while Claire introduced us to the concept of the Medicine wheel, an idea utilised by many indigenous peoples, though ours was informed primarily by the Native American culture. This was illustrated by a sand sculpture, a double circle of marine rope with N, S, E, W quadrants. Claire explained how our holistic health was imagined by this circle, and a perfectly healthy person would stand in the direct centre, and every influence and imbalance in our lives would be reflected by our relative position within the circle.
We then built up the sculpture dynamically, each quadrant had a designated colour, and into each was placed different continents of the world, different aspects of nature and living. This was how the Native Americans explained their world and themselves, their health and their impact on the world. It’s an amazingly sophisticated and in-depth study and highlights the arrogance of modern society and science which believes it is so much more advanced. It is not, and this emphasises how much of import has been ignored, forgotten and dismissed. To relearn and reconnect with these concepts is a real tool to assist in recovery, living with chronic conditions and helping to heal the world we have near destroyed.
This linked in with our activity for the day which was a Citizen Science beach clean. This clean is properly registered so more than cleaning the beach, what we picked up would be correctly recorded and sent to The Marine Conservation Society, to be added to the database. This means that the amount, type and ratios of rubbish found can inform the fight against pollution of our oceans and beaches. It was enlightening and depressing how much plastic we found, and how small much of it was. The impact on the environment can only be a sobering one.
The beach clean was fascinating and engaging. It had so many facets, the obvious reduction in plastic in the environment and the data collection, the social and team building elements, the fresh air and interaction with nature, but also the mindfulness aspect...of being in the present moment. All so very valuable.
