Threshold Places
Issue 344 • May/June 2024
The theme of this issue is threshold places, and by those we mean those unseen and often unnoticed places where change is already afoot but where ‘what was’ is not quite ended and ‘what will become’ has not yet arrived.
This is where the magic happens, but navigating these spaces – and thus change – calls for courage from us all. And more than that, it calls for shared beliefs and deep trust.
Every piece in this issue highlights some version of a threshold looming, being crossed or having been successfully negotiated. In her Slow Read article, Gail Bradbrook explores a liminal place in the world of activism and how Extinction Rebellion, which she co-founded, crossed a major threshold to generate mainstream awareness, and may yet need to cross another.
In his joyful rediscovery of Indian street art, Satish Kumar celebrates how life-affirming it is to cross the threshold that says we must engage with most art indoors and in hushed tones. In our main theme, we share the thoughts of the late Irish poet John O’Donohue on just why thresholds are so important, before we go on to explore two big rites of passage: birth and death.
In many ways, Resurgence & Ecologist is all about presenting humanity (and its relationship to the planet and all we share it with) sometimes showing smallness, and sometimes wonderful generosity, but with above all things our ability to see and hopefully honour what matters, even if and perhaps especially when we cannot capture or hold on to it, because that precarity is what makes life here so precious for us all.
Highlights
- The stars are for everyone: Fern Leigh Albert
- Green & Away: Peter Lang
- The edge of motherhood: Elizabeth Wainwright
- The joys of a garden gone wild: Stephanie Boxall
- Art as a way of being: Satish Kumar
- Action, dreaming and determination: Edward Davey
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Contents
Key
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Welcome
The courage to change • Susan Clark
Navigating threshold places often calls for shared beliefs and deep trust
Regulars
News from our Community • Susan Clark
Resurgence Ripples - a celebration of positive action
Archive - The Grandmothers Speak • Sophia Style
An extract from an article on The Grandmothers Wisdom Project, first published in Resurgence & Ecologist, January/February 2009
Letters to the Editor
A selection of letters to our editor
Ecologist
Editors' Picks • Yasmin Dahnoun
We share our top three stories from the news website focused on environmental, social and economic justice
The stars are for everyone • Fern Leigh Albert
Reporting on the ongoing campaign to keep wild camping legal in Devon's Dartmoor National Park
Tipping points • Melissa Hobson
Exploring the different pathways we can take to avoid reaching irreversible tipping points with climate change
STILL: The art of noticing • Mary Jo Hoffman
Artist's statement on how a long-term photography project focusing on found objects taught her how to see very differently
Connected Life
Primal Gathering • Nicole Bosky
The tools of mindfulness, community, sharing and good nutrition can be used to practise, teach and support land regeneration
Green & Away • Peter Lang
The story of Europe's first-ever environmentally sound outdoor conference centre - host to the annual Resurgence summer camp
Tennis vs Climate Change - advantage which? • Laura Slater
Investigating how environmentally friendly the game really is and what more can be done
The Laurel stronghold • Ella Brolly
Sharing a deep love of an ancient forest ecosystem on the island of Madeira
Feature Articles
What now for our social and climate movements • Gail Bradbrook
Activist and co-founder of XR offers a new framework to adapt to help us co-create meaningful and lasting change
Threshold Places
On thresholds • John O'Donohue
The late Irish poet and philosopher reveals that what we will need to embrace and safely cross impending thresholds is trust
The edge of motherhood • Elizabeth Wainwright
New motherhood is a big threshold between independence and interdependence, and also an invitation to root in community
Healing from grief in a greenhouse • Marissa Land & Faye D'Avanza
Crossing the threshold into grief and an embodied understanding that we don't have all the time in the world to do what matters most
Tea, cake and death • Katie Dancey-Downs
Meeting the founders of the North Bristol Death Café, where nothing to do with this final threshold is off-limits
Wisdom and Wellbeing
The joys of a garden gone wild • Stephanie Boxall
From overwhelm to a place of deep joy in the wild garden
Freedom in the saddle • Kate Blincoe
Reflections on how horse riding can open up new horizons for women
Return to earth • Heather Pearson
A poet and writer shares her exploration of 'The Feminine Path' back to ancient wisdom
Art and Culture
Poetry: Shifting sands • Rachel Marsh & Briony Hughes
Our poetry editors explore the thresholds between poetry and other forms of writing
Unravel • Annie Warburton
Celebrating the power of textile art to tell our threshold stories of life, death, oppression, ancestry, inequity, joy and healing
Art as a way of being • Satish Kumar
Discovering the joy of life-affirming qualities of art outdoors as he explores a collaborative street art project in New Delhi
The role of Nature in fantasy storytelling • James Clarke
Revisiting Ursula K. Le Guin's fantasy novel A Wizard of Earthsea, whose environmental message is more relevant now than ever
Reviews
Action, dreaming and determination • Edward Davey
Review of Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions and The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet
Our universal connection to the stars • Matt Gaw
Review of Starborn: How the Stars Made Us - and Who We Would Be Without Them
Small but mighty wins • Gwen Peters
Review of Podcast: Imagining Tomorrow
How to plan beyond the rebellion • Chris Saltmarsh
Review of If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution
Data-rich, but action-poor • Martha Dillon
Review of Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet
A seasonal thread of natural connections • Kate Blincoe
Review of The Wild Remedy Journal: Finding Wellness in Nature
Worlds of meaning • Stephanie Boxall
Review of Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape