Category: Druid Life

CW self harm In theory, fear and anxiety are there to keep us safe. For the person who has been traumatised, this can lead to jumping at shadows, hypervigilism and flashbacks in ways that can really mess with your daily life. But still, the theory is good, the fear is learned, rational, reasonable and your […]

A shoutout for a few folk I know who have been doing cool stuff recently. Haven Jean has made an album. It is a splendid thing and you can listen over here – https://havenandben.bandcamp.com/album/fragile-spark It’s not overtly Druid content, but there’s a lot of powerful stuff shared, and humour, and charm and that’s all good […]

There is a famous Neil Gaiman talk in which he says that whatever happens, you should make good art. I am here to argue. The idea of ‘good art’ can be pretty intimidating, especially when it feels like everything is on fire. When you and/or the rest of the world is in crisis, making good […]

Originally posted on The Passing Place:
This may be a familiar experience, it may not, but I often find myself intrigued by the idea of ‘another perspective’. Everything I write, everything I read, everything I watch, the world it self and every aspect of life in fact can always be viewed from another perspective. This…

Where forgiveness is truly sought, my heartfelt response is to want to offer it. However, I’ve spent time dealing with people who apologise when they don’t mean it in order to have further opportunities to cause harm. Forgiveness isn’t owed, it has to be earned. There are a lot of people who say that you […]

Whataboutery is the art of derailing something by trying to foreground some other thing – but what about…?. The classic of the form goes ‘why are you helping those foreign people when we have our own homeless people to take care of?’ The people who practise whataboutery can be counted on to not care in […]

Humans are malleable. We’re influenced by our environments and by the things we’re exposed to. If we keep seeing something, we become persuaded by it. This is how adverts work. It’s also how misinformation works. We do get a say in what we expose ourselves to, and taking thoughtful control of that is important if […]

I recently ran into the suggestion that people who have experienced gaslighting are unlikely to cope well with positive thinking strategies. It was a real ‘lightbulb’ moment for me. I find positive affirmations incredibly stressful and panic-inducing. I do ok with very small ones – statements like ‘it is ok not to be perfect’ and […]