Bards From The Woods

Mindfulness is ... Mindfulness is about being aware of any moment without judgement and without conditions. Mindfulness has fast become a popular buzz word around holistic, healing and medical circles around Ireland as well as around the world. I find it amazing how Mindfulness instruction has become a successful profession for many people, mainly women, very quickly. Many people seem to be seeking Mindfulness instructors to retreat with for a weekend, and are paying out quite large sums of money to do so. Looking into what Mindfulness instructors teach and guide, I have discovered that what they do connects very closely to what I do and encourage through Bards In The Woods and at our Native Tree Labyrinth here at Carrowcrory Cottage. Mindfulness instructors seem to describe Mindfulness as being the development of becoming fully present, or experiencing 'presence'. I regard this as being when all senses, vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste are being aware of a

I do not want to lose touch with this video so I will publish a blog with it. It is an episode of Eco Eye presented by Duncan Stewart about Irish Woodlands The video notes say "In ancient Ireland, trees were revered and worshiped, the price of chopping one down was severe, so why has this love and respect of our natural woodlands not survived?" This episode two of Eco Eye 2014 looks at the efforts of those trying to save and even restore our native woodlands and along with it the biodiversity that thrived for thousands of years in these magical places. This video also presents a plan to develop native woodlands along the waterways of Ireland to aid preservation of the waterways, defend land leeching and provide corridors for biodiversity life to spread around the country again. This would prevent wildlife and life forms going extinct within the smaller and smaller pockets of native land for them.

I was fascinated by a blog post I read a few days ago from author Ali Isaac . I believe we often suddenly read something that totally connects to our thoughts and passions we are experiencing moments before we read It. Does anyone here have the experience of humming or singing a song, then turn on the radio and the song is there exactly where we are singing it? Happens to me often. Same with reading. These experiences can even feel like a divine messenger, a verification of our inspirations and thoughts. Ali introduced some basic, yet profound, mythology about ancient harps. I would like to explore how this links to our divine relationships to wood and water. First, we seem to be stuck with the Saxon origin word 'Harp' that some folks say comes from 'hearpe' or 'harpa', generally a word to describe 'to pluck'. I do prefer the lesser known names that distinctly refer to the angled and bowed wood harps to separate it from the lyres,