30/03/2026
Why we might practise…
Because perhaps practise can wake us up to everything: spring blossom and daily sounds, bird song and breaking hearts, feelings of deep despair and feelings of bright presence. Perhaps practise to become more conscious. Practise as a way to break the stultifying spells of consumption, small screens, materialism. Practise to cultivate insight, to encourage kindness, to realise commonality.
Because practise could help us to acknowledge the fact that we are all migrants (just that some have been here for longer than others); to realise that the problem is much more with the people in very big boats than those in small boats; to recognise the fact that we all bleed the same colour. Practice as a way to be with the complexity of our own varied identities, thus helping us to be more open (rather than othering and excluding).
Because practice might give us sufficient courage and resilience to turn towards rather than looking away – refusing to be bystanders. Practice to help us know that statements such as “bombs bring peace” and “protest is terrorism” are Orwellian nonsense.
Because practice can clarify our perceptions, such as seeing that leaders like Netanyahu, Putin and Trump are blood-drenched false prophets who sound more like serial killers than thoughtful human beings.
Practice is undeniably a broad umbrella (which also includes many views on the meaning of practice). For me, practice includes movement and meditation, psychotherapy and creative pursuits, developing communities and speaking up for fairness and justice. Too many of us have become disconnected from ourselves, each other, this world, from feeling any sense of control over our lives and from what our lives could really mean.
Practice can be a way of reconnecting. Practice can be connection to all that is.
