East Dean with Friston Parish Magazine May 2020 online edition

Notes from Hedgehog Street
In the next few months things will be a little
different, but that doesn't mean we can't
connect with wildlife from our own homes.
It is proven that a daily dose of nature
improves mental health. Meanwhile:
‘Nature Street is a Sussex Wildlife Trust
project designed to inspire you to get
together with your neighbours to create
wildlife corridors and encourage more
wildlife into gardens…
Maybe you want to help wildlife in your
garden, but don’t feel confident about what
to do first? Or perhaps you don’t think that
your small garden can make a difference.
Don’t think about your garden in isolation,
think of what your whole street can do
together to help create a living, thriving
landscape for the wildlife of Sussex.
Creatures need to be able to move and react
to changes in land use and climate that may
otherwise leave them isolated and
vulnerable.
To help you and your neighbours create
your own Nature Street we have produced
an information pack, available from
www.sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk which
includes
Advice on how to start up Nature
Street,
materials to raise awareness in your
street about joining the Nature
Street project,
guiding principles of Nature Street
information on how to record
wildlife in your garden.’
Sue Pettifor and the SWT website
Falling in Love with the Earth
“The earth is our mother, nourishing and
protecting us in every moment – giving us
air to breathe, fresh water to drink, food to
eat and healing herbs to cure us when we are
sick. Every breath we inhale contains our
planet’s nitrogen, oxygen, water vapour and
trace elements. When we breathe with
mindfulness we can experience our
interbeing with the Earth’s delicate
atmosphere, with all the plants, and even
with the sun, whose light makes possible the
miracle of photosynthesis. With every
breath we can experience communion. With
every breath we can savour the wonders of
life.
We need to change our ways of thinking and
seeing things. We need to realise that the
Earth is not just our environment. The Earth
is not something outside of us. Breathing
with mindfulness and contemplating your
body, you realise that you are the Earth.
You realise that your consciousness is also
the consciousness of the Earth. Look
around you – what you see is not your
environment, it is you.”
Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese monk, 1926 -)
Falling in Love with the Earth – United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC), 2014. Submitted by Michael
Sentinella
Taken by Maureen Honey