To avoid the traffic we are cycling cross country by many small by ways - lanes, canals, disused railway tracks.
The views are beautiful and we are discovering lots of places that in a car I would ordinarily pass by. Cartmel, then Bentham meeting yesterday nestling on a small hill, then into Settle. The morning ride took us through more glorious national park and to a tiny hamlet of Ayrton where we found another little meeting house lovingly restored and now a camping barn. We rested in the sunshine and heard some of the history and then cycled on again to Skipton along magical canal tow paths - some very bumpy and rutted that required lots of concentration and some beautifully prepared so we could speed along and enjoy the views more fully. After Skipton we had our first experience of city riding - as we made our way to Keighley - roads where we were not sure where to position ourselves on roundabouts and alarming experiences of cycle lanes suddenly ending with no where to go. Life in such cities looks very different from life in the countryside that we are moving on from. We know that there will be more of this to come as we go forward and that our cycling skills will be put to the test. We are hopeful that with some help of local knowledge there will nonetheless be pathways and routes to discover that will take us cheerily on our way. In each meeting we are discovering communities that have their own history and current life that involves caring for each other and for passers by like ourselves. I have been pondering what it takes for this sense of self and sense of community to emerge because it seems to me that these two polarities are important to a vision of caring for all.
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Breakfast on Day 2 was at Yealand Conyers meeting
One of the realities that a new vision for a welfare state that saw less division between rich and poor might be the advances in technology. Margaret Fell rode to London on a horse and she wrote letters. Bikes weren't thought of her in her day let alone phones. In our group we have a variety of bikes amongst which there are a number of electric bikes. As a proud owner of an electric bike and a phone I can say that they are both what can be described as a transformative technologies Without my electric bike it would have been hard for me to imagine taking this ride as the distances would have felt impossibly long and the hills impossibly steep, but with my electric bike I still have to travel the distance but I have that little bit of help. An electric bike has made it possible for one of our group who has a significant disability to be able to join us. Our phones have made it possible to plot safe routes off the main roads and to communicate with one another to ensure that all stay safe. In my work with the I Matter Project I have been really excited to discover how online learning can make it possible to get important ideas to busy professionals and families who it is traditionally very difficult to reach. Training can be accessible by phone and lap top. Coaching and consultations can take place at a distance massively reducing the needs to travel. However I have also clearly seen that as the results that are important are based on relationships online learning needs the personal contact and though phone and skype are really practical they cannot replace the value of sitting in a room together at least some of the time. So technology holds some of the answers but it does not hold all of the answers. If we know that technology can be used to assist healthy relationships but cannot replace the work of ensuring that the relationships are healthy then technology is a key part of the solution to Care for the Common Good - but not all of it. Day 1: We started off our journey gathering at Swarthmoor Hall - the home of Margaret Fell who was one of the earliest Quakers who with her husband Judge Fell supported George Fox in the earliest days of the Quaker Movement from the 1650's. Though the Quakers were just one of a number of groups who were resisting the state and claiming the right to think and worship differently, 360 years later they are still operating as a national organisation that attracts individuals who are looking for something a little bit different. Margaret Fell was someone who took action for things that mattered to her and on our Day 1 we sat together for 15 mins quiet contemplaion in the same hall where she would have eaten and gathered with other early Friends. The theme that emerged was journeys - and the sense of connection between the journey that Margaret Fell had taken and the one that we were taking. She had set off to London because of her concern at the way in which early Quakers were being persecuted. We were setting off with our different experiences of the way in which vulnerable people were being treated. We are a mixed age group of riders - 12yrs to 82 yrs - 16 core with a number of others joining us for just a part of the way and others who had come a long to wave us off. A lot of work and planning had gone into making this day possible. This years ride had emerged as an idea following the success of a 4 day pilgrimage last year from Brigflatts to Barrow. The questions we are holding: How do we respond to the changes in society that we are seeing that have become persecutory to those for example with disabilities who already have so much stacked against them? What can be done if the systems that were intended for good seem to be functioning in ways that are proving harmful? What would/could be some possible ways forward? First steps though involve getting to know one another and learning to ride safely up and down dale and along and across small lanes and busy roads. Every journey starts with small steps with some uncertainties about what will be learned on the way but we have chosen our message - on our high visibility jackets - and we now have the support with it of our Area Meeting - We are the Ride for Equality and for the Common Good We CAN afford to Care for all. Swarthmoor to London - 21st July to 6th August 2018 One of the roots of the Adult-Child Well-Being 'I Matter' Project has been the influences of Quakersim on my childhood, teens, young adulthood, and life as a parent. Quakerism has provided a spiritual home for me and a place in which I was supported in learning to think and question whilst also having a sense of connection to and responsibility for the greater whole George Fox a teacher from the Midlands in the 1650's travelled up to the Cumbrian area where he gathered together a group of people who he encouraged to study and reflect and think for themselves. The message was: you have heard what the others think but 'what canst THOU say?' Another well known Quaker message: Religion is not here to take men and women out of the world, but is to help them to live better within it. Learning to think for oneself is not always comfortable. It involves being in touch with contradiction and conflicts and uncertainty. The challenge is to dig in and listen to the inner knowing. It often involves facing fear - what will happen if I get in touch with what I really think?? What will happen if I actually speak up about what I think?? This journey is particularly important in relationships - when relationships are not feeling healthy but you are not sure why. This can be relationships between adults and children, between adult partners and in work settings. It is not comfortable recognising that if there is going to be any change you have to be willing to take action - as just hoping for the best may not be enough. Speaking up can involve some conflict and resistance and rejection. The early Quakers found themselves thrown in jail for expressing what they really thought and thankfully the result is not always so harsh, However the truth is that speaking up is not easy. I think however that this early Quaker training was a key element in my process of coming to know that something was seriously amiss in the way we were working with children and families where there is challenging complex behaviour, and the struggle to understand was key to what later emerged as the I Matter Project and to the idea embedded within the approach that there is almost always a personal journey involved in working out exactly what is wanted and how to get there. Quaker thinking was also key for a group of Kendal and Sedbergh Quakers and a group from the Southern Marches who discovered they could no longer sit comfortably with the direction that public pollcies were taking with regard to the care of the vulnerable in our society. So through a process of sharing came the conviction that there was a need to renew the vision on which the welfare state was born. What would a renewed vision of welfare look like? How can we use our resources more wisely and effctively? What role do we each have to play? How do we each get support with our concerns? Now through that careful discernment process, concern about the care of the vulnerable is coming to fruits in action and along with others I will setting off with family and friends on a ride from Swarthmoor to London to speak up about this concern. We will be travelling over 300 miles by bike and by public transport stopping off at Quaker meeting houses on the way. It seems a long way but I am looking forward to beautiful english countryside and lots of fun and sharing. Our intention is to add our voices to those who believe that the way forward in our communties must involve policies and individual actions that serve the Common Good not just the needs of a privileged few. For me because the process of speaking up has proved a very challenging but also a very rewarding process, this is going to be a Quaker Journey and an I Matter Journey and a For the Common Good Journey. If you would like to join us for a bit of this ride you can find out more here. What might such a journey be about for you? Here is our route map Day 1-9 And the route for Day 10-13 click here for short purpose description |
Dr Cathy BetoinClinical Psychologist, Teacher and Parent - and social entrepreneur Archives
July 2019
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