A small patch of ground

I sit with a coffee and make the mistake of looking at the news.

War. Climate change. Migration. Habitat loss. Species loss. Security. On another day you could probably throw in floods, wildfires, energy crises and any number of other ills.

By the time the coffee is cool enough to drink, the world appears to require several new governments, a climate summit and possibly a small miracle.

And I am one person, sitting in Caffè Nero.

That gap between the scale of the problems and the scale of what I can actually do is sometimes paralysing. I’m also wary of pretending that recycling diligently or buying less plastic somehow lets governments and big business off the hook. It doesn’t.

But I don’t think that makes small actions pointless either.

Lately I’ve been thinking about “rewilding”. Not just the ecological kind, where we give damaged landscapes a chance to recover, but something similar in our communities.

We’ve become rather good at identifying what’s wrong with the world, and perhaps less good at recognising what’s still quietly working. The local groups, volunteers, neighbours, conversations and small acts of cooperation that rarely make the news.

I wonder whether we’ve allowed some of those connections to weaken over the years. Trust, belonging, the sense that we can actually achieve something together. Perhaps rebuilding them doesn’t require another grand scheme from above. Perhaps it begins with paying attention to what’s already growing around us.

I can support a local group. Repair something instead of replacing it. Write to someone. Vote. Plant something. Buy less. Talk about what matters. Join with other people who care about the same patch of ground.

And perhaps those patches begin to connect. Like the networks of fungi beneath a woodland floor, largely unseen, quietly supporting a much bigger living system.

I don’t imagine that will solve climate change or put an end to conflict. Governments and corporations still have responsibilities that cannot be passed down to individuals.

But perhaps a healthier, more connected society would be better equipped to hold them to account.

I don’t have to carry the whole world.

I just need to decide which part of it is within reach, find a few others willing to tend it, and not turn away.

Steve from our Eco book group