Contemplative Inquiry

I walked today in my local park between 6 and 7am. These early morning walks have become my new normal this summer. After a 5am rise, the sun was climbing ever higher in the sky. I found my world delightfully sunny and cool, moving from 17C/62.6F to 18C/64.4F over the course of an hour. Now, at 11.23 am, it is 29C/84.2F. It will soon be 30C/86F and we will spend 9 hours at this temperature or above. The peak is expected to be 34C/93.2F, at 3pm.

Where I live, in Gloucester, England, the heatwave threshold is 27C/80.6F on three consecutive days. We are now in our third heatwave since the last week of May. This is traditionally abnormal in our historically cool temperate zone, with most of July and the whole of August still to come. Yet people continue to deny that a human made climate crisis is responsible. The fossil fuel lobby is still influential, it’s denial and misdirection still amplified in powerful media and political circles.

I am personally able to adapt to this level of change quite easily. Early rising, early walks, jobs in the morning, afternoon napping, a return to activity in the evening, careful management of a non air-conditioned flat. Being old is a risk factor but freedom to manage my time is a resiliency factor. What worries me is the continuing (perhaps acceleration) of this process. 40.3C/104.54F was recorded on a day in 2022 in a somewhat warmer part of the country. Where is this going?

In the here and now, I see the beauty of the risen sun an hour from dawn. The play of light on a willow tree touched me with delight.

I was also touched by patterns of sun and shade on the park, on a tree trunk and a pathway out of the park. I found these patterns oddly inspiring. I don’t want to let big picture anxieties rob me of the moment. The anxieties are entirely valid, an authentic part of my experience. But the power and beauty of the world in front of my eyes, in an ordinary city park, are there too. A resource to draw on.