Feeding Each Other
I have been transfixed by the activity around the bird box in my back garden. I have (excuse the pun) a bird’s eye view of it every morning from the armchair that I start my quiet practices of the day in. In the early spring I thought I saw some nesting activity, then it seemed to stop...until the past few weeks, when it has been a non-stop traffic of mum and dad blue tit. Clearly the birds did nest and the eggs must have hatched because the parents are in full on feeding mode. In, out, search, back in, back out, search….. A committed dance of searching out goodness and getting it in digestible form, into the hungry waiting mouths.
What I value is the people who feed me, feed us. Rather than ‘sound bites’, they give us nutra-bites. Linked-in still has a flock of feeders. I am particularly enjoying the ‘feed’ of Dr Thunde Okewale OBE at the moment. He has a heart and a soul, he has experience that he has crystallised into wisdom, like any good elder, and he feeds it out in his regular postings.
I love it when my friends tell me, usually via WhatsApp what they are reading, why it is inspiring them, a link to some new podcast, some new insight, a one-liner from ancient wisdom, a piece of art of great beauty, maybe even a piece of music that has touched them.
What amazes me is how few people are actually feeders. We love it when we get it, but I wonder how many of us give it? One of my commitments is to become a feeder. Our souls need nourishing, our spirits need inspiring, our minds need stretching….and where is this going to come from? Each other, I think. James Hollis in his vital book What Matters Most[1] addresses a whole chapter to this need (Chapter 3: Starving And Abundance – that we consider feeding the soul). He says we all fundamentally desire transcendence, transformation and connection. He explores how our impoverished ‘isms’ culture is starving the deepest parts of ourselves. We no longer know how to have a deep and meaningful conversation, but we love it when we find one…because it feeds us. He asks, ‘what feeds you and how do you know?’
Inspiration is what we all do, all the time. We breathe in. It keeps us alive. We call someone inspiring because they breathe a touch of life into us. We feel it. The opposite of this is any interaction that sucks the life from you, or leaves you with their stale air. Inspirers feed us, others don’t. The inspirers read books, they think a lot, they process a lot, they reflect, they meditate, they read, they look at art, they feast on nature, they listen to podcasts and to music. Once they have digested their experiences and distilled the wisdom and goodness out of them, they feed us… with links, recommendations, quotes, photos and however else they can find to drop a morsel into our beaks. Currently a lot of so called ‘feeding’ is actually the junk food of selfies, positioning, gossip and rants. It fattens the senses for a moment, with emotions of hopelessness, anger, jealousy, indignation, tribal positions etc. There was a time when Twitter, aptly named, was a place where people put their nuggets of wisdom for others to feed on. Morsels of digestible insights and inspirations. Food for the soul, mind and spirit. I came off Twitter and Facebook because it seemed to do everything but feed my soul. I don’t think we need any more techno-distractions; I think we need more feeders. Hollis concludes his chapter - ‘the soul is a hungry child at our door. How long can we ignore its presence?’
What are you reading right now? What film inspired you over the weekend? What poem delighted you? What heartening story did someone tell you? What piece of music touched the depth of you? What ancient wisdom most resonates with you? What podcast opened your eyes this week? What has fed your soul that you could pass on to others, so it has the opportunity to feed theirs? I’ve been flooding my friends WhatsApp’s with Rutger Bregman’s latest book Moral Ambition - Stop wasting your talent & start making a difference[2], that Johann Hari says is a ‘life changing book’. This past week I was introduced to Thief of Sleep[3], a selection of Rumi’s poems I hadn’t come across before, via one the latest podcasts by the inspired Michael Meade[4].
Let’s join the birds this week in a feeding frenzy on WhatsApp, or where ever you share with your friends and your circle and maybe even use your ‘food’ to widen your circle of impact.
Have a good feeder week
Trevor
[1] James Hollis What Matters Most 2009 Gotham Books
[2] Rutger Bregman ‘Moral Ambition – Stop wasting your talent & start making a difference’ Bloomsbury 2025
[3] Hohm Press 2000
[4] Living Myth Podcast Michael Meade Mosaic
photo courtesy of @DebbieMous