Well, could I be in a better place, with a better activity in store this morning? I think not. Here I am in the very remote, very rustic, very beautiful Chatham Islands, and this morning I had the absolute pleasure and privilege of working with learners from the three schools in a beach clean up. There have been some very high tides recently and the beach is littered with rubbish high up the sand.
So, here I am, on my first real decent walk since severely rolling my ankle. This has got to be so so good for my mental and emotional well being, as well as my physical well being. The wind was literally cutting through us, whipping the sand into our faces, blowing our hair and whistling around us.
Taking time to mindfully walk and look for traces of rubbish was so cool. And so devastating. Here we are 828km out from New Zealand across the ocean and the beach is literally littered with rope bits, net bits, and pieces of plastic. From large pieces, bottles, lids, all the way down to tiny little bits, beads of plastic. It is both horrifying and soul destroying to realise how the ocean floor must look, if this is what it tosses out in a storm.
We really must do more, and make the changes to stop adding to this horrendous problem. So while today is incredibly good for my taha hinengaro, it is also incredibly challenging. I'd like to do more of this, more walking and picking up at beaches, more thinking about the very severe impact we are making on our planet.
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