The gifts of decay
Modernity deems decay repulsive and encourages us to look away, always toward new growth. But what is missed when decay and endings are not honoured?
We’re in the last week of the Remix- a three-month adventure exploring the role & power of stories in these times; the horror stories that are in decay and the love stories we want to birth.
To mark the end of this adventure, we’re preparing to hold an Endings Ceremony later this week. As so many of us have been severed from the cultural practice of endings, we wanted to co-create an ending practice as a crew; to honor everything we've been tending to over the last few months, all that's decaying as well as all that's being born.
Alongside the ending of the Remix, I feel a shift in the air- the early part of summer oriented towards blooming, has given way to the arrival of first harvests. And somehow, this year, this time feels more like a reckoning than a celebration. I write this, on another stormy day in the UK; it feels like we’ve been lashed with wind and rain for weeks.
I feel a deep, cleansing energy that’s arrived with this weather; a powerful tidal wave of rains and whooshing winds; shaking up what’s become stagnant, exposing all that needs to be faced and reckoned with. Like mother’s tough love, or Nemesis* giving us what we are due. Challenging and necessary.
There’s certainly a part of me that really longs for the levity of carefree summer days, filled with a distant smell of BBQs. And yet the rain and wind remind me that carfree is not the truth of these days.
In recent weeks, Just Stop Oil has been slow marching and carrying out direct action across London, demanding the UK Government stop licensing all new oil, gas, and coal projects. During a recent direct action at the Proms, the audience sat obediently in the chairs, as the protesters were violently removed from the stage so that the show could continue. There was something so strange about watching that scene unfold- heartbreaking and familiar; a display of our deep commitment to keeping what we’ve grown to call ‘normal’ alive, even as it unravels.
The signs of decay of what we’ve deemed normal are everywhere- the latest mortgage & housing crisis in the UK means the basic right of shelter seems more and more uncertain for so many. My head spins when I stop to think that we’ve created a system that forces people to pay for shelter on their (our) very own home planet. A dying system, that’s been placed on life support in a desperate attempt to hold on for a little bit longer.
The other day, I was talking to a friend about the end of her relationship- how difficult it is to let go, how much we can hold on to what’s in decay or even perhaps already dead. And I realised that’s what I’m feeling these days- the clinch of how much we’re collectively holding on to what’s in decay, to the already dead visions of what our lives were supposed to be.
Modernity deems decay repulsive and encourages us to look away, always toward new growth. But what is missed when decay and endings are not honoured?
In 2021 I spent 6 months apprenticing to composting as part of my learning journey with Becoming Crew- I worked with compost at a local permaculture farm, created a key-hole garden to observe how rot can nourish the soil, I created art from scraps and developed a practice of spending time with what was in decay around me, including a beloved fallen tree and a roadkill badger.
I wanted to connect to the process of decomposing, to really notice the process of decay. One of the lessons, which continues to work on me, was just how much life and love there’s in decay. A decomposing trunk of a tree will lie on the ground until I can no longer see its previous form. During that time, it will become a birthplace; of moss & fungus, a shelter for bugs, or a home for grass seeds. It may be dead and yet it is teeming with life.
Many of us are used to the idea of putting the work into beginnings, into birthing new things to life. But endings and decay demand our effort and attention too. They call on us to mark and notice them. By honouring what’s in decay, with all its lessons and gifts, we make soil for new life to come forth, rather than layering undigested teachings & creating overcrowded environments hostile to life.
There are more reflections on endings to come, as this week at the Remix, we’re joined by Sophie Strand who’ll help us tune into the alchemy of decay and its power to sustain new narrative ecologies.
Dan, Mark and I will also be taking some time at the end of summer/early autumn to reflect on all our experiments this year and the wild ride that Becoming Crew has been; with all that’s decaying and all that’s being born. As ever, we’ll share what comes through this time of reflection with the intention of practicing vulnerability and working in the open.
Until then, may all of our endings be generative.
*Deep thanks to Jay Griffiths, one of the special guests on the Remix for introducing us to Nemesis and her roles in these times.
Join our 1 day offering for courageous organisations
From September, we’re opening space for 5 courageous organisations to take part in a 1day nature-centered, climate action accelerator. This is for teams looking to make bolder moves, work with the big questions and discomfort of these times and participate in halting the destruction of our living world - today.
In service to life on earth. Find out more or email hello@becomingcrew.com to book a chat with Dan, Mark & Evva.
An offering from our friends at Huddlecraft- a global huddle to reimagine hopefulness in uncertain times
Kicking off in September, Reimagining Hope is a 6-month peer learning experience where 12 people will get together to explore mechanisms, practices, tools and experiences to go beyond the idea of a doomed humanity. Together the group will reimagine and co-create more hopeful scenarios for our present and future. This experience follows the format of a Huddle: an alternative learning format where learners are at the centre, actively working with their peers to create a purposeful journey where the group pools their knowledge, experience, perspectives and creativity, with the support of a host and a structure, to co-develop their learning and development. Is this something that makes you curious and inspired?
Hosted by Letícia Usanovich and is fully online, so open to all. You can access the Huddle page for more details and to apply until 15 August.”
