Writing about the Climate Crisis–– A Workshop for Writers

photo: Nina Milton

Habitat loss, marine pollution and climate change issues are blighting the natural world. They are also changing the lives of communities across the globe. There are many writers who wish to write this complex subject, but are often at a loss about where to begin and in which direction to head. 

This WRITERS' WORKSHOP is being held on Friday 24th JANUARY 2025 

online, and available to all writers, whatever your situation. 

Co-ordinated by Nina Milton, this 2 hour workshop is suitable for prose writers interesting in pursuing these subjects.  It won’t pretend to find the all answers, but it will allow us to become a little more aware of the issues around the subject and challenge our responses as writers. 

You may be thinking of writing about the changes or threats to the diversity of the natural world, about the communities effected by changing environments, or about the routes to more sustainable living. You may even be imagining a different future world.

We will discuss  some of the ways this sort of writing has been tackled by both fiction and nonfiction writers, at new and different ways of approaching these issues, and look how this writing will present in the future. 

With discussion and writing exercises with feedback on writing achieved and the chance to peer review each other's work, it is hoped that by the end of the workshop, attendees will feel more confident about approaching this vast subject, and have some new skills to enable this. 

Once you have signed up, you can access the information. on this workshop with links and reading recommendations.

Contact Nina Milton at kitchentablewriters@live.com to find out more details of the workshop.

Costs; £10 PER WRITER: Bursaries are available to help with costs. 

Writing the Global Crisis

The global crisis – climate heating, habitat loss and marine pollution among other human-sourced issues are blighting the natural world. They are also changing the lives of communities across the globe. Many students wish to write about this complex subject, but are often at a loss about where to begin and in which direction to head. 

I’m not going to pretend I know any more about the climate crisis than the reader, and I’m not going to look for the answers, Butt writing the climate crisis will allow us to become a little more aware of the issues around the subject and challenge our responses as writers. 

Are you considering writing about the changes in the climate, or threats to the diversity of the natural world? About the communities effected by changing environments, or about the routes to more sustainable living? You may already be writing about these things. You may even be imagining a different future world.

In this blogpost I want to discuss  some of the ways this sort of writing has been tackled by both fiction and nonfiction writers, and look at new and different ways of approaching these issues. I'll also take a punt on how this writing will present in the future. So, once you’ve read this post, do get back to me via the Comment Page, so that the discussion can continue. I’m including a few writing exercises which might help you feel more confident about approaching this vast subject, and have some new skills to enable this. 

When thinking about writing the environmental crisis try to separate out the approaches people are already making. Think about the re-evaluation of science, informed policymaking, and governmental choices, as well as the way protest groups and the small actions of ordinary citizens are forming the debate. What happens when these separate things are put into the melting pot? Different people may reach different conclusions, depending on what they value.

WHICH DEBATE ARE YOU WRITING?

There is no single issue here, but many issues all leading out of our overuse of natural resources. 

Global Warming is mostly caused by fossil fuels resulting in global greenhouse gas emissions which blanket the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat, and warming Earth faster than at any point in recorded history. Hotter temperatures over time are changing weather patterns and disrupting the usual balance of nature.

Environmental damage, of course this starts with the warming of the atmosphere, but also includes air pollution, poor soil management, insect loss leading to poor pollination, deforestation, growth of human population, food waste, global trade and urbanisation.

Biodiversity Loss

The past 50 years have seen a rapid growth of human consumption, population, resulting in humanity using more of the Earth’s resources than it can replenish naturally. 

More than 500 species of land animals are on the brink of extinction and are likely to be lost within 20 years; the same number were lost over the whole of the last century. The scientists say that without the human destruction of nature, this rate of loss would have taken thousands of years. 

Plastic Pollution and the marine crisis 

National Geographic found that 91% of all plastic that has ever been made is not recycled and plastic takes 400 years to decompose. 

The quantity of marine debris is increasing in oceans world-wide. Plastic pieces outnumber plankton on the ocean surface 6:1.In the ocean, plastic debris injures and kills fish, seabirds and marine mammals. In 2010, a California grey whale washed up dead on the shores of the Puget Sound. Autopsies indicated that its stomach contained a pair of pants and a golf ball, more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, duct tape and surgical gloves.

The Human Armageddons

These might include destruction of humanity through the dangers of AI, deadly new virus pandemics or even nuclear war,  

Exercise  

Focus tightly any one of the above aspects and write for ten minutes; 

• A nonfiction summing-up of your feelings
• A poem about your feelings
• A snippet of new story with new characters
• A continuation of something you’ve been writing.

Past, Present and Future

Climate change is not so much an “issue”––it is an emerging reality. This new reality unfolding has a past, present and a future. A past that has been largely obscured but which is now breaking out into mainstream consciousness. Writers are getting involved at all those points, writing and re-writing stories that we thought we knew, that we should know now, and that we might only speculate on.

There are separate debates within science, within policy and within economics. There are debates about how scientific findings should guide governmental and political policy. There are personal decisions being made all the time, some based on strong evidence that alterations to lifetstyle will help, some based on heresy or even conspiracy theories. Here are at least the major aspects of the global crisis.

Exercise 

How do you see the future of mankind or the Earth herself? Choose one aspect or idea for all the different possibilities of how life will be in say 50 or 100 years; have an educated guess, or, even better, create your idea of a future possibility. Such guesses can be as fun or as ridiculous as you wish. 

Here’s my suggestion; 2100: Humanity has been almost wiped out and people live in very small communities, which have lost the ability to communicate with each other.

Here’s the opening of a poem by Pascale Petit from her book Tiger Girl (Bloodaxe)

The day will come when the papers will only tell leaf-stories

Of blackbird’s  quarrels with sparrows

Their pages will roll back into  trees, 

and the front page will be bark…

Take one of these ideas; not necessarily your own, but the one that has triggered a small idea that you could write about for ten minutes. 

FINDING THE RIGHT GENRE OR FORM

There are specific genres springing up that deal solely with these issues. 

You might think about these alternatives when choosing how to structure your writing 

Ecofiction’ or ‘Cli-Fi’  allows novelists and short story writers to combine the art of storytelling with their ideas about the environmental challenges, and their predictions for the future. 

Stories scripted for TV, film, radio or even theatre, allow immediate reactions from the audience, and a wide ‘pick-up’. 

Some ideas for story, especially dramatised documentary stories may be a perfect fit for scripting. The global crisis is alive on TV and UK radio and that may help you get a positive answer to your pitch.

Nonfiction may be a more direct way of alerting people to issues than, fiction. Articles, papers and books are being writing all the time, so be sure to be original and keep within your own ‘voice’ and state your own passions.

Poetry is a wonderful way to express the ideas and emotions this subject raises. It touches people’s hearts…the only drawback may be that the people who read poetry are already ‘won over’ on this debate.

Eco nonfiction is not now in its infancy, but is flowering and there are opportunities to write nonfiction and narrative journalism,  bringing the facts creatively to a broad readership. Also known as ecological or environmental literature, this a genre that encompasses a diverse array of works spanning novels, short stories, and poetry which breathes life into the environmental movement through the power of storytelling.

At its core, eco-fiction seeks to illuminate the intricate web of relationships between humans and the natural world, exploring themes such as conservation, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Unlike traditional environmental literature, which often adopts a didactic tone, eco-fiction employs the art of storytelling to evoke empathy, fostering a deeper connection between readers and the environment. Novels like Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper Perennial, 2013), in which blends science and a story about a bizarre act of nature, and The Overstory, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel interlocks fables with a is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us.

Eco-fiction has a tendency to negate writing strategies such as conflict, tension and empathy, but  Kingsolver and Powers successfully demonstrates the implications of a changing planet while maintaining these important parts of writing fiction. 

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler (Serpent's Tail 2014), deals with our attitude to animal welfare. The narrator, Rosemary describes her loneliness after the loss of her sister, Fern. A clever use of the ‘central reveal’ allows the writer to portray the plight of animals, both past and present, and describe the bonds that unite all sentient beings.

In fact novels with an ecological attitude are not new. Ursula Le Guin’s wonderful novel The Word for Tree is Forest  was written decades ago, and shows a wrecked Earth and the mining of other planet. The Drowned World was written by JG Ballard in 1962, but the concept of an overheated, rainy world is still amazingly pertinent.

Any perspective and approach are possible, if it’s undertaken in a well-informed, and well-crafted way. It could be a piece of New Nature Writing, a short story or chapter which dramatises an aspect of the Climate Emergency, a poem that articulates a more-than-human perspective, a script which brings to life the struggles of an eco-activist with a climate denier partner or parent.  

It has to be emphasised that one critical position isn’t the only one to be taken – a cross-section is a far better approach.  

The important thing to remember is that the ecological imaginary is broad and demands a multiplicity of perspectives. All voices are welcome – we all have an authentic, authoritative voice and a stake in the survival of our planet and species.    

Exercise

As our world grapples with pressing ecological challenges, authors are turning to the natural world as a muse, crafting narratives that delve deep into the interconnectedness between humanity and the environment.

• Freewrite a short piece, to explore your own feelings on any the issues explored above
• Read this piece, preferably aloud. Think about its possibilities. Make notes
• Amalgamate your thinking into the freewrite Perhaps concentrate on one aspect. This can be the start of fiction, poetry or nonfiction.
• Using all of this work start a piece of creative writing. 

THRUTOPIAS

Manda Scott has initiated a huge push for this sort of fiction. She says, in https://mandascott.co.uk/why-we-need-thrutopias/...

“We know that inspiring stories shape our futures. Throughout human history, our power to imagine a better world has pushed – or pulled – us away from the comfort of the known.

But our stories of power, accumulation and self-aggrandisement have brought us to the edge of extinction and we urgently need new heroes, new ways of doing things, new peaks to aim for. If you knew you were at the last days of the human story, what would you write? How would you write?”

Thrutopian writing wants to move through the dystopian end that most novels about the future of humanity (both for adults and young adults) have. At the moment dystopian fiction tends to end with only a good outcome for the protagonist…the rest of that society is still living in misery. Thrutopias push through the idea that disaster is non-reversible, to look at how a better ending can be achieved.

It also delves into the embodied, local, and transhuman aspects, challenging conventional notions of 'nature' and the perceived separation between humanity and the natural world.  

By addressing the ever-present spectre of didacticism in speculative and dystopian fiction, the writer is encouraged to consider a spectrum of perspectives, and to make their own ‘ecologies’ of connection. The emphasis, then changes to be on how writers wish to explore the various global crises.  

Try reading these novels with a Thrutopian outcome 

The Future by Naomi Alderson

Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr 

 Any Human Power. by Manda Scott

Transrealism and the Transhuman

These words refer to writing that looks beyond human beings to robots and cyborgs.

With the 2016 TV serialisation into ten episodes of an adaptation of  Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid’s Tale (McCelland and Stewart 1985), not to mention her cyborg trilogy: Oryx and Crake also The Year of the Flood and Maddaddam, new forms of experience  are being explored. These are  literary modes that  attempt to mix the techniques of fantasy, science fiction, futuristic and dystopian literature with the technique of naturalistic realism, resulting in books like The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006) and Matt Haig’s  2013 book for young adults, The Humans (Canongate Books), which has as its narrator an alien in the body of a Cambridge professor, constantly puzzled by our primitive ways until he begins to develop an emotional attachment to the lives of humans, in particular, our ‘gift for love’.

THE ANTHROPOCENE

Humans have become the single most influential species on the planet, causing significant global warming and other changes to land, environment, water, organisms and the atmosphere. The word Anthropocene comes from the Greek terms for human ('anthropo') and new ('cene'), but its definition is controversial. It was coined in the 1980s, then popularised in 2000 by atmospheric chemist Paul J Crutzen and diatom researcher Eugene F Stoermer. The duo suggested that we are living in a new geological epoch.

Katie Pavid makes the case for the idea that we are living in a time many people refer to as the Anthropocene. She points out that: 

“It is widely accepted that our species, Homo sapiens, has had such a significant impact on Earth and its inhabitants that we will have a lasting - and potentially irreversible - influence on its systems, environment, processes and biodiversity.

The Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and modern humans have been around for around a mere 200,000 years. Yet in that time we have fundamentally altered the physical, chemical and biological systems of the planet on which we and all other organisms depend.

In the past 60 years in particular, these human impacts have unfolded at an unprecedented rate and scale. This period is sometimes known as the Great Acceleration. Carbon dioxide emissions, global warming, ocean acidification, habitat destruction, extinction and widescale natural resource extraction are all signs that we have significantly modified our planet.

Not everyone agrees that these changes represent enough evidence to declare a new formal geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Scientists all over the world are still debating.

LANGUAGE

Changing the way we word certain phrases makes a difference. Not long ago, we were talking about the ‘global warming theory’ and now we’re talking about the ‘global heating crisis’. Rather than 'climate skeptics', we talk about ‘climate deniers’. .

.Rather than ‘climate change,’ we talk about 'climate emergency'.

 One way to structure you language when starting to write is to work with

Opposites'. Consider; 

Hard science 

versus 

emotional reaction

Evidence of a global crisis

 Versus 

Conspiracy theories, corporate lying and disbelieve

Good Policy making

Versus 

Ignorant Policies or even blatant disregarding policy decisions

The macro and microcosms  The big players, governments, social media

 versus

 the little person and small communities. 

Groups or families in denial

Versus

People coming together to make a difference 

Using Metaphor

 Let's take a further look at Pascale Petit’s beautiful poem. It’s full of marvellous metaphors, which as a way of describing that can really help your language hit home when writing about emotively charged subjects like this one. Here are a few of her amazing metaphors

• The buttress root of my armchair
• Phones that light up with chorophyll
• An apiary of apps
• Retweet birdsong

Your writing has to be a pleasurable read. Of course, that means different things to different readers, but no one likes to be lectured or spoken down to. No one wants to be told how to think. Writing like a tub-thumper is likely to result in your work not being read. 

Statements made on paper always shut down debate. So use questions instead. Questions lead to stories...statements shut story down. Therefor if you feel ambivalent about any issue you want to write about don't hesitate to exploit your own hesitancies by asking difficult questions. Fiction especially should always be about 'asking the question' rather than finding the answer.

Be aware that you cannot use your own political aims or beliefs to stage a story or article; your own opinions cannot take centre stage. When writing  fiction, you will find that your created characters take over––they should be allowed to have their own opinions––it's the questions that arise from these that will make your story engrossing. 

The important thing to remember is that the this story of greenness and kindliness to the planet and its inhabitants is wide and broad and demands a multiplicity of perspectives. That means your voice, among so many others will be welcome – we all have an authentic voice when talking and writing about our planet and species.    

Exercise  

Take one image that is important to you that can represent what you feel about the way the planet is changing 

Try to express it in a metaphorical way.

OR

Create a tub-thumping character who feels very strongly about something. 

Start a monologue in their voice, let them state their opinions. Then start to move the debate, allowing subtle  caveats to creep into their minds; finish with the character acknowledging the opposite opinion. 

OR

Think about how you could use opposites in various ways in work you are approaching.

WHAT NOW?

All of these things are at your fingertips when writing the global crisis. But you cannot spread that writing too thinly. Think about all the aspects, components and issues I’ve raised and talked about in this one little post, and focus your thoughts narrowly to get the best impact into your writing. 

Good Luck!

Return to my Trees – a three hundred mile walk through Welsh forests

 Dod yn ôl fy nghoed...

        To return to my trees.

What on earth is that Welsh phrase supposed to mean? Unsurprisingly, knowing the poetic and lyrical nature of the Welsh nation, it doesn't just mean 'nipping into the woods'. It's a phrase used when someone needs to clear their head, to think again.

Matthew Yeomans, a Cardiff author of Rough Guides translates it as 'to return to a balanced state of mind...' 

Something that has been medically proved to occur when we walk in amongst trees; our blood pressure reduces and so does our anxiety levels. We return from our walk feeling de-stressed and ready for life.

the mythic map

Yeoman, who has been a traveller all his writing life, didn't have to travel far geographically to write this fourth book. Having travelled the world, he decided towalk through the ancient and modern forests of Wales, losing himself in their stories––their natural word, their history, mythology and legends, especially those which appear between the covers of the Mabinogion, the ancient tales of Wales. While Yeoman  explored the paths, he also explored the religions, culture, arts and music of Wales, as well as the industrial past and present of his home nation. 

Yeoman started in the Welsh Marches, at Wentwood,striding across the south of the country, to the Black Mountains. Then he worked northwards, past the Devil's Bridge, through Snowdonia and Llangollen and onwards to the north-eastern border,  stopping at Chirk. 

Such a grand idea: linking the forests throughout a modern country, walking those (often unmarked) paths, talking to the local people and learning about the land. 300 miles is a massive journey, and Yeoman is still walking, often with other people who want to encourage us all to walk.

Recently, I walked just a few miles of Yeoman's Mythic Map, over the Bwlch Mountain near Maesteg, walking with my son and my dog. I love walking with others because that's when the most intimate and interesting chats happen, when you're looking ahead at the path and the trees, listening to the brook and the birds, you can open your heart. 

But walking along introduces a new dimension––not only bringing down stress and puts our lives into perspective––it allows me reach the most creative parts of my mind. When I walk alone, my books, stories, characters and settings accompany me and grow clearer and more real as I progress along my route. Many writers walk to invent their stories. Dickens apparently wrote most mornings and walked every afternoon. I think his characters and their scenarios walked with him, ready for their creation by pen the following
morning.

The writer’s greatest fear is the blank page or screen. Being stuck for something to write is terrifying for a writer, and is a major reason why many would-be writers never take the plunge. But most of our writing is done before we even touch the keyboard or pen. For this, we visit a strange place in our heads – our imagination, where we go though a process of deep listening. When you have the chance to attend to the many voices of your self, letting them settle in your head before writing them down, you unlock something that you didn’t previously know was there. Walking alone allows this.

I've used walking as inspiration for years. It doesn't matter if the surrounds are urban or rural, but naturally it's nicer if there are trees. The most important thing is that I am on my own. When i walk alone, I chatter to my characters, and they chatter back. t. I've walked my way though, scene-building, description, interior monologue and action. I've listen to dialogue develop and worked out my plots. Holding it in your head is the hard part––I've been known to race back on the home stretch, my hands itching for the keyboard––so always take a notebook and pen. 

Kitchen Table Writers has already approached this idea of walking through stories, in this blogpost

On Radio 6, Matthew Yeomans explained how this walk emerged out of the cabin fever of Covid. 'I had to get out…I didn't  know much about trees, but I heard that the Welsh Government had announced a plan to create a national forest of Wales.' 

In his wonderful, inspiring book, he walks to link just some of the woodlands and forests of Wales, seeking an answer to the question; when and how did we humans lose our connection with nature – and how do we find it again? Helpfully, the walk has grown, turning into a book, a mythic map, and a Welsh playlist plus a list of podcasts all of which can be downloaded.

They are matchless,

My trees in winter. 

While I watch telly and eat carbs, 

Put the fire on, the heating up, 

They stand naked to the battle;

Steady for storm, ready for gale. 

Winter trees communicate in semaphore

Black flags against the half-day’s light.

They are gallows for bats,

Rigging for gulls,

Blue cages for robins 

Steeples for stormcocks.

In the cold sun, 

The oaks glow emerald with moss;

Planes strike piebald patterns;

Birch trunks shimmer like a high moon. 

I pull on gloves, hat, scarves,

Brave the cold to watch 

As they wait secure, 

Dreaming sap dreams,

Expectant for spring.                                                 (Trees in Winter by Nina Milton)

Not everyone lives near a forest. But I'm sure you can find some trees to enjoy. So go and enjoy them. Return to them, to clear your head, find a better perspective, solve you problems and, even, perhaps, write a book. You may return to a balanced state of mind. You may even  return to a balanced state of soul.

Kuan Yen… Footsteps leading away

Kuan-yin, Chinese goddess of compassion, looked at the world and saw how most of the people had sadly lost their connection with spirituality. They had become mean to each other, and neglectful of the natural world and its wisdom. And they'd lost ritual, so they no longer had a reason to reconnect with spirit at the important times of year. 

All of that made Kuan-yin very unhappy. Until, one day, she heard a call for help and knew she should respond. But it was no good just arriving and lecturing the people, they'd simply laugh, or turn their backs unbelieving, so she hatched a plan. 

In a coastal fishing town, she materialised as a fresh-faced young woman and started to inhabit a run-down shack near the beach. She'd go out on the waves, like the other fishers and bring back a catch, and sell it at the market. It wasn't long before her lovely face and graceful movements caught the eye of almost every young man in the place.

Fifty of these eager young men turned up one day at her hovel, asking for her hand in marriage. They each brought a reason why she should choose them; a good business head, a strong fishing boat, a nice, warm home for her. 

"Sirs," she began. "You're very kind, but I can't marry you all! Please, go away and find one of the old stories. Search in the archives, the libraries of the cities, and speak to the old people you know. Seek out those old stories that helped the people understand their lives, and tell them to each other. Ask the people which which story is best. Bring me the news and I will marry that man."

The fifty went away, but thirty returned, all with stories that had been voted by the townspeople as very special; they made them laugh, cry, think...remember.

"Sirs," said Kuan-yin. "There are so many of you – I cannot marry you all! Please, I wish you to each make up a new story. Remember how the old stories made you feel, and turn the feelings they gave you into something the people today can relate to and learn from. Tell your new stories to each other and to the people of the town. Then bring me the news of which story is best. I will marry that man."

The thirty young men went away, got out their brushes and parchments and began to compose. Finally just a handful returned, with newly created stories that had been voted by the townspeople as very special; they made them laugh, cry, think, remember…wake up in the mornings with renewed vigour.

"Sirs," said Kuan-yin. "There are still too many of you for me to marry! So I will set you a third task. Each of you should create a ritual. Use your understanding of the old stories, and your skills in creating new ones. Present each for the nourishment of the town. Let the town choose the best ritual and let that man be the one I marry."

The handful of men went away, talking excitedly. And Kuan-yen heard talk about the rituals that were performed, all over the town, and the buzz these created. People loved them, and wanted more. They couldn't decide which was the best, so three young men returned to Kuantans-yin's little cottage by the sea.

"Sirs," said Kuan-yin. "I cannot marry three of you!  So this is your last task. Now you have story and ritual, you need a priest to guide and care for the people. I want you to choose, out of your small number, a priest, who will guide you and keep the stories and the rituals alive. I will marry that man."

The man chosen as the new priest of the area had fallen in love with the beautiful fishing girl who lived near the beach. From the moment he'd first seen her, he had wanted her as his wife. So with gladness in his heart, as soon as he was chosen, he deserted the other men and ran like a hare towards the beach. He tapped on her door respectfully, but when she didn't answer, he hammered his fists on it and cried out;

"It's me, my darling, come to claim you as my bride!"

There was no one in the hovel. Then he saw the footprints in the sand. They led down to the water and into the sea. The footprints only went one way.

The man fell to his knees and sobbed out his sorrow. But  he heard his love's voice in his head...seek out those old stories that helped the people understand their lives, then think about your lives today...turn the feelings they gave you into something the people today can relate to and learn from. Use the old stories, and your new skills to create rituals for the nourishment of the town, then choose a  priest to guide and care for the people...

The man understood, at last. This was no young girl, but the goddess herself, come to them because she cared for their spiritual welfare. The man got up, brushed the sand off his damp knees and went back to his people.

Kuan-yin (or Guan Yin or Quan Yin) is both goddess of compassion, and a Bodhisattva. For Buddhists, that is any person who is on the path who compassionately refrains from entering nirvana in order to save others  The worship of.Kuan-yin arrived in China in the early days of Buddhism and she soon become a traditional goddess figure there. But now she is loved by people all over the world, especially where Chinese communities have flourished.  She is the embodiment of compassion and she's said to manifest wherever people call to her for help. Almost all the stories are of these sudden, angelic, appearances, such as the Footprints story above. 

I think we know what it feels like to be deeply moved by the pain and suffering of others.

Kuan Yin sitting on a lotus, a willow branch and a water jar 
in her hands, at a shop in Saigon. Photo © nationsonline.org

We compare those struggles to our own, however varied the experience might be; most of us have a measure of sorrow and struggle in this life. Through the world media, we are able to understand how many people are asked to bear the unbearable—starvation, tragedy, and hardship beyond our imagining. Our loved ones experience illness, pain, and heartache, and we long to ease their burden. Kuan-yin  is often called upon, not only because she shows ceaseless compassion to those who love her, but because she helps us to understand compassionate feelings and actions ourselves. When we feel and act compassionately towards others, unsurprisingly, we do ourself psychological good, too. We only have to recall the last time we slipped someone an unexpected gift and their face told us how much they appreciated it. We can all get a bit self-fixatated, and in showing compassion, especially more widely that our own family and close group of friends, it feels as if we move towards liberating our own spirituality.

The images in this blogpost are all of Kwan-yin, and can be found as paintings, sculptures, and statuettes, ranging in size from palm sized to gigantic and made in anything from rubber to wood to translucent jade. The figures attract reverential ceremonies, are offered gifts, chatted to and loved in gardens, alters and temples. If you chose a Kwan-yin statuette, keep it them clean and celebrate her birthday (Guan Yin’s celebration day is on the 19th day of the second lunar month).