Simon Hodges

Max Richter, Louisa Fuller, Natalia Bonner, John Metcalfe, Philip Sheppard & Chris Worsey - Richter: On the Nature of Daylight Listen to Richter: On the Nature of Daylight on TIDAL

Be well, take good rest.

A tune I've loved this year Max Richter On the nature of daylight

tidal.com/track/884551...

congratulations 🎉

View from nearby the village of Oostenlittens/Easterlittens, Friesland, Netherlands March 2024 ©Simon Hodges

Took a while to tap this into shape. A story to unearth your treasure in 2026, from the bright lands of the Fries.

open.substack.com/pub/lindenbo...

#netherlands
#folkstory
#becomingmythic
#mythopoetics
#europeanmyth

The stories of the Netherlands have been pressed as the land has been. This has consequences for how we make contact with ourselves through nature. It’s difficult to feel the rhyme in life - how troubles blend into mercies - when the edges are so closed off.

tinyurl.com/bd4cj6mw

#dutchfolkstories

Seeing this Fleetwood Mac, and thinking of the the Faces, makes we wonder they don't make noses like they did in the 70s. What happened to them all?

Calling weavers, the dreamers, tree-singers, marsh dwellers and undergrowth bards. I’m dedicating the winter to putting audio and written stories in front of you.

Be swell to see you 😊

lindenbower.substack.com

#oralstorytelling
#folkstory
#netherlandsfolktale
#forestdwelling
#baarn
#netherlands

awesome comment

It's not, it's absolutely about how it is processed. Read a decent novel - nothing like an AI response, which flattens the expression. it's a take on us by a machine. Useful sure, but not *us*.

When stillness serves the story Reflecting on when, and when not to, speak. How knowledge reveals or obscures the story.

lindenbower.substack.com/p/when-still...

Pretty sure my substack is becoming part diary where I work stuff out, part way to release early versions of story. This is more in the diary area - for fans of mythology, oral storytelling and great things that can happen with words, people and a room.

lindenbower.substack.com/p/when-still...

Sunrise breakfast on the polder. Happy Easter everyone 🐣💓🌅

#Poldernews
#Belonging
#Baarn
#Lifeontheapex

Well actually no one is but them. Their first couple of albums they sang in a language they made up called Hopelandic because they found their mother tongue too depressing.

‘I didn’t trust the system’: lasting trauma of Windrush victim barred from UK for 10 years Winston Jones, who for a decade was unable to return home from Jamaica, almost didn’t apply for compensation, fearing it was a trap

Please read this and share it

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

I thought you nailed that distinction, Athena. Great article.

Couple who ran Swedish eco-retreat fled leaving behind barrels of human waste Flemming Hansen and Mette Helbæk, now in Guatemala, had racked up large tax debt at Stedsans forest retreat

"We're too soul-driven to acknowledge the existence of taxes (or animal welfare or wastewater management)." Enjoy Guatemala!

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Boycotting the grocery store until they start buying an equivalent volume of groceries from me

I'm sure I've come across a udemy course on nightbrain handling somewhere

I just spoke with the widow of the local baker, still serving bread in a shop that's stood since the 1950s, about how tender the lettuces her father grew were and how she's not tasted such a good one since.

"Zij waren botersla" - butter-lettuce.

#RealNews

#RealNews
#RealStory
#ShopLocal
#Baarn

My (last and only) fruitful interaction with Meta AI

#metaai
#gonetosignal

"Life is nothing but a series of detours intended to bring us back to those one or two things before which our hearts first opened."

Albert Camus

Heard on Michael Meade's Living Myth podcast

#much
#story
#mythoppetics
#michaelmeade

Belonging - Storyourself Encounter soul - Join us for a weekend of storytelling, ritual and land listening in the Holtingerveld.

www.storyourself.com/event/belong...

I hope this gives you a good taste of what's on offer. The link is below if you want to find out more and please comment/message if this speaks to you.

If it doesn't, you're welcome to repost the message repeatedly out of sheer frustration. It'll really help both you and us.

I've invited some brilliant people to hold the weekend with me. Caro Turlings specialises in food and community alchemy. Nityananda van der Schee will guide us in ceremony to deepen what we're finding in the stories and on the land.

“Take a break from the small screen, petty daily anxieties and step into a bigger realm of nature and story reaching down into the soil and back over the centuries. It’ll remind you of what’s important and weave you into a community of curiosity, creativity, and support.”

That's why the weekend is called Belonging - all of us belong to something bigger. During the weekend, we find out what that biggerness is.

Our last weekend in November was a hive of rich community. Here's what my dear friend @brianfit.bsky.social said about it ...

heard stories that have stayed with me for life, and discovered the underlayers of soul that aren't always obvious in the onrush of cortisol-inducing headlines. In short, weekends where I've found myself and made lasting community.

I want to tell you about the storytelling retreat weekend I'm organising in May.

I want to re-create the kind of weekend where I've made my best friendships, [cont'd in comments]

#storytellingnetherlands
#creativeretreat
#belonging
#mythopoetics
#natureconnection
#getmythordietrying

Such an incredibly moving read from John Harris writing about his son, who has autism, and their shared love of music.

Winter Trees by Sylvia Plath + study notes

lindenbower.substack.com/p/winter-tre...

#poetry
#womenspoetry
#trees
#treepoetry
#studynotes

📷Gleb Lucky on Unsplash