Burns Night and rewilding the Welsh Marches
It was Burns night last week. As an anglicized member of the global Burns diaspora, I did my traditional “nothing” to celebrate, other than reflect for a few brief moments on my distant connection with the great man.
He came from poverty and it is believed he suffered debilitating depression (which is really not ideal for getting food on the table in C18th Scotland). He was beloved during his lifetime owing to the beauty, authenticity and grounded nature of his work. When people talk about the works of Robbie Burns, they often reflect on his democratic ethos. He is a man of the people. My father, a Robert Burns from long line of Robert Burns, is a working class lad who loved the poem Twa’ Dogs. Two dogs from the opposite end of the social spectrum meet. Caesar is kept for his master’s pleasure and Luath is a ploughmans collie. Their lives are totally different, but you are drawn into a position of empathy with the characters.
Personally, I particularly love “To a mouse”, which is probably his best known piece of work aside from Auld Lang Syne. It is a timeless, reflecting on nature’s fragility under man’s dominion. Within just a few perfectly crafted lines, Burns articulates a deep connection with nature. In today’s world, we dwell on the denatured landscapes and loss of biodiversity. I’m not sure there is anything better than this simple poem to make us stop and think about what we ask nature to give us, just to survive.
The conceit of the story is that he destroys a mouse’s home during harvest and he shares its sadness. “I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion has broken Nature’s social union”.
But Burns is a philosopher and reflects on the fact that things go wrong for the working man too. “The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang agley [often go awry]”
He goes further to reflect on how the mouse is, at least, free from the torture of intelligence and foresight. Mankind’s burden is to hold onto the past and worry about the future:
“Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi’me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e’e
On prospects drear,
An’ forward tho’ I canna see
I guess and fear”
It’s the layers of empathy, connection with nature, philosophy that make this such a great poem. Its sweet, sad and beautiful offering an almost childlike way of connecting with nature all these years later. And, to me, it seems to have taken on a new life and meaning. We presume that Robbie Burns stressing about his future from an economic or social standing perspective. Will he put food on the table? What will people think of his wayward love life? Now though, the poem works just as well when we reflect on the impact we are having on the world from the perspective of filling the oceans with plastic, removing biodiversity from the British Isles and warming the planet.
A couple of year’s ago our dog caught a little mouse and chewed its back leg. We intervened, nursed the mouse (known as Timmy Willy) back to health and re-released it back into the wild at the bottom of our garden. A few days later, Timmy Willy had come back to our front door and made himself known to us. We had a ‘homing mouse’! We learnt that you need to drop a mouse about 1.5miles away from your home, because they have such a strong sense of direction. Mice and rats are trapped and poisoned in vast numbers. But what Timmy Willy showed us was that these tiny little creatures, just like Robbie Burns’ “Wee sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie”, are a delicate little souls with value.
Timmy Willy is our inspiration to replant about an acre of land. We intend to grow native trees, which will grow and capture lots of carbon. We will also rewild areas, thicken our hedges and look to provide the ideal home for lots of little souls. As luck would have it our new neighbour is an expert in planting, who intends to do the same so between us we should be able to provide extended corridors running up and down our hill.
We’ll share pictures as we progress here at our home in the Welsh Marches. Even more exciting, here at Jones Trust Your Gut we are pulling together plans to make the whole business carbon neutral. As Anna and I pull together these plans, we’ll share updates and pictures. We’re privileged to have some land to do this. Do what you can. Maybe start by reading “To a Mouse”. Its beautiful.
Photo by Marcus Ganahl on Unsplash