Probably all of us are facing a future with a lot more uncertainty, and a lot less control. So what can we learn from people who have been living positively in that condition for thousands of years? By definition, nomads represent an extreme example of this, having no ownership or control of land, very few … Read more
Picture this scene: you are standing atop a sand dune in the Sahara, in a 360-degree panorama of utter vastness and silence. You face west, watching the sunset, the sky a blaze of orange, blue and red. You turn to face east: just as the sun sets, the full moon rises above the rim of … Read more
Desert Wisdom is not a formal category, or a defined body of religious doctrine, but it is a useful name for a large, diverse body of teachings which share many qualities. The deserts of the Middle East have been the inspiration for many great spiritual teachings, notably Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Sufi. The culture of … Read more
For many years, I’ve found that trips to so-called less developed countries give me priceless reminders of how to live more happily back home in 2018 Britain. This was certainly true of the group trip I co-led to Morocco in November 2018. I called this trip the Roots of Joy because I believe that human … Read more
How do you navigate from place to place around Britain? Probably by roads – hard-surfaced, man-made thoroughfares which get you efficiently from A to B. You can pick your roads easily with a road atlas, or be told where to go by Sat Nav. It’s unlikely that you choose your route by thinking which valley … Read more
An English gentleman meets the Bedouin The essence of this story is in that amazing name, Glubb Pasha. John Glubb was a Brigadier in the British Army, who spoke Arabic fluently, rode a camel, and in the 1930’s was a Pasha, a kind of governor for the Bedouin tribes in Jordan. There are echoes of … Read more