"Everyone wanted to go but no-one wanted to leave"
..someone said this at the end of today's final event at Preston New Road Rolling Roadside Protest and it was so true and for me, unexpectedly emotional. We were standing like guests reluctant to let the night be over, hoping for one more dance or to at least not be the first to break the spell that would take us to a different place – in so many ways.
I hadn't considered at all how today would feel - it's the 121st time we've gathered to Call for Calm on a Wednesday and I think I just got on with it in the same way I always do, not considering the huge significance.
Then there were sad goodbyes and the realisation that like when you leave school, there'd be no going back, no reliving or experiencing life in the same way ever again - even if we maintain our connections... there will only ever be one 'PNR: 5th Jan 2017 - 4th Dec 2019'.
I suppose because the 'Nanas' have been together since 2014 and had spent nearly 3 years campaigning in all sorts of places across the country - I hadn’t known the utter wrench it would be to go from somewhere you’ve been located in for so long; that having spent 3 full years in one place, with and as one community... becoming almost literally (certainly for me) one family. This was very different site & camp closure.
Barton Moss, Balcombe, Upton, Horse Hill and all the rest - have their places and people and memories too but I think it's that PNR demanded so much for so very long and has been so very pivotal to the story of fracking in the UK - that made it matter so deep down. Nothing was without impact - every day unpredictable and so much sent to challenge us. But then there was the response...
So many who came to lift our moods, raise our spirits and help us sustain this long campaign. Moral has been everything and Morris Dancing, one-man-bands, dance teachers, choirs, Tibetan Monks, priests and vicars, authors, academics, entertainers, bands, singers, poets drummers, percussionists, harpists even just groups and individuals that spared what time they could to make visits. We’ve been a core group of ‘regular faces’ supported by frequent visitors, regular guests and mass gatherings when we called them and we only called them with care – to get 1000 people up that hill was a stunning thing or to party 24 hours at the gates – were surges that shot energy through our veins for months to come.
So back to the beginning - "Everyone wanted to go but no-one wanted to leave"
Of course we’ll never dance this way again but I will wear us always in the fabric of me that was enhanced by all who shared the space and time that has been PNR. I leave richer and find the positive in the way I can’t wait to tackle the world as the enhanced ‘me’ that is made up of all of us – every moment that re-sculpted my edges, shaped me better and made me feel – so very real.
It’s been a heck of a thing.
Love really did win
..someone said this at the end of today's final event at Preston New Road Rolling Roadside Protest and it was so true and for me, unexpectedly emotional. We were standing like guests reluctant to let the night be over, hoping for one more dance or to at least not be the first to break the spell that would take us to a different place – in so many ways.
I hadn't considered at all how today would feel - it's the 121st time we've gathered to Call for Calm on a Wednesday and I think I just got on with it in the same way I always do, not considering the huge significance.
Then there were sad goodbyes and the realisation that like when you leave school, there'd be no going back, no reliving or experiencing life in the same way ever again - even if we maintain our connections... there will only ever be one 'PNR: 5th Jan 2017 - 4th Dec 2019'.
I suppose because the 'Nanas' have been together since 2014 and had spent nearly 3 years campaigning in all sorts of places across the country - I hadn’t known the utter wrench it would be to go from somewhere you’ve been located in for so long; that having spent 3 full years in one place, with and as one community... becoming almost literally (certainly for me) one family. This was very different site & camp closure.
Barton Moss, Balcombe, Upton, Horse Hill and all the rest - have their places and people and memories too but I think it's that PNR demanded so much for so very long and has been so very pivotal to the story of fracking in the UK - that made it matter so deep down. Nothing was without impact - every day unpredictable and so much sent to challenge us. But then there was the response...
So many who came to lift our moods, raise our spirits and help us sustain this long campaign. Moral has been everything and Morris Dancing, one-man-bands, dance teachers, choirs, Tibetan Monks, priests and vicars, authors, academics, entertainers, bands, singers, poets drummers, percussionists, harpists even just groups and individuals that spared what time they could to make visits. We’ve been a core group of ‘regular faces’ supported by frequent visitors, regular guests and mass gatherings when we called them and we only called them with care – to get 1000 people up that hill was a stunning thing or to party 24 hours at the gates – were surges that shot energy through our veins for months to come.
So back to the beginning - "Everyone wanted to go but no-one wanted to leave"
Of course we’ll never dance this way again but I will wear us always in the fabric of me that was enhanced by all who shared the space and time that has been PNR. I leave richer and find the positive in the way I can’t wait to tackle the world as the enhanced ‘me’ that is made up of all of us – every moment that re-sculpted my edges, shaped me better and made me feel – so very real.
It’s been a heck of a thing.
Love really did win
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Thanks for taking the time to add your voice to mine x