Solastalgia

It’s raining. Soft rain like icing sugar. They won’t need to water the sandcastles today.

‘Solastalgia is when your endemic sense of place is being violated’ – Glenn Albrecht, philosopher.

The SIREN workshops in conjunction with Stop Sizewell C introduced me to the concept. It’s a different type of grief from the loss of a loved one. There’s a kind of disbelief that it’s really happening, then a rant that others can’t see and feel and understand what we see and feel and perceive. “Powerless” is the word I keep hearing.

Shock Grief Pain Anger Overwhelment

Sizewell C Community Fund are offering counselling as part of their obligatory spending package.

Giving it a name and a communal experience empowers us.

Then finding a way to grieve; through art, photography, poetry, memory-making, protesting, saying goodbye.

Then reconciliation. Accepting what is going, going, gone and finding new paths. For me, I have got to know the farmers across the road and learnt more about the trees and birds and food production. Bridleway 19 is still open through the green gated barrier and a new steel one as the road crosses over the new Lover’s Lane but I couldn’t find the trees I was looking for. There is a slithering pipe coming out of The Wetlands as Sizewell C and D sucks Suffolk Coastal dry. The lake is now a glorious pasture with yellow buttercups and a regular dog-walker of two years tried to convince me there had never been a bird hide overlooking the area.

Is that part of solastalgia too? Misremembering and accepting the new.