What do you think of when you hear the word legacy?

Perhaps you think of children, a career, a house, money, something you built, a business you started, charitable work, an award on a shelf or a name that people remember. Perhaps you imagine the sort of thing that gets written into an obituary, the achievements and milestones that supposedly add up to the mark we have left on the world.

But what if we've made legacy far more complicated than it needs to be?

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What is the benefit of a memento more walk? Here I share a little insight into one of my favourite ways to connect with nature.

Image credit: Esther Hall

One year ago this month, I launched This Mortal Life.

I didn’t really know what the year ahead would hold. I simply knew that I wanted to create spaces where people could gather with intention, have the conversations we so often avoid, make things with their hands, spend time in nature, and remember that none of us are meant to carry life alone.

Image credit: Esther Hall

Interested to learn about options for recording your family’s stories? Here’s eight ways to capture the memories of those we love beyond just photographs.

Image credit: Esther’s personal family archives

This year's Lughnasadh gathering marked something significant: our eighth Seasonal Gathering and the completion of our first full turn of the Wheel of the Year together.

A year ago, these gatherings were little more than an idea and a hope that there were others longing for slower, more intentional ways of marking the passing of the seasons. Sitting together on the sand dunes at Sand Bay, warmed by the sun and surrounded by familiar faces alongside newcomers, it felt like that hope has taken root.

Image credit: Esther Hall

A year ago, I invited a small group of people to begin marking the seasons together.

This August, as we gather for Lammas, we'll complete our first full turn of the Wheel of the Year. Eight seasonal gatherings. Eight opportunities to pause. Eight invitations to step outside, notice the changing landscape, share food, create together, reflect together and slowly build relationships within a community that didn't exist a year ago.

Looking back, I've realised that while these gatherings have been about building community, they've also slowly deepened my own understanding of the mission I’m on.

Image credit: Esther Hall

Last weekend we gathered to mark the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year and a seasonal invitation to pause and take stock of the journey so far. With the sun making a full appearance for the Solstice, we made the decision to leave our usual spot on the beach and gather beneath the shade of the woodland at the beach’s edge. It proved to be a beautiful setting, offering shelter from the heat while still keeping us connected to the landscape that has become home to these seasonal circles.

Image credit: Esther Hall

Beltain asks us to consider what makes us feel alive. To mark this seasonal festival we brought life and colour to the WeSee Trees Community Tree Nursery, shared a delicious meal, connected with new faces and learned more about the local happenings across Weston.

Image credit: Emily Burnell

We marked the Spring Equinox to the sound of the waves and the warmth of a fire on Sunday evening. Creating space for reflecting on what’s beginning to emerge for us as we move through this year. There’s something really special about taking time to pause and reflect, especially in community with others.

Image credit: Esther Hall

I love reading about women from the past, those whose paths helped lead the way for me to live and breathe the way I want today. I am privileged in many ways to be able to say that, as we know millions of women globally have yet to experience freedom to the extent I have being a white woman in my forties in the UK.

Whilst we still have a long way to go to achieve equality in all corners of the world, and at times it feels as though we are moving backwards rather than forwards, I remain deeply grateful to the women who came before us and simply refused to stay inside the boxes they were born into. For anyone who knows my story, it’s clear I have been inspired by the rebels that came before me.

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I had an experience recently that has stayed with me.

I offered a simple creative activity in a small group of women I know well. It involved coloured paper, scissors, glue sticks, and an invitation to create a portrait of another person from our group based purely on “vibes”…what this person inspires through colours, shapes and textures. A playful attempt to reflect how we experience one another beyond physical appearance.

For some, it was joyful and unexpectedly moving. As often happens, people began cautiously, thinking their way through the task, before something softened and creativity took over.

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Imbolc asks us to notice the first stirrings of energy shifting around us, and inside us. As we approach spring with lighter days, more energy and the first sparks of life making themselves known, Imbolc provides a moment to reflect on what is beginning to start within us that we’ll soon bring into fruition in the months ahead?

Image credit: Esther Hall

Most of us live by a calendar that has very little to do with how life actually moves.

We mark time by deadlines, school terms, tax years, and diary appointments. The months pass, the seasons change, and often we barely notice. We feel out of sync, tired in winter when we think we “should” be productive, restless in summer without knowing why, and slightly unmoored from any real sense of natural rhythm. The Wheel of the Year offers a different way to mark time. One that is rooted in the earth, the seasons, and the steady, reliable turning of nature.

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An attempt to make sense of what does not make sense.

I get the impression there are a lot of people who are not intentionally choosing the lives they are living. They are responding to what is in front of them: deadlines, responsibilities, news headlines, financial pressure, social or family expectations. Life becomes a series of reactions rather than a series of conscious decisions. And over time, a quiet misalignment sets in. It is hard to name, but it can feel like being in a constant struggle with yourself, a misalignment.

This is rarely a motivation problem, or a time management problem. I think it is often a values problem.

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The act of making something: writing, stitching, collaging, painting, etc. engages parts of us that don’t always speak in clear sentences. Creativity allows our interior world to surface without needing to explain or justify it. It’s a language of colour, shape and texture that often feels safer, especially when touching on grief, identity, memory or endings.

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As the year draws to its quiet close, we gather to mark the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year and the turning point toward the returning light. Across cultures and centuries, this has been a time to pause, reflect, and honour both the darkness and the promise of renewal.

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As we enter the Christmas season, let’s consider our priorities and how we can be more intentional in our gift giving.

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A little insight into our recent Samhain Gathering at the Front Room theatre in Weston-Super-Mare. It was a magical evening of community and remembrance.

Image credit: Esther Hall

There’s a quiet revolution taking root, not in corporate boardrooms or our government’s offices (sadly!) but in gardens, art studios, neighbourhood parks and community projects. It’s a revolution that begins with small acts of care and imagination, where people are daring to envision a world that prioritises life, in all its forms, over profit.

Image credit: Joan de Art

As the year turns and the light begins to fade, we find ourselves standing at a threshold: the space between autumn and winter, life and death, what has been and what is yet to come. Across centuries and cultures, this time has always been understood as one of reflection, remembrance and renewal.

Here in the northern hemisphere, Samhain marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the darker half of the year. It is a moment to pause, to take stock and turn inward to honour the cycles of life that hold us all.

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