Lamenting the end of time: living, dying and grief in the shadow of the sixth extinction

Abstract

This mindful performative offering is a collection of narrative writings, photos and sketches. These have gained form via creative expression through a series of rituals of lamentation for the grief I feel for the global suffering caused by humans to ourselves, and to all other sentient life on earth, and my own personal grief. It is expressed from my eclectic, personal, and auto-ethnographic perspective as a creative thought randomiser, who dashes off on anecdotal tangents. My lived experiences of wandering and wonderings are the contextual sources of this narrative enquiry through which I endeavour to forge meaning of living life in this age of unease, while seeking my own place and significance in this world. The random anecdotes and representations of mindful actions are my antidote or healing balm for the malaise of this possible end of time. The performative rituals are my coping mechanisms. They occur as i calibrate and re-calibrate myself through random, mindful acts, managing my general life anxiety, my eco-anxiety and grief. This offering documents both the malaise and the random coping mechanisms towards my own healing. Through expressing my thoughts and emotions I attempt to re-resource myself. By seeking peace through centreing there is a commonality –a conscious embodied-practice combined with mindful engagement and self-activism. Others may use similar ACT-i-ONs to soothe themselves