Peter generously invites us into his (normally solo) ritual visit with the confluence of the Rivers Avon and Frome at Freshford, sharing his mantra and his invocation to the rivers. He speaks movingly about his solitary practice of meeting with rivers as living beings, and the ongoing co-operative enquiry that accompanies it -- 'Living Waters'.
In the two hours we spent together with the rivers of course we were talking, but it was at least as much the minutes spent in quiet observation and reflection that made it so resonant. Peter talks about how the world speaks in a symbolic register through, for example, creaturely visitations (six kingfishers!). He tells how this work has led him from humanist to animist philosophy.
Peter Reason is Professor Emeritus at the University of Bath and previously Director of the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice, and an international leader in the development of participative approaches to inquiry. His work links the tradition of nature writing with the ecological crisis of our times. His books include Spindrift: A wilderness pilgrimage at sea, In Search of Grace: An ecological pilgrimage, and most recently (with artist Sarah Gillespie) On Presence: Essays | Drawings; and On Sentience: Essays | Drawings.