How do you stay calm through the strongest winds Cornwall has ever had? You watch the news enough to know what is happening, and then you stop watching it.
How do you stay calm through the strongest winds Cornwall has ever had? You watch the news enough to know what is happening, and then you stop watching it.
Officially we did not break a hundred, which I am glad about. I check in on the news every four and a half seconds because you never know what is coming next, and that is exactly the habit worth breaking. The world is noisy. My word this year is to simplify, and this podcast is part of that. We are not even in control of where the weight goes on.
One thing to try: Check the news once today and then leave it alone until tomorrow.
In this episode
(0:10) The strongest winds Cornwall has ever had
(2:36) Ninety nine point seven, and glad we did not break a hundred
(4:51) Sharing the word, as though I am some kind of wordsmith
(7:11) Watch the news, but do not get into it too much
(9:34) Checking on the news every four and a half seconds
(11:47) The world is noisy, and my word this year is simplify
(14:07) We are not even in control of where the weight goes
Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: stevenwebb.uk
Thank you for listening.
Steven
The story behind this one
Cornwall had the strongest winds it has ever recorded. Several places reported 110 and 150 miles an hour, though the official figure came in at about 99.7, and I am glad we did not break the hundred.
I went to bed with everything charged. Being a Cornwall councillor I left my phone on and kept checking the bulletins. We lost trees through houses, several hundred trees in all, and one life. Thirty thousand homes were still without electricity the next morning. Cornwall Council and the partners were exceptional, and I had almost no enquiries come through.
The morning after, I dropped some ice skates round to my daughter, turned around and there was a woman waiting to cross the road. Her name was Joanne. I said hello and we talked for about two minutes.
The sun was out and it felt like spring. Which gave me the chance to use the only unusual word I know. Apricity. It means the warmth of the sun on a cold day, and regular listeners will have heard me use it about ten times a year.
What it taught me
Friday evening the schools shut early and we were battening down. Sunday morning it was a spring day. We know nothing is permanent as a fact in our heads, and we rarely feel it. That was two days.
The conversation went to the state of the world, and Joanne used the word unrest, which I thought was exactly right. Nobody knows what is going on, and I am not sure the leaders know what the other leaders are about to do either.
So we got to what is actually in our control, which is not much. I check in on the news roughly every four and a half seconds because you never know what is coming next, and that habit is worth breaking rather than feeding.
There was a survey once about the Howard Stern show, where about half the audience liked him and half could not stand him, and both halves listened every day. Both gave the same reason. We do not know what he is going to say next. That is us and the news now. We watch so we get a bit of warning, the way you ask the doctor how big the needle is before it goes in.
Joanne was on her way to buy wool to carry on her knitting. I said I meditate, and she said knitting is the same thing really, just clearing your mind of what is going on. She is right. You do not have to meditate. Go for a walk. Give your mind something to do other than scrolling to find the bottom of a page that no longer has one.
We got on to God as well, in two minutes. She is a Christian. I said I am a terrible Buddhist who does not know either way, and that I quite like there being something above my pay grade.
My word this year is simplify, and this podcast is part of that.
Now I take the odd two minutes here and there. I enjoy the queue a bit more, because I have no choice about being in it. And I am not in control of much, right down to where the weight goes on when I eat a doughnut.
Questions people ask
Is this episode about the storm?
Partly. The storm is what we were standing in, and the episode is really about how quickly it turned into a spring morning, and what that says about anything feeling permanent.
What does apricity mean?
The warmth of the sun on a cold day. It is genuinely the only fancy word I know, so I use it whenever I can get away with it.
Was this scripted?
Not remotely. There were no show notes. I had a two minute conversation on a pavement and came home wanting to talk about it.
Read along
The transcript
It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.
personal-story · nature · spiritual-journey
Read the transcript
So I want to tell you about the strongest winds Cornwall has
ever had and my experience of it.
And a wonderful conversation I had with somebody earlier this morning
when I just happened to bump into her.
Welcome to Stillness in the Storms, the podcast that helps you
through difficult times.
So this is episode 157.
Cannot believe I've done so many and I think on the inner peace
meditations, we're on episode 89 or something.
So, yeah, 2026.
This podcast has been going well over five years now and my biggest
country audience is Australia.
So welcome Australia.
You go through a nice summer patch.
At the moment, we're going through a nice winter patch.
I haven't got no show notes today.
I don't know what this episode is going to be about, but I want
to tell you about a conversation I had this morning and
it was a wonderful conversation.
It was only about two minutes long.
Just before I get to there, I want to thank my weekly supporters.
So thank you, Charlotte, Katie, Tanya and Lynn.
So all of you, I think are in Australia.
And I want to also thank Barb, Laura and Audra.
Your monthly payment has gone through this week.
You're awesome.
And because of you guys donating, it means this is why we
get no adverts on the podcast.
And if you want to be able to support, just go to stephenweb.uk
and you can treat me to a coffee.
Cannot be simpler than that.
And you can find other links to my other podcast.
So I dropped over some ice skates to my daughter this morning
and she's going ice skating today and she hadn't done that for
years and she loved it as a child.
And just after I dropped them off, I turned around and there's
a lady stood there.
Must have been probably a few years into retirement.
And we were waiting to cross the road.
I just said, hi, how are you?
I'm fine, thanks.
And after that, we're talking about the weather and the storm we
just had.
And we've just had storm.
It's the highest winds that Cornwall's ever recorded.
Several places that they had 110, 150 mile per hour winds.
But the actual official was I think 99.7 or something.
So officially we didn't break the 100.
I'm glad.
But wow, that's really.
I've never been for a storm like that where the winds are that
strong.
We did lose one life, we heard this morning, and we've still got
30,000 without electricity.
But I believe we're getting there by the end of today, which
is Sunday.
So by the end of today we, or at least by the end of the weekend,
everybody should be back on.
And it gives a wonderful opportunity for people to be heroes,
to step in and go, hey, do you want some hot water?
In a flash.
Do you want me to cook you something?
Yeah.
It was quite frightening, I got to be honest.
I went to bed, I made sure everything was charged and being
a local Cornwall councillor, I really left my phone on.
I checked my emails regularly, I checked in with the bulletins and
I got to say, Cornwall Council and partners, absolutely incredible.
Amazing.
So I've had next to no inquiries.
That's been the odd one, but just shows the.
How brilliant the local authorities were.
We've had trees go through houses, we've had.
We've lost probably several hundred trees, which is always a
bit gutting.
But yeah, we've got through it and it was quite frightening.
But I was talking to this lady this morning, her name's Joanne and
I'm sure no one minds me sharing her name.
She hasn't had permission, but you'll never get her from this, so
it really doesn't matter.
And it's the first time I've ever met her.
And we were saying about how lovely the weather was this morning.
The sun was out and it was my perfect opportunity to use my favorite
word.
But it's the only real word I know beyond the everyday words and
apricity.
Any regular user know I use this at least ten times a year.
I love it.
And it means to feel the warmth of the sun on a cold day.
And that was what it was like.
So it gave me the opportunity to share that word as if I'm some
kind of dictionary reader, wordsmith, but I'm really not.
That's just the only word I know.
And she said, yeah.
And how amazing it was.
It was like as if spring was here today.
So it just reminded me of the way nothing's permanent, you know.
Just Friday evening we were looking at a storm.
The schools were having to close early.
We were having batting down the hatchets.
And it made me think about the other storms you have in Americans,
South America and some of the different things you have around
the world.
When you got like 150 mile an hour winds, this was bad.
And this was only like 100 mile an hour winds.
So the gusts most of the time are only like 1890.
So boy, yeah, that's a new perspective.
But then 24 hours later, you've got the sun, it's like a spring
day, so nothing's permanent.
It doesn't last long.
And that was one thing that we don't always realize.
We know it philosophically, we know it in our brains, but we don't
always feel it.
And the conversation went on and we were only talking for about
two minutes, but the conversation went on about the world
now and just taking time out and a little walk and we were saying
about politics and geopolitics and all that around the world at
the moment, that no one really knows what's going on.
It's like just unrest is the word she used.
And I think that's a really good word because we don't know what's
going on.
I don't think even the leaders know what other leaders are going
to come up with next.
And it is a bit worrying.
And then we said about, well, what's in our control.
And that's a real key to it, is what is in our control.
Because we're not in control of an awful lot.
We're not in control of what those leaders are doing.
We can protest.
We can do that.
If you're going to do that.
Brilliant.
Do it.
But if I'm working and I've got other things to do and it's not
appropriate for me to protest because I'm not in the right country
or anything like that, then I need to take a step back and just
recognize it.
Watch the news, keep your eye on what's going on, but don't get
into it too much.
And I know why we got into this subject, because she said she
was heading into town to pick up some wool to carry on her knitting.
And I said, well, I do meditating.
And she said, well, knitting is exactly the same, really.
It's just to clear our minds from everything that's going on in
the world today.
So really, you don't have to be meditating.
You could do something else.
Just go for a walk, do other things, Just rest your mind, Give
your mind something else to do than scrolling your phone.
The doom.
Scrolling.
That's the new word they use.
And I'm guilty of it.
You know, suddenly I wake up in the morning and set up my cup
of tea and I find myself scrolling, trying to find the bottom
of that page.
And of course it just reloads.
There's no bottom of the page anymore.
How frustrating.
It's like a challenge to get to the bottom now.
Seriously, there must be a bottom somewhere.
So, yeah, it's a genius discovery that you can.
Or a genius invention that you can forever scroll down a page.
Terrible.
Implementation.
But then we moved on to God, all in this wonderful conversation.
You know, she said, I'm a Christian, and I do believe that
someone's up there and the bigger picture.
And I said, well, I'm not a Christian and I don't know that there
isn't a God, but I don't know there is, but I'm a terrible Buddhist,
so I'd like to think whatever way there's something above our pay
grade, there's something bigger than us, then I don't mind
if that's a rock in a mine or a big mountain.
I don't mind what it is that is bigger than us, because of course,
everything is and everything isn't, and we're all part of everything.
That's the Buddhist sense.
That's the biggest sense that I feel in my heart.
But it doesn't really matter whether we believe or not.
Just that hope that, do you know what?
This isn't permanent.
This is just a few years.
And yes, it'll have lasting impact, but how much are we in control?
Can we really do anything about it if we're watching the news
constantly?
And I have got a habit of checking in on Trump about every
four and a half seconds because you just don't know what
he's going to do next.
And I don't know how many of you that listen to this podcast have
ever heard that Howard Stern show.
I've not listened to it, but I've heard about it.
He's a very controversial American radio host.
He's been around since the 70s and 80s, I believe.
And when they done a survey about why do people listen to him
if he's so controversial?
And it was about 50% of the people liked him and 50% of the people
couldn't stand him, but they would listen all the time.
When they asked the 50% of people, why do you listen to him?
They looked up and said, well, because we don't know what he's going
to say next.
So then they went and asked the 50% of people that cannot stand
him, do not like him, but tune in daily.
Why do you listen to him?
Says, because we don't know what he's going to do next.
And I think that's our almost or certainly speaking for me now
is that we're watching the car crash show tv, and you just don't
know what's going to happen next.
In part, we get that bit of comfort from, well, at least I've
got the heads up that things are going to go wrong.
It's like when you go to the doctor, look, give me the heads up
before you put the injection in, you know, so we feel like we're
slightly ahead of the curve, but we can be ahead of the curve
when things are changing so much, you know, you like at the doctors.
And he goes, right, I'm just going to inject this.
And you go, okay, how big the needle?
Well, it's about an inch.
Okay, go for it.
And then just before it goes, well, in actual fact, the needle
is three inches long.
I said, okay, give me the heads up, get me ready.
Okay, We've now changed it.
The needle.
And that's what it feels like in the world now.
It's forever not stopping.
There's so much noise.
And I think what that conversation gave me when I was coming
home, just going to share my thoughts on where we are at the moment.
And my thoughts are, the world's just so noisy.
The world is.
I think my word this year is to simplify things.
To simplify.
And this podcast is one of those things.
I'm just simplifying it.
I'm just going to come on here and tell you how I handling the extra
noise in the world.
I'm just taking a step out, step back, taking the odd two minute
out here.
And they're not listening to a podcast on the way around.
When I'm driving around in my wheelchair to a meeting, just enjoying
the break at the traffic lights, enjoying the queue a little
bit more than I would have done.
Because when you end up in a queue, you're a bit annoyed maybe,
but what a perfect opportunity.
You've got no choice, you've got to be in the queue or you just
leave the queue and don't get what you went for.
But you've got no choice, you've got to be there.
So all of these wonderful little breaks during the day, I'm
starting to enjoy them a bit more because it's slowing me down.
And if I slow down, my perception of the world slows down.
And I recorded the podcast and I recorded a meditation last week
that you can get on Inner peace meditations stop the world.
I want to get off.
And that's just a way of me just slowing the world down a little
bit, slowing my thoughts down, slowing my just to body down and
my perception awareness of the world.
Because when we become really aware, everything slows down, everything
becomes quieter.
So that's my podcast today.
I don't know if you can find any little gems in it.
Take a step back.
Just recognize when you're doom scrolling.
Just do a little meditation here and there, two, three minutes
during the day.
Just recognize that old serenity prayer.
You will know it.
I don't have to repeat it.
But what are you in control of?
What can you change?
You can't change the weather.
You can change where the donut goes on when you eat it.
You know, whether it's your butt or your thighs or your underneath
your arms.
We're in control.
The point of me sharing that.
Where did that come from?
The point of me sharing that is just.
We're not even in control of where the weight goes on.
Unless, of course, we're a fitness fanatic and things like that.
But in general, we're not in control of what the body does with
the food.
We're not in control of what thoughts come up, really.
We might influence them slightly.
We're not in control of what happens in our local area.
We might influence it slightly.
I have more control than most, been a Cornwall councillor and a
ward member for this area, but I can only influence.
I'm not even in control.
I might influence where a bench goes or the design, but I'm
not in control of it, really.
And I think that's the reality.
And I labor in this issue a little bit more, but it's the reality.
Once we realize we're not in control of 99.9% of the stuff that
happens to us, you can look at it two ways.
Damn, I'm not in control and I need to be in control.
Well, good luck with that, because that will just lead to more
suffering.
Or you can look at it as thank Christ for that.
I wouldn't want to be in control of all this anyway.
And then you take a step back so, you know, the second is the wiser.
Thank you.
I'm glad I'm not in control.
It's an illusion that we are.
You know, the government gives us a vote every four or five years
to give us that element of control.
Good, Go out and vote.
Totally endorse it.
But let's be realistic, it's only a small influence.
So that thank you for the coffees really does make a difference.
It pays for the hosting of this podcast.
It pays for the editor.
It pays for all the different things.
As you may know, if you listen the last couple of podcasts, I am
going to get some help editing and uploading and doing more podcast
and meditations, which will make it easier.
And that's all paid for by you guys treating me to a complete coffee.
You can head over to stephenweb.uk you can message me,
check out my other podcast with the Meditations.
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