Skins star Freya Mavor pens letter ‘to Earth’ and admits ‘I feel lost at sea’

Skins star Freya Mavor has written a heartfelt letter in response to the pandemic and the climate emergency facing the planet.

In it she describes returning to her mother’s home in Scotland during lockdown and the emotional journey she has been through.

“I feel lost at sea. I’m often weepy, then numb,” she writes.

Lockdowns have taken income away from hundreds of Big Issue sellers. Support The Big Issue and our vendors by signing up for a subscription.

Mavor’s letter — in fact an extended poem — is addressed to the Earth, with its repeating refrain “Dear Earth” calling on the planet to listen.

“These are difficult times,” she continues. “Yet I feel you, telling us: Look what I can do when you all slow down.”

Mavor’s note is part of a new book, Letters to the Earth, which compiles work from Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri, artist Yoko Ono, actor Mark Rylance and poet Kate Tempest, among many others.

Mavor has shared an extended version of her lyrical letter with The Big Issue. You can read the full letter below, as well as watching her hopeful message for the days to come.

A Letter to Earth by Freya Mavor

Dear Earth,

Days draw in, like waves.

Things that once seemed so certain – all of it fades into hazy past tense.

These days it’s okay to not always make sense.

Dear Earth.

This confinement finds me in the countryside in Scotland, back home with my Mother. I am a grown woman, yet I hear echoes of being a child again. The little Me hides in my shadows. Out here, I’m not always sure who I am.

Dear Earth.

I’m learning the art of embracing the weirdness of life. And today – for a slice of time – I succeeded in finding a true happiness. Little Me again.

Today I also feel lonely. I feel lost at sea. I’m often weepy, then numb.

Many days I am filled with this sense that you don’t care about our problems. That you are getting on just fine. It’s brilliantly reassuring.

Aren’t we learning a lesson in impermanence?

Will tomorrow’s news be as bleak? I am not sure what tomorrow holds. Someone reaches their threshold. Their voice breaks. They are alone and afraid.

We’re all growing tender, tenderer by the day.

Now I see flowers opening like prayers. I hear birds in a gospel chorus. I feel the heat of Spring upon us. Your heat, Mother, warming and warning us.

Dear Earth.

These are difficult times. Yet I feel you, telling us:

Look what I can do when you all slow down.

Remember.

Remember.

You are a visitor.

This life is but a moment.

There will be a time for dancing.

There will be a time, soon, when we will kiss our friends and really look and see them. I don’t know when… but I feel that something good is going to happen. We don’t know what or when but something good is going to happen.

Say it. Claim it. Whisper it under your breath. Hold like something precious into your chest.

Something good is going to happen.

Be brave. Be still. Be kind.

Listen.

This is an extended version of Freya Mavor’s contribution to the new paperback edition of Letters to the Earth. Read more at www.letterstotheearth.com.