Where does courage come from?
Where does courage come from? If I said "cold-water, hugging people and humming", you'd probably think I was trying too hard to answer the question…
Working for the soul
I realised this morning that I don't have a job any more. I also got out of bed this morning and had a flashback to one of the worst #jobs I ever had...
Who are your elders?
Yesterday was the 90th birthday of Dr Jane Goodall, a woman I've been fortunate to meet several times whilst living out in Tanzania, and a woman I hold as one of my elders.
When are you being today?
When I first left the classroom and went to live in Tanzania, I spent a lot of time watching ants. It wasn't an intentional 'thing I planned to do', more something I found myself quietly doing every morning as I sat on the porch drinking tea and slowing myself down from a decade or more of freneticism.
What is enough?
Ten years ago I wrote a book called ‘Enough?!.’ Ten years on, I remain just as fascinated by this quality of 'enoughness' and how we can find within us the peace to create our own.
Dining with difference
During the 1800s when Thomas Jefferson was the US President, he used to host dinners to bring diverse people together around a shared meal with the intention of simply listening. There is only one rule: there is just one conversation around the dinner table at any time.
Journeying through time
I remember vividly the day I first encountered Deep Time; blessed with the opportunity to go on a Deep Time Walk with Dr Stephan Harding, who crafted a 4.6km walk as a way to journey into the 4.6 billion years of history of Planet Earth.
Tending to the invisible spaces
Today I've been up in Birmingham running a compassionate leadership workshop as part of Festivals of Fearlessness; a radical and relational leadership course in system transformation. Yet it is not the workshop I wish to reflect on right now, it is the moments surrounding it...
Tending the roots of our education crisis
'We need to stop blaming young people for their distress in reaction to problems in the school system. They aren’t the problem; they are pointing out a problem.' Naomi Fisher.
Thinking in circles, not straight lines
A thought: How many of the problems we're facing stem from the fact that we're thinking in straight lines, rather than circles?
The rhythms of life
Over the past few months, I've been feeling beautifully quiet and slow. In the past, January and the new year was always frenetic and urgent, with such a lot happening at work and a lot of 'doing'. This year it's been deliberately slow and gentle…
An Ode to English Teachers
English teaching often gets a bad wrap:
"What's the point of an English degree?" "How can you call sitting around talking about poems 'a proper subject'?" "Why bother reading books written by dead people?"
Yet English lessons are an invitation to explore what it means to be human, and English teachers are the guides into the portals of the soul.
Are you inside or outside right now?
I remember being asked this question by Dr Stephan Harding during a lecture taking place inside a large indoor theatre, and worrying he was losing the plot. When we all collectively murmured “We’re inside, Stephan…” he nodded and then asked us once again: “Are you outside or inside right now?”…
Finding wonder on the doorstep
As we stand tiptoe on the brink of a new calendar year, I'm pausing not to reflect on the events or achievements of 2023, but instead to reflect on some of the little moments of wonder that have brought me absolute joy this year.
Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.
Wake up and read the news each morning and you'll be forgiven for feeling anything from overwhelm, despair, despondence or a plethora of other somewhat helpless emotions. These are the symptoms of a world in crisis.
Wake up in the morning and read the stories of folks working to create a healthier world and you'd be forgiven for feeling hopeful each morning…
How do we nurture what is innate?
What would happen if our education helped to continue and strengthen what is already innate in us all – supporting young people to grow into the world with a deep sense of connection to themselves, to each other and to the rest of the natural world?
What did you do once you knew?
“It’s 3:23 in the morning and I’m awake because my great great grandchildren won’t let me sleep. My great great grandchildren ask me in dreams…What did you do once you knew?”
Learning to listen
I’m just emerging from ten days alone in the Highlands of Scotland - eight of them spent in a little cabin up in the hills - and am feeling utterly soul-full. Being alone is about as far from lonely as I can imagine being…
Sunday morning time-travel
Sunday mornings have a sort of gentleness to them. Time takes on a different form and simple things offer such richness. The glimmer of the sunlight through the window. The little blackbird bobbing on the washing line. The freshness of the dew-laden grass in the morning air. As I sit here on my porch enjoying the feel of warm breeze on my skin and that first delicious sip of coffee, time slows -and with it my attention grows. I’ve entered slow-time.
The Paradox of Garden Centres
Walk into any garden centre in the UK and you’re greeted with an abundance of flourishing. Whether it’s the beauty of diverse plants blooming together, or the invitation to welcome more of this abundance into your own garden by purchasing “great pollinator plants”, “bug hotels”, “organic bird seed” and a plethora of other welcome invitations to support a healthy garden. Then walk around the corner…