This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.
Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.
If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.
John O’Donohue
The Climate Coaching Alliance Global Festival starts this Thursday with a KEYNOTE Festival (8 speakers from 3/2 to 3/5) followed by a FRINGE Festival (with over 50 presentations from the Climate Coaching Alliance community from 3/06 to 3/31).
I would like to invite you to join me and the Climate Coaching Alliance community for this one-of-a-kind free festival of coaching. I am not presenting this year - I did last year.
There is a plethora of interesting presentations on the themes that are close to my heart: indigenous wisdom, nature practices, poetry, climate feminism, regenerative leadership, and many more.
The intention for this festival is to build coaches’ confidence and competence, knowledge, capacity, mobilisation and empowerment for climate coaching and action through:
Giving knowledge for guidance, best practice, inspiration, information, awareness and engagement
Empowering/developing coaches through, skills, tools support, engagement, eco cycle
Providing space for community and collaboration, partnerships, exploration and reflective conversations
I hope to see you there. All details on the Climate Coaching Alliance website.
A day of Silence
Can be a pilgrimage in itself.
A day of Silence
Can help you listen
To the Soul play
its marvelous lute and drum.
Is not most talking
A crazed defense of a crumbling fort?
I thought we came here
To surrender in Silence,
To yield to Light and Happiness,
To Dance within
In celebration of Love's Victory!
Zenmai is the Japanese name for the Asian Royal Fern or Osmunda japonica. It’s an edible fern that has also been proven to purify air indoors. This is a practice of unfoldment to be done in Nature. It’s inspired by my studying with Steve March (Aletheia) for coaching and Mark Coleman (Awake In the Wild) for mindfulness in Nature. I am grateful for their wisdom and teachings.
Start by taking a long walk in nature where you can be mostly undisturbed. Refrain from talking to people and using your phone. Pay attention to all examples of zenmai or unfurling of leaves, ferns or other plants that you are encountering. Notice the life potential that is unfolding itself naturally in this process.
When you are ready, sit down for a meditation. Take a few deep breaths, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. Gently close your eyes and turn your awareness to your breath. Once you feel settled and present, allow yourself to just be, let yourself unfold.
What are you feeling? What are you sensing in your body? What are you observing in this moment? Can you sense into your innate wholeness? Bringing back to mind one example of zenmai that you encountered during your walk, remember how beautiful it was in its own unfolding. Can you feel the same about yourself?
Trust that the life you want will unfold from where you are now. As you become more aware of the natural process of unfoldment, the one of the fern or leaves that you observed or your own that you are now experiencing, your trust in it will deepen. Accept, love, and value yourself exactly as you are.
When you are ready to end this practice, gently open your eyes and stretch.
