Be joyful, though you’ve considered all the facts.
~Wendell Berry

Honoring Wendell Berry
and an Invitation for a Nature Immersion Book Launch Event

Dear Subscriber First Name,

Wendell Berry, an American novelist, poet and farmer, died this week at the age of 92. I am sharing below some of my favorite poems of his. If you have been with me on a walk or in a coaching session, you may recognize them. If they are new to you, please enjoy. He wrote many more. In just this small selection, it’s easy to recognize his deep and reciprocal relationship with nature and his commitment to environmental activism.

In this newsletter, I also would like to invite you to join me to celebrate my friend, fellow coach, and Climate Coaching Alliance colleague, Joy Khoo’s newest book Nature’s Guide for Coaches. The book is an inspiring read for anyone wanting to reconnect deeply with the natural world, but is particularly so for coaches looking to take their clients outdoors. In the book, Joy features 17 fellow nature coaches, including myself. My contribution in the form of insights can be read in chapter 8. Here is an excerpt from that chapter:

Which animal or natural element do you relate to as a guide or source of inspiration in your coaching journey? And why?

In my experience of walking alone, I have been deeply inspired by herons and owls, redwoods and cedars. The heron is attractive because it takes work to notice it. It’s hiding in plain sight—so still, so focused. To notice it by a riverbed, on a rock by the ocean, or in a meadow, I have to mirror its stillness and focus. I have to stop and slow down. Similarly, for the owls, to hear them, you have to come out at dawn or in the middle of the night and be still. Owls are rarely seen but simply heard. When they are hooting, I feel protected in my sleep or in the day that is just opening up in front of me. Redwoods and cedars are inspiring for their endurance: They are ancestors. In their company, I feel ancient too, but I also feel the responsibility to be a good ancestor myself. Their uprightness and groundedness, their reaching for the light and rain while still protecting the ground and younger trees below, as well as the silence they draw without making any overt request, inspire awe and gratitude.

The book launch event on Saturday September 12 will be an experiential nature immersion event held at Roberts Regional Recreational Area in Oakland. Please join us.

Click below for more details and registration below or if you get an error, please copy and paste https://sfbayareacoaches.starchapter.com/meetinginfo.php?id=284 in your browser.

Warmly,

Anne-Marie
Sept 7, 2026
(from co2.earth no reading of ppm of atmospheric CO2 today, last year 425.17 ppm, last month 426.95 ppm, safe level 350 ppm)

Poem: The Peace of Wild Things By Wendell Berry

Poem: The Sycamore by Wendell Berry

Poem: Questionnaire by Wendell Berry

A Book Launch and Nature Immersion Experience

To bring your attention to a stone, a tree or an animal does not mean to think about it, but simply to perceive it, to hold it in your awareness. You can sense how still it is, and in doing so the same stillness arises within you… You sense how deeply it rests in Being - completely at one with was it is and where it is. In realizing this, you too come to a place of rest deep within yourself.
- Eckhart Tolle, Silent Speaks

If you live in the Bay Area, you may be interested in joining my very good friend and colleague Joy Khoo, other Nature Coaches, and myself, on Saturday September 12 from 9 to 12pm in the East Bay. More details with the link.

Joy wrote a fabulous book about Coaching In and With Nature featuring 17 fellow coaches including myself. The Bay Area ICF chapter is sponsoring this book launch and nature experience. I am honored to participate and share my joy of being in Nature with you.

https://sfbayareacoaches.starchapter.com/meetinginfo.php?id=284