understanding patterns; connecting dots

In January 2019, at my daughter’s suggestion, I attended the NewKind Conference in Marion Bay on the south east coast of Tasmania. On that extraordinary summer long weekend, my soul got awakened to a number of things. They weren’t new things, but there is a difference between knowing something, even knowing something well, and being awakened to it in your bones. And your soul. One of those things was the cyclical rhythms of nature. I was in a memorable workshop/extended conversation where we delved deeply into wholeness and sexuality. I can’t recall the exact flow of discussion, but I do recall women exhorting each other to tap into their natural monthly cycles as a constant reminder of the cycles of nature. And some men lamenting they didn’t have that opportunity. It wasn’t a lightning bolt moment, rather a seed planted. I knew that the dominant stories that had shaped my life (Christianity, capitalism, even environmentalism) had the planet framed as a resource to be stewarded, rather...

  There was a point when I realised that for me the inner development journey is not about getting better or improving. About adding knowledge or skills. My inner journey is mostly about shedding, about letting go of the stories that have shaped the way I see the world. Peeling back the layers that have (necessarily) provided meaning, belonging and status. The onion layers analogy is not sufficient to describe what happens, because the profound significance of recognising the next story that has held me captive, can be both surprising and shocking. One of the stories for me to name and shed is that accumulating experiences matters for the inner journey. Instead of accumulating experiences, I’m learning that what matters is radical presencing. Presencing that is attentive, that slows down to notice things. In his piercingly insightful The Art of Travel , Alain de Botton suggest that one of the things about travel that is often swept under the carpet in our planning and anticipation;...