Boot&Soul Camp… come join us

Boot&Soul Camp is on again at the end of June… We are hoping to get a fabulous group of women together…Interested in joining us…pick up a brochure on the website

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A Mythic Feast

So what started as an intimate thank you birthday dinner for 6 … mutated into an extravaganza on Monday night when two friends (both chefs) decided they were going to throw me a Moroccan-Babette’s-feast for my birthday 48 hours later… They whisked, chopped, kneaded, strained, baked, roasted (and also used every pan, pot and platter in the kitchen)… I got in the way mostly and my other jobs were to shop a lot and clean sporadically… The talented duo collaborated (may we all learn to do this in such a seamless and creative way in our leadership roles)… and eventually produced a birthday dinner of mythic proportions… From the cardamon and vanilla infused Moroccan cocktails to the fresh pomegranates seeds… homemade za’atar bread with hummus and baba ganoush… a mountain of lamb and quince tagine, whole barramundi with chermoula and a to-die-for chicken dish – bisteeya with phyllo, cinnamon and sugar… they topped their loving performance off with a delicate rice dish with orange blossom and rosewater… oh and I almost forgot… a demonstration of tempering chocolate, creating almond rocher and spice infused truffles… (and everyone got a take home lolly bag)… THANK YOU to Katherine and to Jesse for a birthday of enormous love, care, friendship and generosity … I do hope how I kicked off my new year with such magic will translate into much work and abundance for me this coming year….

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Boot&Soul Camp… number 3

Woohoo…we’re onto our third Boot&Soul Camp … Mel and I are very excited about our upcoming winter event at the end of June… Much easier to promote ourselves through the eyes of others… this from an attendee from last Boot&Soul camp: ” I doubt a weekend could have been more nourishing than Boot&Soul camp. It ticked every box. I left inspired and invigorated.” Let me know if you want more information or check out the brochure online.

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An Inspiring Night

A friend is the CEO of the Funding Network… It’s a new way of looking at philanthropy and supporting innovative social change projects… It’s based on the premise that we do many things together, but we don’t donate and celebrate together and philanthropy is not limited to the wealthy but that for as little as $100 each of us can make a significant difference…Last night she launched their first event in Australia – what an amazing achievement… about 150 people listening to the stories of 4 compelling projects that are making a tangible and meaningful difference – each of the projects got 6 minutes to pitch and the we got 6 minutes to ask questions…The aim to raise 10K for each of the 4 projects… My favourite and the one I supported was Food Within: Wings 2 Carry U…simple concept: allowing families to be able to pay what they can afford for healthy food… the founder built the social enterprise based on the challenges her family had faced when they were unable to feed themselves… Well done Lisa on an extremely successful launch and on raising more than 20K for each of these extraordinary grassroots programs!

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Finally back on air at home

Bedraggled by jetlag and back home after an amazing adventure overseas – a journey that spanned a couple of continents and had a unifying theme of HOME… where we find our internal home and what this looks like… what makes our geographical home our place of contentment… as a migrant I am constantly aware that I have at the very least two homes present in my psyche… and I have a sense that this theme will carry on into the rest of 2013 as my work feels essentially like a return to a sense of home.

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Travelling Words

My beautiful friend Em gave me this special poem by Ursula K. Le Guin as a Bon Voyage message for my upcoming journey…

Please bring strange things.
Please come bring new things.
Let very old things come into your hands.
Let what you do not know come into your eyes.
Let desert sand harden your feet.
Let the arch of your feet be the mountains.
Let the paths of your fingertips be your maps
And the ways you go be the lines of your palms.
Let there be deep snow in your inbreathing
And your outbreath be the shining of ice.
May your mouth contain the shape of strange words.
May you smell food cooking you have not eaten.
May the spring of a foreign river be your navel.
May your soul be at home where there are no houses.
Walk carefully, well-loved one,
Walk mindfully, well-loved one,
Walk fearlessly, well-loved one.
Return with us, return to us,
Be always coming home.

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Physical Patterns

I am getting ready for my trip to the USA… brimming with excitement about my five-day intensive with Jean Houston and my meeting with Carol Pearson… and of course seeing my sister, nephew and Lindley’s space in New Mexico… however I do have something I am wrestling with… each time I have a big journey (physically or metaphorically) I have some fairly dramatic physical “happening”… on leaving my corporate job (no shock here) I got shingles…last year before I headed out for my sojourn in Cape Town I was being tested for an auto-immune illness… just before Sri Lanka I had root canal… the day I drove down to run our first boot&soul camp I had another root canal…(what is it with my teeth!)… and now having experienced a strange pain in my lower right abdomen… I spent much of yesterday at ultrasounds and doctors and discovered that firstly I have ovarian cysts (which I understand are common) and then one of them burst… hence the pain… So as I set out on this journey I am taking with me this contemplation of changing the charge on travel and movement and my body…

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Boot&Soul has a public outing

I was included in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald today… What an affirming moment for me… With my own strong Lover Archetype, I do look for affirmation outside of myself and am so delighted that the work I feel passionate about, has sufficient meaning and worth for Sarah to include… I feel like Curve of the World came of age

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Reflecting on Boot&Soul Camp

Do you think I could make up a collective noun for a bunch of wombats? In my 22 years in Australia I have only seen a wombat in the wild once… the retreat seemed to be a magnet for these fat little barrels – so I decided on a plague of wombats… As for Boot&Soul Camp, there is something magical about stepping away from our day-to-day lives and going on retreat – whether you are the facilitator or a participant you actively step through a portal and transformation occurs in some way for all. It was an amazing few days with a beautiful group of women – generous, courageous, open and engaged… we ate healthily, worked hard, practised loads of yoga and also drank heaps of red wine, laughed like drains and gobbled plenty of chocolate… my sort of retreat really.

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Mind and Body and Growth

I spoke at a Women in Technology event last week on my current favourite issue the mind/body split. What continues to fascinate me is the number of women who approach me after I present, to share their somatic ailments brought on by corporate stress… I talked in my presentation how I think that yoga and mindfulness played a critical role in allowing me to navigate the demands of a corporate job and then the move into my own business.. and that it continues to offer me a profound way to ground myself, to manage my stress and of course I have included this passion into some of my corporate offerings.. so it is no surprise that yoga is bucking the recession trend … now I just need to see this growth in my Stiletto&Soul and Boot&Soul offerings …

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