I have been walking a lot recently and listening to podcasts from astronomy to creativity as I step out… yesterday I listened to a Bluegrass singer, Abigail Washburn… aside from an astonishing and haunting voice, her story had a deep resonance for me… that your purpose doesn’t always have a linear progression and you have to trust that the “how” of what you feel deeply passionate about, will show up in unlikely or unimagined ways… so for me I know I want to work with women and leadership and incorporate mental agility and emotional awareness and soulfulness and of course the power of physical presence… but I endlessly wrestle with trying to squash this into a linear format that I am not sure serves my purpose best… so back to her story… she was intent on making a difference to Sino-US relations by moving to China and becoming a lawyer… fate intervened and she ended up at a Bluegrass festival with banjo in hand… was discovered by a Nashville scout and has been a beautiful Bluegrass singer since and travels the world… the twist is she sings not only in English but also in Mandarin using a genre that is so specifically American… and travels to places like China and brings her gift and of course her purpose about making a positive difference to Chinese/American relations… only the “how’ comes through music and not law… much more heartfelt and yet the purpose is so beautifully served…
Archive for the ‘Patterns’ Category
Purpose is not a straight line
Posted in Archetypes, Courage, Patterns, Resilience, Sacred Feminine, Spirit, Women on May 12, 2013 | 3 Comments »
Nostalgia…
Posted in Patterns on March 22, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Had to share that over the last 10 days I have had a series of dinners with people from my past corporate life… it’s like a switch went off and they all decided to make contact again… nostalgia is such an extraordinary thing… all the dramas disappear and you’re left with this essence of sweetness, a kernel of joy… so to all those I have recently broken bread with… Thank you. And then in the spirit of time past, I had to drop something off at my mechanic today and there on a hoist, an ancient old mini… immediately transported back to the 70′s and my mother’s identical red one in which she shlepped us 3 kids for 17 years…
exploring an idea
Posted in Courage, Leadership, Patterns, People and Culture, Resilience, Sacred Feminine, Spirit, Talent Development, Transformation, Women on February 20, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
have you ever just felt an idea needs to be explored… in my case my intuitive sense is that the idea has enormous merit but at the moment feels a little uncontained and am trying to break my thinking into bite-sized chunks… there is this magnetic pull to at least review and take a look at the business implications. It matter less to me as to whether it comes to fruition and more about the research and the examination in a thoughtful and methodical manner… an invigorating change for me. Interestingly it involves technology and of course incorporates what I am passionate about – women and leadership and developing that holy grail of senior women in organisations… Any ideas on a what makes a compelling and stand-out business plan will be most welcome 
A beautiful prayer
Posted in Courage, Patterns, Resilience, Spirit, Transformation on February 4, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
As a friend sat in synagogue on Saturday he found this prayer…for anyone who has wondered why they’ve picked a less than easy, simple path…
Once or twice in a lifetime,
a man or woman may choose
a radical leaving, having heard
Lech l’cha – Go forth.
God disturbs us toward our destiny
by hard events
and by freedom’s now urgent voice
which explode and confirm who we are.
We don’t like leaving,
but God loves becoming.
A heartfelt blessing
Posted in Courage, Leadership, Patterns, Resilience, Sacred Feminine, Spirit, Women on January 23, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
I just finished watching the invocation at Obama’s inauguration… a beautiful and lyrical piece by Myrlie Evers-Williams… the first ever woman to deliver the invocation… Her blessing at the end is profound – from the hearts of the collective grandmother: “There’s something within me that holds the reins. There’s something within me that banishes pain. There’s something within me I cannot explain. But all I know, there is something within. There is something within.”
Finally back on air at home
Posted in Courage, General, Health and Wellbeing, Leadership, Patterns, Resilience, Spirit, Transformation on January 15, 2013 | 1 Comment »
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.
Physical Patterns
Posted in Boot&Soul Camp, Courage, Health and Wellbeing, Patterns, Spirit, Transformation on November 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
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…
Boot&Soul has a public outing
Posted in Archetypes, Boot&Soul Camp, Health and Wellbeing, Patterns, People and Culture, Resilience, Sacred Feminine, Spirit, Transformation, Women, Yoga on November 21, 2012 | 3 Comments »
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
A challenging dance
Posted in Boot&Soul Camp, Courage, Patterns, People and Culture, Transformation on October 28, 2012 | 2 Comments »
I talk constantly of engaging both sides of our brain…this beautiful holistic dance between our rational, logical side and our creative, innovative, percolating side… imagine my surprise to find myself scurrying frantically between my analytic, clear-thinking, corporate self – pretty clear expectations from a short contract role with nothing to innovate, nor create… just to do and deliver… and simultaneously preparing for Boot&Soul camp with my innovative and passionate self searching for clear air… not an altogether comfortable process .
Standing up for my work
Posted in Courage, Leadership, Patterns, People and Culture, Resilience, Transformation on September 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I recently met someone who reflected that I was apologising for my work and that the work I am doing, is essential and meaningful in the corporate world and that I have to stand up for my work and myself… all True.
So this week another threshold was crossed with me engaged with a senior leadership team and recognising deeply that what I do and importantly how I do it, does have meaning and significance for people…. perhaps this acknowledgement is what she was talking about … standing up for my work publically.
