Purpose is not a straight line

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…

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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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And then there is someone who inspires you deeply.

Leymah Gbowee

Yesterday I attended “All About Women” at the Opera House – no huge shock that it was 95% women… happily loads of young women wanting to listen to the many fascinating conversations that were on offer… none better than the extraordinary Leymah Gbowee, the Nobel prize winner from Liberia… Magnificent in many ways this woman set up the “Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace” by working at grassroots level with women and children with calls to action like: “We are tired! We are tired of our children being killed! We are tired of being raped! Women, wake up – you have a voice in the peace process!” Their work eventually ending the 14-year bloody war that had strangled Liberia and electing the first female President in Africa, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf… Leymah Gbowee is mesmerising – authentic, funny, clever and passionate… I loved her response about fearless leaders – no leader is fearless she said, they just have the courage to dismiss the fear and continue with what they are passionate about… a lesson for all of us.

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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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exploring an idea

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

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A beautiful prayer

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.

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A heartfelt blessing

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.”

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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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