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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Proud of NZ

Watching the hideous footage of the Boston marathon and then the debacle with the gun debate, there’s this rare moment when the news delivers something we can be proud of… NZ – congratulations on being the first country in the Asia Pacific area to legalise same-sex marriage… It’s worth watching what has been described as an “epic” speech by a member of NZ parliament, Maurice Williamson…

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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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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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