I read a couple of studies recently about the dark side of being seen to be “doing the right thing”.

They showed that displays of excellence can turn off or provoke the very people they might otherwise inspire.

One study showed that “Principled deviants who take the high road threaten others’ moral self-worth”.

This is another shadow voice that’s made itself known very clearly lately.

Interestingly, or rather - magically, this is growing louder just after my last initiation into Father Sky, who brings the truth serum from Above.

The rich irony of this shadow voice is that I’m painfully, horribly, triggeringly honest (as my family, my team and our students will tell you).

(Written a year ago and even more true today)

I planted these two different honeysuckles over the swing seat many years ago with the dream that one day they would unite in the middle… now they finally do, it absolutely delights me.

One of the practices of Waking The Wild is dream work because it’s such a powerful portal to descending into the soul. Here are some of the ways we guide people to work with their dreams to slide down deeper into their soul…

It doesn't have to be

the blue iris, it could be

weeds in a vacant lot, or a few

small stones; just

pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try

To these three men… so different, and yet each of them have provided me with so much.

Chris Brook, I really couldn’t have wished for a more wonderful father for my children…

Rob Tyler, you’re in my heart and mind every day. Last night we went for a Southern Indian meal…

Chris Tyler-Humm, Sandy chose well when she chose you, not just a husband but a man who became so much part of…

Lately, I’ve noticed the same question spontaneously arising for me… what moves us to generate and transform once we feel so deeply relaxed, safe and abundant that fear is no longer the animating force?

1. The ways you struggle to cope in this modern world you’ll come to know are due to neurodivergences such as autism and ADHD and that they’re really manifestations of unique and precious gifts.

Oak,

you saw it

all.

The girl who didn’t know who she was,

grimacing behind a contorting mask of someone else.

I first noticed myself disappear in a coaching session 9 years ago.

I was sitting with a client and realised I hadn’t been there for most of the session - which of course means I’d come back to be able to notice the absence.

“You must learn one thing.

The world was made to be free in

Give up all the other worlds

except the one to which you belong.”

These words from David Whyte’s Sweet Darkness, one of my favourite poems, are playing around my mind today.

This week has been one of the most intense I’ve experienced for a long time… we’re in the final (final, final!) stages of rebirthing as Waking The Wild, inside and out, as well as every part of our ongoing business needing attention. As Jonathan described it: it feels like we’re surrounded by hungry mouths that need feeding.

I see an Italian tree in front of me. I thought it was a cypress but Google says no.

It calls to mind a summer spent sleeping under a fig tree in Ibiza. A summer of sun, sand, nudity, and living hand to mouth via the medium of art, graft and ingenuity. I was 7.

I’m undeniably open, bubbly, bouncy, full of joy and laughter, sprinkling rainbows and rose petals wherever I go.

If someone were to think the work we do matches my energy, they’d be in for a real shock.

The topic of ‘spiritual bypassing’ comes up fairly often in the work we do, particularly as we have students with two different world views which bring polar perspectives on this matter…

I haven’t shared any photos or details from my burial initiation this weekend, and I won’t be, but thought I’d share just this one with you as the big smile on my face as I make my grave put me in mind Mellissa Seaman’s words when I was a guest on her show…

It’s funny… the seemingly more challenging the initiations of the shamanic path my soul chose (believe me, my human did not choose it!) become, the more I see the truth of the words of one of my favourite quotes in the world…

As we close the doors to Waking The Wild Medicine ‘22, it felt timely to do a post like this (for the first time since 2019!)

I am not driven.

I don’t have strong will power.

I’m not Little Miss Commitment.

I’m about as flowing, “Oh look: shiny object!”, changeable, “Oooh, new idea!”, and capricious as it’s possible to be.

As we close the doors to Waking The Wild Medicine ‘22, it felt timely to do a post like this (for the first time since 2019!)