On falling, our place of birth and Nature in the city

Once again, it’s been a while since you last heard of me. Unless of course, we’re connected on Linkedin or Instagram. (If not, please reach out. I’d love to hear from you).

I’ve done a lot of guiding over the past couple of weeks. At the end of the day, I had just about enough energy left to post something short there. Too close to nodding off to write something longer. I must be getting old 🤔.

How falling into a ravine led to a value-aligned life

“I was frantically trying to find something, anything to hold on to. As I slid down the mountainside I felt my stomach drop and fill with fear. The trail I had been on disappeared from view and the bottom of the ravine was now fast coming closer.”

That’s how the post starts that I was asked to contribute as part of the celebration of World Values Day last week and this month.

You can read the entire post here on the Values Alliance website. On it, you’ll also find a very interesting collection of posts that approach values from very different perspectives. I highly recommend checking some of them out.

On our place of birth

Heather Monro of Bright Space Thinking is a former international orienteering athlete and champion turned coach. We first e-met (as in ‘on a Zoom call’) when I was invited by a mutual acquaintance to join a Thinking Environment session. When I learned about her background in orienteering, I was fascinated and couldn’t resist inviting her to be a guest on the ‘Daring Self-Leadership & The Nature Connection’ podcast.

Together we have a conversation on episode 32 about deeply connecting with our place of birth: Nature.

On Nature connection in the city

I first learned about Jennifer Walsh and the work she does with Walk with Walsh through the podcast of another ‘Daring Self-Leadership’ guest, João Perre Viana (listen to his episode here). I then stumbled across a blog post she shared on Linkedin. In it, she recounts how she discovered a ‘New New York’ as she walked through the pandemic.

Reading her bio I didn’t give myself much chance of success in getting her on the show, but I decided to reach out anyways. I was delighted when she agreed to be a guest. We of course talk about how we can connect to Nature in the city but we also touch on other Nature related topics.

Check out my conversation with Jennifer in episode 33.

Suzanne Simard: Forests Are Wired For Wisdom

Perhaps you remember me waxing poetic about two books I read during COVID:

• The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
• Finding the Mother Tree by Dr Suzzane Simard

Together they forever changed how I experience trees and forests. They also confirmed to me what I’ve always felt, perhaps known even, deep within me: we are part of, not separate from Nature.

This episode of the ‘On Being’ podcast is an interesting one if you – like me – are captivated by forests and their Wood Wide Web. You can find it here.

As always …

Go dare greatly!

— Gerdi