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Flowing Mu

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

September '06 update

Strat, Act, UL, UR, Box

Hope this finds you all well. I am well - maintaining a grounding in exercise and meditation, finding work, travelling and thinking, and uncovering and exploring more and more about myself.

After initial June meetings in London with many consultancies and NGOs to scope out how I could contribute to the scene, a quick flight had me back in Sweden and on my bike. With Lisa Chacon I explored parts of France and
Germany, highlights including SW German forests and backyard vegetable gardens, the Berlin holocaust monuments, the amazing Aus-Croatia World Cup match, and great sessions of deep personal work and
idea generation.

From Paris I trained (in 1st class upgrade!) back to London where my jubilant mood was somewhat dented by stone-throwing children. A weekend up in the Lakes district walking was lovely, before flying out of Glasgow to Stockholm to get a UK working Visa. Back in K-town I finally go to eat a MASSIVE icecream and say goodbye to people and place. Ten days in Belgium cooking and cleaning on a Vipassana meditation course in Belgium, really reconnected me with a sense of selflessness, service and a deeper sense of self. I then zoomed back up to Hamburg (great city!) to meet my holidaying Mum for a day, then back to London via train (again 1st class upgrade)!

August in London saw me starting a 3-day a week internship with Eastside consulting, and applying for loads of sustainability work (20+ applications). There really are an incredible range and number of organisations trying to create a better world here! Earlier in June I had identified Eastside as having a nice vibe and people but lacking the skills and knowedge re: REAL sustainability. Being thrown straight into the lead role on a real project suggested things could work out... At the same I was trying to get work to get some money through the door - and ended up finding weekend work at a bike shop (in a very cool area, in a solar-powered building).

Socially, I dined with some amazing SoL crew, and had time to hang out with both my parents, and catch some low-priced summer festival events. For my parents, it was the first time they have had any time to themselves for about 28 years. I have a lot to thank them for because of their tireless support and priviledged position I find myself in now :) Come September I finished the Internship with Eastside, then flew off to Colorado for Integral Sustainability (full update to be included in MSLTS newsletter) - which was one of the most intense and incredible things I have EVER been able to participate in. San Francisco was a dream with Miriam, Ingrid and Lisa and a meeting with the inspiring women of Sustainable Sonoma County. It was also a chance to reconnect with the sea and sun, which was beautiful and heart-wrenching at the same time.

Now I am back at Eastside as a freelance consultant to help their clients be more sustainable (financially, ecologically and socially) and working on their internal knowledge management; and still at the cycle shop to keep some steady money coming in. A second sustainability workshop with all the Eastside associates is happening on 19th October to thrash out details of how to integrate an integral, strategic approach to sustainability into their offering (Hoorah).

So, I am just about to launch into a serious effort at meeting more people and organisations, building my networks and understanding around 'innovative ways of helping entrepreneurs and SMEs make more strategic, integral decisions to increase their probability of success and enhance the well-being of their communities'. There are a number of little side projects I have ticking along, including meetings with other consultancies, a TNS-Integral paper, and getting better at relationships with peers, family and friends! We (Miriam, Richard and myself) have also received a scholarship to present our thesis findings at a conference in Ghana in November. The biggest project is just trying to integrate, internalise and use the massive amounts of wisdom I have been exposed to over the past year.

Hopefully I have settled down for a while, so I can get more into the groove of daily practices, good friends, 'walking-the-talk' community gardening and various hobbies. Right now this minute, I feel both great and not-so-great - my heart, mind, soul are all pulling in multiple directions and I am having some trouble deciding exactly what I want. Walking the road between visionary, enlightened, fearless transformational leadership, and the 'reality' of earning money to get food in your mouth, a roof over your head, and make some dent in your massive credit card debt. What I am wildly happy about is that your support - knowing you are all out there - has allowed me to be more entrepreneurial and confident, and has resulted in me being able to create work for myself. I mean, we are trying to change the world...and it is probably rare that people advertise jobs to disrupt the status quo and lead the transformation!

Be.Connect.Contribute....Yeeee Haaa!

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