Mossy Willow Farm is a thriving market garden on the southern coast of Victoria. It uses regenerative, no-till practices and feeds more than 500 people a week. Building nutrient-rich soil is central to Mossy Willow’s methodology, which in turn creates an abundance of nutrient-rich produce year-round. It is a fertile farm where high-quality production doesn’t come at a cost to nature.

It is also the place where I found myself following a warm invitation to run a Courage retreat for Dumbo Feather last weekend.

Have you heard of Dumbo Feather? I have previously mentioned them, and my work with them, and I’m enjoying the growing relationship between us. In a crude little nutshell, Dumbo Feather (which is owned by Small Giants) runs their business a little like this:

Let’s talk about empathy and courage. But let’s do more than that.

Let’s run our business with empathy and courage.

They really are something.

So, it was an honour to join hands with Dumbo Feather again, facilitating a day and evening of courage and freedom at Mossy Willow Farm (incidentally, also owned by Small Giants). At the heart of the retreat was a rare opportunity for renewal: for deeper connection with like-minded, committed peers, and the chance to engage with personal questions of importance at a gentle pace in a tranquil setting, where participants were warmly encouraged to share in a safe atmosphere of collegial enquiry. Together, we engaged in large and small-group dialogues, focused on evocative texts and questions, experienced silence, solitude and journaling for reflection, and told stories from our own lives and work. Thereby a shared process was created for exploring the intersections of our inner lives, our leadership in the world, and our relationships with courage and freedom.

For those who have facilitated retreats or workshops, you will understand the deep satisfaction and joy involved in holding space which supports others simultaneously with oneself. And for all of us, the courage, balanced with curiosity, to trust the process. Which is the product.

This retreat really was something! While the participants were engaging with warmth and generosity of their own, I couldn’t help but feel amazed at being invited to work with such an organisation as Dumbo Feather, in such a setting, with such individuals.

I’m so pleased I could join hands and introduce a beautiful Circle of Trust® in connection with the extended Dumbo Feather community.

 

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The Courage & Renewal retreats I facilitate foster personal and professional renewal by offering time, space, promptings and a community of support to reflect on life and work. They create opportunity to:

  • Pause, be still, disconnect from technology and the pace of a modern life.
  • Engage at a deeper level with our true selves and the questions that have heart and meaning for us.
  • Investigate, talk through, and honour both struggles and successes.
  • Witness and be witnessed, listen and be listened to—without performance evaluation, judgment, comparison, or ego.
  • Learn new skills for strengthening capacity to ask open, honest questions, hold tension, and re-join the heart of who we are with what we do.

Registrations for the next retreat, Tidelines: Courage for Life’s Transitions, are open now. Together with a small group of intentional others, the four-day program offers both safety and challenge within which to explore personal and professional questions of change. To be held on the magnificent Freycinet Peninsula in October 2019, this retreat will be delivered in collaboration with premium Tasmanian hiking tour operator, Freycinet Experience.

I’d love to see you there. Details are here.

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