Hello friends!
I’m back in my new home on Vancouver Island… and I’m fully settled in this time. In the last few weeks, I did approximately 65 hours of driving, over 6200 kilometres, visiting six cities for book events. Plus I emptied out my storage unit in Winnipeg and brought all of my belongings to my new home, and then crossed the ferry back to Vancouver to move my daughter Maddy off campus and bring her and her belongings back with me (she’ll be my roommate for the summer).
That’s a LOT of hours of sitting alone in a car! A few of those hours were a little intense (thanks to Spring snowstorms in the mountains on the way east, and then on the prairies on the way west), but mostly they were uneventful and enjoyable.
Since I listened to several audiobooks and found a few new podcasts I enjoyed, I thought this would be a good time to share the new feature I’m creating on our Substack account. It’s called Other People’s Wisdom, and it will include periodic recommendations for books, movies, podcasts… or whatever is inspiring me.
Before I share those recommendations, here are a few other updates…
We’ve opened registration for the 2024 cohort of How to Hold Space - The Foundation Program. This is the 8 month program (broken into modules, which can be done separately) that is the cornerstone of our work. Whether you want to expand your capacity to hold space for other people, or focus on holding space for yourself, there’s something for everyone in this program. Hundreds of people from all over the world have been through it, and one of the best things about it is the meaningful conversations you’ll have with other participants. We’re also re-opening registration for our Certification Program, so if you’ve already taken the Foundation Program and want to go deeper, we welcome your application.
We’ve moved the start date for our brand new program, Not the Main Character, to September. Krista has been working on some exciting new developments for this program and I know it’s going to be amazing. It’s all about finding meaning and purpose by playing the supporting character (in your work, family, community, church, school, etc.).
I’ve got a few more book-related events coming up in the Pacific Northwest (on and around the island I now live on), for the launch of my second book, Where Tenderness Lives: On healing, liberation and holding space for oneself. I hope to see you there!
Now that I’m home (and plan to stay here as much as possible in the next while), I’ve decided to launch a new coaching program. This was partially inspired by all of the nourishing one-on-one conversations I had while doing my book tour which reminded me of how much I love diving into deep waters with people who are willing to do the work. I’m working out the details and hope to have it ready to launch next week, so keep your eyes open!
And now… Other People’s Wisdom, Instalment #1
(In no particular order.)
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma, by Stephanie Foo: This is an intense and powerful memoir about abuse, trauma, and healing. With unflinching honesty, Stephanie Foo tells the story of the horrible abuse she suffered as a child and the trauma that was left behind in her body. What makes this book unique and especially worthwhile is the amount of effort she goes into to share about her healing journey and all of the healing modalities (somatic practices, talk therapy, etc.) she tried in order to heal what her abusers (her parents) left behind. While it may be hard for trauma survivors to read the first part of the book, the second part is worth it for the hope and resources it offers.
Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls, by Kai Cheng Thom: This is a short book, full of intimate letters that Kai Cheng Thorm wrote to people who shaped her life. The letters - some of which were written to people who abused, ridiculed, or otherwise harmed her - offer a path to compassion, forgiveness, and self-acceptance. As a transgender Chinese Canadian girl, Kai Cheng Thom knows what it means to live at the margins of a world that doesn’t always treat her with tenderness and respect. Though I listened to this in audio (and enjoyed hearing it in the author’s voice), I might end up buying a physical copy of this book to have on my bookshelf.
Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World that Wasn’t Designed for You, by Jenara Nerenberg. As I explore my own neurodivergence and try to understand the unique challenges and gifts that come with having a brain that functions differently than most people’s, I’ve been on the lookout for good resources. This book offers a helpful overview of neurodivergence (ADHD, autism, synesthesia, high sensitivity, and sensory processing disorder) and is focused especially on women. I especially appreciate how the author weaves her own story into the extensive research she’s done on the topic. I highly recommend it if you are neurodivergent (or suspect you are), or if you want to better understand people you love who are neurodivergent.
The Madonna Secret, by Sophie Strand: This is an intriguing and thought-provoking fictional retelling of the life of Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Through extensive research, as well as a deep understanding of botany, ecology, feminist studies, and the mythic traditions of the Mediterranean during that era, Sophie Strand reshaped a familiar narrative and wove it through with compelling questions about the impact of Jesus’ life on our shared history. (Spoiler alert: she sees it as a sliding doors moment, when people turned away from earth-based spirituality.) It was a long listen (22 hours) and there were some things I thought she might have done better (for example, I felt something was missing in her imagining of what was driving Jesus’ work), but it was definitely intriguing and left me with some new curiosities.
We Are the Great Turning, podcast with Joanna Macy & Jessica Serrante: This is a brand new podcast that I’ve fallen in love with and the first episode made me cry. Joanna Macy is a legendary eco-spiritual teacher (who’s now in her nineties) and Jess Serrante is a longtime activist and student of Joanna’s (who’s in her thirties). Their conversations are intimate, vulnerable, authentic, and hopeful. Their intergenerational friendship offers a special backdrop for this conversation about “Love, Courage, and Connection in the Climate Crisis” that is both hard and beautiful, both sad and joyful. The first episode, about love and loss, touches on the fact that Joanna doesn’t have many years left on this earth and Jess has some anticipatory grief about her death. It reminded me of some of the conversations I had with my friend Randy in the year before he died, which is why I was driving down the highway bawling my eyes out. (Side note: As I was listening, I couldn’t help but think about the importance of our training in How to Hold Space to help people resource themselves and their communities for the complexity and precarity of climate crisis.)
Outrage & Optimism podcast - Our Story of Nature, 3 part series: I first discovered Christiana Figueres, the host of Outrage and Optimism, when I heard her interviewed by Krista Tippett on On Being. She’s a Costa Rican citizen and an internationally recognized leader on climate change. She was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 2010 to 2016. In this 3 part series, she’s in conversation with Isabel Cavelier Adarve (and they weave in many other voices as well), talking about our movement from “rupture to reconnection”. First they talk about “living from nature”, then “living with nature”, and finally “living as nature”. I found their framework especially compelling for this moment in my life, having moved to Vancouver Island with the intention of deepening my practice of being a part of nature and being a student of the trees, the mushrooms, and the water.
Know of anyone else who would enjoy these recommendations? Please share the post!
Speaking of books… have you picked up your copy of Where Tenderness Lives: On healing, liberation, and holding space for oneself yet? If so, I’d love it if you’d share a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or social media!
Also, don’t forget that if you subscribe for our paid membership on Substack, you’ll get to be a member of our live studio audience on our podcast, and you’ll receive a weekly Lunchbox Note from Tenderness that looks something like this…
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