I have learned from nomads as a role model for modern-day resilience for many years, drawing mainly on my experience leading twelve groups with Bedouin in the Tunisian Sahara. Kate Humble’s recent BBC2 series on nomads offers vivid insights from across the world, and I enjoyed her programme on nomads in the Gobi desert, Mongolia. […]
Tag Archives: wisdom
Book Digest: Social Change 2.0 by David Gershon
The middle part of this book is a brilliant, practical, inspiring primer on how to pilot and scale up transformative social change initiatives, from a man who has done this with several impressive pioneering projects. Like many American books, it’s twice as long as it needs to be, so I suggest you skip Parts 1 […]
Growing natural resilience: how can we learn from ecosystems
I talk about resilience a lot, and I hear very varied definitions of it from others. Some regard resilience as a hard, cold, mechanistic idea, whereas my first images are of a green, creative springiness: the growing through problems that we can see in sustainable ecosystems. This blog offers my views on how humans can […]
The Spirit of Persia
The Spirit of Iran: nomads, Sufis and more… October 13-28, 2015 organised by Alan Heeks If I had a bucket list a trip to Iran would be near the top. So in October 2015 I hope to make a 2-week customised tour of Iran with a congenial group of 10-14 people. This piece explains why […]
Retreat: THE SPIRITUAL ROOTS OF RESILIENCE – Nomadic Wisdom for our Changing Times
with Alan Heeks and Cordelia Prescott Allanton Peace Sanctuary, near Dumfries Friday 18th – Sunday 20th September 2015 The times in which we live are truly challenging, and they invite a response of courage and resilience from us all if we are to take positive steps into our own future. New role models and guidance from great […]
Pilgrim Without Map or Boots – New lifeskills for uncertain times
I aim to have a retreat time of 3 – 4 days every quarter: it’s a good way to rest, renew, and review my direction. This time, I’m doing a self-guided retreat at the Northumbria Community, a centre in rural mid-Northumberland, inspired by the Celtic Christian monasteries which once flourished in this area. A spiritual […]
Workshop: The Natural Roots of Resilience: wisdom from the wood
Event: The Natural Roots of Resilience: wisdom from the wood – a retreat at Hazel Hill Wood, near Salisbury Resilience is the skills to nurture our wellbeing amid the rising levels of change and uncertainty that most of us face in everyday life. This weekend we’ll explore the roots of resilience in human nature: how […]
Quick Book Notes – Charles Eisenstein: The more beautiful world our hearts know is possible
Quick Book Notes – Charles Eisenstein: The more beautiful world our hearts know is possible This book is a sort of guide to the New Story: not what it is but, a clear, compassionate process of how to move into it. He illuminates the personal and societal habits and mindsets holding us back, and their […]
How to enjoy a wet May: Finding your inner fire when the sun won’t shine
How to enjoy a wet May: Finding your inner fire when the sun won’t shine I am writing this at Hazel Hill Wood, sitting at the foot of my favourite beech tree, with a struggling campfire. It has been raining heavily for days, now it’s merely a light drizzle pushed along by a strong South-Westerly […]
Book Brief: Thomas Berry: ‘The Dream of the Earth’
Book Brief: Thomas Berry: ‘The Dream of the Earth’ – is myth both the problem and the solution? Berry has an unusual, eloquent, and valuable view of how we humans got into the current crisis, and how to move out of it. This view is powerfully presented in the ‘Dream of the Earth’, one of […]