Here's looking at you, sweet pea. Nature Connected Leadership for everyday people - Late Summer

Introduction

How do you connect with Nature?

Nature Connection is so much more than going 'outside into nature'. Yes, we do get immediate scientifically proven benefits from being in leafy places, but it is much more than this, and we all connect in many different ways.

In these posts I will explore the wellbeing benefits to individuals and teams of deeply connecting with nature, through cycles and seasons, elements and systems. I hope this serves you and your 'relations' well. By relations I mean connections to the systems that support you - people, place, workplace, soil, plants, animals, culture, stories, natural cycles etc.

My words will be powered by the 8Shields model of Nature Connection (8shields.org), biomimicry, scientific research, nature based philosophy, as well as personal observation and poems too... mine and those of others.

I aim to post every other week throughout this 'school' year.

One of the greatest gifts we can give another is our time. So I wonder 'Will you join me for a moment of your time to connect and deepen your connection with nature?' If so, I am very grateful and I hope these blog posts are a good exchange for your time.

Warm rain has fallen overnight. Every flower, berry and branch is wet in the brightening morning light. 

I look closely at the sweet peas outside my little home, at the five green sepals that seem to hold the petals all heavy with water, so delicately, like starry hands. Looking again I see a star shaped person with a water-droplet head. Like plants we are fed by water and sun and earth and air. 

The sun is appearing as mist and clouds thin. 

Here in the UK, this time of year is, I think, about soaking up the last of the sun's energy and preparing our fruit, our seeds, our gifts for the next stage of the journey through the cycle of the seasons. 

Many leaves are beginning to change colour and loosen from their parent plants. 
Stems and branches are heavy from the weight of seed and ripening fruit, ready to be released to the pull of gravity and the cycles of life. 

Autumn term is starting and children are leaving home for school again. My heart goes out especially to those going to big school for the first time. 

I am ready to put my forest school leader hat on three days a week.

Swallows and martins swoop above, taking in as much fuel from their summer land for their journeys that trace the sunrise across the horizon.

My log store is almost full and has enough for the winter. 

I wonder...

• Did I work hard, relax, play and dream enough this summer, to deeply feed my soul and store up my sun batteries for the longer nights and colder days ahead? 

• what, if anything, holds back my leaves, seeds and fruit - my gifts, my offerings, my love for my partner, my friends, my family, my community and our world, as this new Autumn season of sharing abundance approaches? 

• what will I need to let go of? - both un-needed physical things and also patterns of thinking to help declutter energy...

Nature offers metaphors and connection in so many ways.

I start a mental list of things to put on Facebook marketplace and know that some kinds of storing up is good, yet hoarding and clutter makes my life feel more heavy. How do I find the right balance. What will I need in the future? 

I zoom out to what is going on in the world. The future can be unsettling... 

With disruption and polarisation, political strife, technological development and climate change affecting humans and the rest of nature in a million different ways around this wonderful planet there is much to fear and be anxious about.

Yet the cycle of the seasons can be reassuring. Yes, we will all have dark times, death and transformation - whether we are a mountain, a river, a person or a sweet pea, in the same way we will all have growth and be nourished with light...life, vibration, the music of the spheres with keep on cycling, revolving....

I wonder: 

• how do I connect with the spirit of life right now?

• what am I grateful for?

• how am I expressing the energy of creation and what am I bringing to this world that the world needs?

Sometimes all that is needed is a smile, a deep sense of welcoming another, whether it is for a sweet pea, or for a child starting a new term, in a new class, or an employee beginning their day at work, that brings a sense of belonging. 

A smile that sends a message of you are seen, safe and appreciated for what you bring to the world. 

I remember that I need to do this in the mirror too. To truly welcome others I need to truly welcome my self and my belonging in this world first.

Here's to looking at you, sweet p...

And deeper peace to you dear reader.

So now I invite you to take some time over the next couple of weeks to ponder those questions above.

Wishing you a wonderful autumn. 

And of course, do post a comment or email me back if you wish.

Chris