Tipping Toward Life and Love- My Climate Journey in Verse
Always We Begin Again
Turning Climate Anxiety Into Action
The first thing that hits you is the air…., the air is hot, heavy and depending on the day, clogged with particulate pollution. Your eyes often water. Your cough never disappears… You often wear a mask to protect yourself from air pollution. You can no longer simply walk out of your front door and breathe fresh air: there might not be any. Instead, before opening doors or windows in the morning, you check your phone to see what the air quality may be… When storms and heat waves overlap and cluster, the air pollution and intensified surface ozone levels can make it dangerous to go outside…even indoors the air can taste slightly acidic, sometimes making you feel nauseated.
Finding the Summer Within
Designing Your Life under COVID
If you are like most of us under COVID19, you may have been waiting for life to return to normal: going back to the office, visiting clients across the world, taking kids to school in the morning, shopping without masks as often as you choose to, having friends over for a meal in the dining room, going to an exercise class, attending a sports event or a conference in person, hugging friends and many more activities currently out of reach or with limitations. But, you now have been waiting for months, and for those of us who live in the United States, it looks like we will have a few more months of waiting.
Let this Darkness Be a Bell Tower
Midlife, COVID-19 and Climate Change Crises- What Are We Learning?
Some experience their entry points into midlife as maximally disturbing, with overwhelming levels of stress and fear. They cannot believe this is happening to them: they feel incredulous. Sometimes they notice impaired judgment, confusion, and agitation [… ]. Not knowing what the midlife passage is about, most of us redouble our efforts to get back on track, resume our lives, move past the obstacle at hand, and do something -anything- to return to the predictability, control, and pleasures of normal life. Many of us resist the invitation to step away from our familiar lives because we don’t appreciate that the challenges we are facing are a call to transform. Instead we search for ways to overcome each challenge as we have in the past so we can resume traveling on a familiar track at familiar speeds. But the midlife passage will not be dismissed. We do not overcome it; it overcomes us.
Epidemics and Beautiful Harvests- Another Form of Pilgrimage?
Today, pre-corona virus era, I would have been on a flight to Japan to start the walk of the 88 temple pilgrimage route. Instead, I am finding myself in a different type of pilgrimage, but, very similarly in the betwixt and between, this liminal space between the old and the new. What is different here is that the entire world is in this transition, a season of waiting, a state of not knowing what is coming next. And being in the liminal space of not knowing is not easy: it brings doubt, anxiety, stress and a sense of having lost agency in one’s life. But it also can bring a sense of openness and curiosity and allows for new possibilities to emerge.
When I lead pilgrimages, after a few days of walking, I invite the participants into a practice of Embracing the Unknown. I usually start the conversation with the following Zen koan about not knowing:
Two Zen teachers meet; one is carrying his bags. “Where are you going?”, inquires the first teacher.
“I’m going on a pilgrimage”, the other teacher responds.
“What’s the purpose of pilgrimage?” asks the first teacher.
“I don’t know.” he responds.
“Not knowing is most intimate.” Replies the first teacher
What the teacher in the koan is saying is that not knowing is just right.
Marc Lesser, author of Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader- Lessons from Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen, while commenting on this koan, writes:
“With not knowing, I am open, ready, willing to learn, to be surprised. I can see and hear others beyond my own ideas. Though my experience and knowledge are important, they can get in the way. When I let go of my own ideas, I can be present, humble. When I am humble, I am not afraid. I can enter this moment, engaged, moved, open – intimate.”
Being comfortable in the not knowing space needs practice: I am inviting you into this practice during a solo contemplative walk.
Free "Shelter In Place" Coaching Sessions until the end of May
Many of us are finding ourselves suddenly faced with the prospect of spending many hours at home. In the context of our busy, modern lives the idea of confinement seems daunting, almost unnatural. In addition, because these restrictions came so fast and without warning, we are not quite prepared: we are inclined to feel restless, anxious, overwhelmed or glued to the never ending news cycle or social media feed. I've been thinking about ways I can help and I realized the best gift I can give you is a free coaching session to help you reconnect with a sense of calm and agency in your life while we are all sheltering in place.
I will be offering free online coaching sessions via Zoom for the next three weeks to whomever needs support in these trying times.
More information and to reserve your spot with this link.
Be well, Anne-Marie
PS: In addition, and in case you missed it, here is a link to my last newsletter where I shared resources about managing anxiety.
Anxiety and “Milk Maids Blooming With Hound's Tongues Peeking Out"
We had our first seasonal contemplative walk in the hills of Portola Valley in February. It was a gorgeous day on the land of the Puichon Ohlone: with clear skies and perfect temperatures for a walk in the woods, we were treated to a never-ending symphony of busy and loud woodpeckers, to a mating dance by young happy juncos and to a deep, warm and intimate conversation between two bullfrogs. Inspired by the ancient Japanese calendar of 72 micro (ko) seasons and 24 small (seki) seasons, a participant titled our first walk: “Milk Maids blooming with Hound's Tongues beginning to peek out”. It’s amazing what one starts seeing, hearing and sensing when in stillness and silence even for just a few hours!
Solvitur Ambulando- A New Coaching Offering for the New Year
Solvitur Ambulando is a Latin phrase that usually translates as “it’s solved by walking”. My eponymous new coaching offering is a coaching session that is conducted while walking together in nature. I am offering it in response to what I have recently witnessed in my coaching practice: clients prone to anxiety, restlessness, sleeping difficulties, tied to their electronic devices and social media apps with little time for exercise, self-reflection, let alone time outdoors, and as a result not prone to engage in a self-development program while still looking to grow and get answers to some deep questioning. So, I am adding to my life coaching programs and walking events, a simple coaching while walking offering that can be purchased in single or multiple sessions. While walking with me as your life coach, my intention is for you to experience a different way of being, to learn to be more grounded and present, to ease your anxiety, to increase your creativity, to be more resourceful, and to learn a new practice that will support you for life.