19/08/2026
✨ A few weeks ago, it was my very great honour to participate in a panel discussion on Interspecies Communication, for the Resurgence Trust. Influential in both its manifestation and choice of speakers, and following reference to the ‘marginalisation’ of individuals and families for their practice of Spiritual Healing, I reflected afterwards on my own loss of voice and re-membered again that this is also a significant part of my own story. Perhaps one that is inevitably inextricably linked within those of us who are drawn to converse with the more-than-human world?
🌏 When asked, I often describe myself as an ‘edges person’; the place where creativity happens most readily and organically, at the ‘margins’ or ‘edges’ of existence. And I was recently introduced to an articulate text on ‘edginess’ and ‘centrism’ by my wonderful tree advocate friend, Issy, with whom I’ve had the pleasure to share conversation this year. If looking at life through a less monocular lens appeals to you, you can find it here: https://aeon.co/essays/why-creativity-shines-out-on-the-edge-of-things. I’m all for achieving balance and grace but the centrist view seemingly relies upon the successful delivery of, and subscription to, the illusion of it being a laudable goal; apparently healthy in appearance, yet also creating a kind of intertia and homogeneity that stifles - and more precisely feels threatened by - creative endeavour over compliance.
🫶 In my own experience, life in the liminal spaces, by virtue of its marginalisation, enjoys a freedom and authenticity not otherwise encountered in the implicit ‘centre’. Living on the edges is not forced; it instead offers up space for the more-than-human world to flourish, to adapt, to encounter both creativity and, essentially, resilience - in short, to grow and to thrive as they will. Attention polarised on the centre is often designed to create uniformity and conformity, threatening to perpetuate prejudice instead of eliminate it; a lack of attention at the edges conversely creates a beautifully messy kind of liberty and wildness that only those who inhabit it understand.
🍄🟫 Had we had more time, our panel conversation would have travelled further still, I am sure. I had wanted to pay homage to the glorious mycelial network and to the fabulously pioneering, bioindicator presence of lichens - an ancient algae-fungi symbiotic partnership, along with Professor Scott Gilbert’s wonderful assertion (popularised by Merlin Sheldrake) that “we are all lichens”! As well as to the many extraordinary untold stories of connectivity between species; of plants and of trees but also of cats, dogs, horses, elephants, of bees and their humming serenade… Yet, although I quietly and steadily facilitate this wisdom for others - and much more - ‘public speaking’ remains a challenge for me. And ‘putting myself out there’ a lived oxymoron, an uncomfortable pleasure.
🕸️ The natural world, conversely, speaks to us in myriad ways and so very much happens in the ‘space in between’ that was made reference to, when we allow ourselves to dissolve superficial divisions, boundaries, borders and to realise our own manifest porosity and permeability; as we undulate with and of the landscape, it is no longer around us - above, below, side to side, ‘othered’ - it is us, and we are born out of it. Love fills the space, and we are love - whether we recognise it yet, or not. Working freely across multiple realms, beliefs and icons, as they each present themselves - elemental, angelic, plant, Pagan, the Madonna…, I unquestioningly welcome and embrace the wisdom of whomsoever arises … Most recently, I found myself describing humans as ‘helixes within the matrix of life’; expressing individuality and connectivity simultaneously - an impromptu sunset, pebble-shifting, high tide, download conversation with my tangentially thinking and ever creative artist friend Lucie!
🙏 Retaining my personal sovereignty is meaningful to me and, in a world in which we are bombarded with ‘noise’ and opinions, I have found myself increasingly following my desire to turn inwards, preferring the stillness and nourishment of quietude. BUT there is importance in giving agency and representation to those who cannot converse in a dominant culture too. The intensity of both traversing and transcending the impacts of multiple traumatic events in recent years has enabled me to continue to develop my own individuality - both resilient and authentic - and, in doing so, I am reminded, once again, that synchronicity isn’t reserved for only positive experiences but that the negative ones are an opportunity for learning and growth too. For that I am eternally grateful. Were I not on this path of continuous growth, I would not embody the non-verbal and more-than-human advocacy that I continue to do.
👂 You can listen to the panel here, if it calls you: https://vimeo.com/1198773127; the conversation was both rich and diverse. Presently, a majority of my own course participants are female (not by exclusion but by a current trend that I’m open to manifesting change within, as all voices matter); it was wonderful, then, to share the stage with two such representative male voices, championing the work that we each do, in recognition and celebration of our more-than-human kin.
💖 Blessings of the day to you, One and All
