Tales of 22
Reflecting back and forwards on missions, offerings and the fragility of life
As I creep closer to surrendering myself to winter and begin the composting process my body is seeking, here’s some short reflections on my missions and offerings in 2022 and emerging intentions for 2023. Mainly to help me log and remember and also for gratitude - for what is and what has been.
I definitely came into 2022 still tangled in traumas of lockdown, my daughter’s recovery and the ongoing challenges of trying to financially sustain creative, emergent, transformative, systemic work on the edges.
This year has been at times overwhelming, but also with much joy, beauty and possibility weaving throughout.
The dance of life.
The Spaceship Earth Podcast - growing strong roots
We had a busy start to recording and a quiet second half as life got in the way - but here’s 3 stand out episodes.
2022 began in freezing Devon - I recorded a beautiful long conversation in the woods with Phoebe Tickell which became the Imagination Activist Episode - 57 - this has been the most listened episode of the year.
I have witnessed Phoebe’s flavour of Imagination Activism really ignite this year through her Moral Imagining initiative - this has been an absolute joy, a growing belief that we can imagine and bring into the world more beautiful realities. Hope to record again with Phoebe in 2023.
Episode 59 Nadeem Perera
Right up there with the most inspiring humans I connected with in 2022, I loved this conversation, learned loads, have never looked at a Green Woodpecker in the same way since and have enjoyed witnessing the beautiful spread of Flock Together.
Hoping to record with Nadeem again in 2023.
Episode 61 Hamish Evans
Local dynamo, regenerative farmer and community activist Hamish Evans is doing incredible work on the landscapes of Bath. Healing land and soil, healing communities and feeding people nutritious food, I’ve been eating the proof every week though MiddleGround Growers . His Bioregional dreams and prefigurative activism is leading to exciting things emerging in my hood. This episode continues to be a top listen.
The big takeout here is that these 3 extraordinary humans are all still in their 20’s which for me confirms the pressing need to get behind the young and support them to bring their dreams and visions into the world.
Many know with exceptional clarity what is wrong, destructive, unjust and how to re-imagine and heal.
Let’s get behind the young and support them in anyway we can in 2023.
The next season of the podcast will continue to centre young voices and there are some incredible guests in the pipeline.
We are for the first time seeking partner(s) who can help fund the production and distribution of a new season.
The podcast has been quietly doing its thing since 2018, we have made nearly 80 episodes and there is more interest today than ever before. We were chuffed to be nominated in the climate category in the British Podcast Awards this year.
As the world continues to unravel, more and more people are looking to the edges for new knowledge, ideas, connection and community as mainstream media makes less and less sense.
We have a loyal listener base, a solid reputation for hosting vital, important and hopeful conversations for these times and a ton of ideas for taking the podcast to the next level, but we now need partners to do this in a sustainable way. (and a producer)
I know there’s a growing desire in our culture to hear new, different and better stories of how we can live, work and organise ourselves on this planet in life-sustaining ways, so that more of us feel inspired to step into service and bring life back, to ourselves, each other and with nature - our more than human family.
Help us make that happen in 2023. (plans to share with interested parties)
Stories for Life - seeding and fertilising
Stories for Life which I co-authored with Paddy Loughman in 2020 in collaboration with Green Economy Coalition and Wellbeing Economy Alliance continued to seed, spread and fertilise in 2022 which was heartening.
A massive highlight was a 90 second edit of our Stories for Life animation being shown between every act on the stage screens at Glastonbury Festival.
I’ve been going to Glastonbury since I was 16, it’s a beacon of creative possibility and human love when so much in the world can feel despairing. So this was mad to witness and a strong validation of where we need to be heading - towards life sustaining cultures with a renewed understanding that all life is interconnected and interdependent.
Huge props to the media team at Glastonbury Festival for supporting the project.
Stories for Life X Civic Square
Stories for Life featured in Civic Square’s awesome Neighbourhood Doughnut collaboration project this year.
“Stories for Life reminds us to move from stories of separation to stories of connection”
Civic Square
Immy and the crew at Civic Square are hands down the most inspiring and important example I know of how emerging futures and new economies can and must be co-created from the ground up. The abundance of possibility that happens through them, with all the constraints they navigate is truely phenomenal.
I’m very grateful for my visits and invitations to speak with them this year. I hope they get the backing they deserve in 2023 so they can just focus on doing what they do and watch waves of beautiful change build out from Birmingham.
Stories for Life in 2023
Stories for Life features in a Sustainable Fashion Communications Playbook for the Fashion industry forthcoming in 2023 from UNEP which is nice!
We are currently designing a Stories for Life themed (un)learning program in 2023 where we hope to gather a group of multi-disciplinary artists, designers, writers, creatives and culture shapers to participate in a 3 month experiential learning journey, deepening their relationship with the more than human world, to explore and prototype how they might use their platforms, artistic powers and voices to imagine, story and participate in shaping life-sustaining cultures and help contribute to the weaving of a new and ancient cultural narrative of interconnection.
Stay tuned.
Goodfest - a nourishing gathering
I had to pull out of some events and talks this year but I did make it down to Goodfest with Seemah which was an utter treat ( we rolled a 21st wedding anniversary break into it). Matt, Laura, Ben and crew are nurturing something very special on that cliff in Cornwall, I met some beautiful humans and I was grateful to offer something into the mix, including the biggest circle of humans I’ve ever held. (thank you Charlotte Sewell for the photos)
Launching Becoming Crew
October saw the launch of Becoming Crew - (un)learning adventures for navigating mysterious times.
After years of prototyping and experimenting, we (with Evva and Mark) have our first offers out in the wild for individuals and organisational teams.
The essence of Becoming Crew is about evolving ourselves in these unravelling times, through inquiry led experimentation, not alone but in community with others.
Learning to let go of what no longer serves us, deepening our relationship to our fellow humans and the more than human world around us and seeking to connect with our most alive questions and our unique gifts.
In order to step into service to life on earth, to begin to remember, imagine and bring life back to the world around us through our work and lives.
To become active participants in co-creating the emerging future. Becoming crew.
We’ve hosted two ‘space for not knowing’ gatherings and just finished our first 5 week Community Solo with an amazing crew spanning multi generations rooted in Bristol, Pembrokeshire, The Hague, Berlin, Copenhagen, and more. The online journey culminated in experiential Medicine Walks in snow, ice, darkness and general awe and wonder.
It was a mind blowing 5 weeks, regenerative in ways far beyond what we could have imagined to be possible.
We have another Community Solo departing end of January, so do connect if you’re up for it and we will be releasing dates for more adventures in 2023.
Guiding and catalysing regenerative journeys
We are also seeking four courageous organisational teams to journey with us in 2023 through our Regeneration Sessions offer.
And I’m seeking to offer guidance/support and unconventional perspectives to 3 creative leaders next year, who know in their hearts that transformation of their work/sector is being called for but they need support to cultivate the courage and practices to do so.
This offer will be manifested through time in the woods/water/walking once a month plus online/voice time.
It’s something I’ve been doing with a CEO of a hospitality chain this year and he’s encouraged me to offer it out to others.
So reach out if you’re interested, or please share with someone who you think might be.
Life is fragile
I look back on 2022 with a sense that we are always dancing just on the edges of life, mostly unaware of that fragility.
Family health challenges have been ever present in 22 and witnessing my Dad’s last breath this week after a month in ICU - reminded me clearly of the miracle of just being alive and in health.
The health of ecosystems, biodiversity and our Earth’s system, the vital organs of our planet is no different.
We are teetering on the edges, species are dying off rapidly, climate and ecological tipping points are being reached, the conditions that sustain life itself are under immense pressures from human activities grounded in destructive stories, ways of thinking and knowing the world. And of course so many humans are suffering too.
But it seems to me that for many of us living with privilege, we can still convince ourselves that we are somehow protected from all this, separated, that we will just smoothly transition our way into a similar kind of green future.
No discomfort necessary.
We cannot seem to acknowledge our collective vulnerabilities about what is coming down the line, the urgency for transformative action, the failing and decaying of our institutions and our unknowingness of what to do.
And yet what I’m discovering time and again throughout this year is that when we acknowledge our vulnerability and not knowing, when we create intentional space for our grief and pain for the destruction in our world, when we remember the joy and awe and creativity of life, when we open ourselves up with humility to the vast intelligence of life around us, when we listen deeply to others, when we cultivate practices to deepen our relationship to life itself - Then we can move through the fear and uncertainty of what is and into the incredible creative and regenerative possibilities of what could be. And that is genuinely exciting.
Evolving ourselves together.
In service to life on Earth.
Thank you to everyone who has listened, read, watched, shared, collaborated, messaged, commented, participated, rambled, gathered, contemplated on any of these projects and initiatives with me this year.
I am massively grateful for all the support, encouragement and connections.
If of any of this speaks to you for 2023 please do reach out.
Wishing you love, light, rest and health in these darker times.
Blessings to you
dan