That's a wrap! Reflections on the year that was...

How does one summarise the full, fascinating, challenging, inspiring, illuminating couple of years has been 2023? Oh, and I might as well include 2022!

The mode: one of sabbatical

Slowing, attending, unlearning, re-learning, growing, recalibration, rest, of curating a sense of spacious time.

The theme: one of weaving

The rich tapestry often looks rather messy from my vantage point (a bit like my resume!), but I occasionally catch rare glimpse of real beauty emerging, thread by thread, weave by weave: skill and intention combined with serendipity, accident and chance.

The song: the piece 'TIME' by Hans Zimmer

This beautiful composition by a master craftsman, known for repetition and layering, has been my go to song this year. The crescendo builds as musicians join the symphony, each playing their unique part to the best of their ability: an apt and beautiful analogy for our times. (This version by Peter Bence lacks the orchestra, but it's very fun, and his enthusiasm is rather contagious).

The people:

Brené Brown is so right: we're ultimately wired for connection. These past couple of years have been focused on people. Yes, including you! Increasingly this LinkedIn community feels like a really important part of this cosmic journey that we all find ourselves on ?? (quick shout out to Rob Bell who this year published a very clever and intriguing book of fiction Where'd you park your spaceship? which I'm happy to recommend as novel, quirky and insightful summer reading)!

A huge thank-you to everyone who has played a part in providing a sense of connection, insight, hope, good news, whole-heartedness, courageous leadership, and the necessary strength to keep moving forward (especially on those darker days when it would otherwise be easy to sink into weary despair). I try to like and comment where I can, without getting drawn into heated debate, but through my growing LinkedIn network I've been regularly reminded of just how many people are wholeheartedly working for positive change in our world.

I've learned that social media doesn’t have to be toxic, especially if we use it right and find our allies. I feel incredibly privileged to have so many remarkable humans in my circle of influence, and don’t take this for granted at all. This growing network might just help us reach those important (and good and very necessary) tipping points for social change in support of a regenerative future ??

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Below is the more detailed HIGHTLIGHTS reel, for those inclined (and with very sincere apologies, in advance, to those I will inevitably miss because I've realised that there is just too much to fit into a single post!

2022 started with long service leave (first time ever) from my 0.5FTE role, taken on half pay (to stretch it out to a full seven months). This then morphed into what has felt like a much longer staycation. Among other things, I lacked the confidence to plan exotic getaways after years of successive lockdowns and disheartening cancellations, and 'getting away' seemed incongruent with my desire to feel more deeply grounded in my own place and local neighbourhood. Plus, the honest truth is that co-parenting is not particularly compatible with months spent caravanning around: it is just kinda all too tricky, logistically.

Carving out more a spacious season afforded me the opportunity to take up a range of wonderful professional development opportunities, including:

-????????? Circular Economy & 2030 Agenda course (UNSC & UNEP )

-????????? Company Directors Course (Australian Institute of Company Directors )

-????????? Urban Transition Leadership Sprint (Studio THI with Jennifer Michelmore )

-????????? ICF coaching training (thank you Kim Zovak !)

-????????? Integral Ecology Fellowship (ISMAPNG , facilitated by Sally Neaves )

-????????? Honorary Justices of the Peace induction (Dept. of Justice / HJSS )

-????????? Community Chaplaincy / Personal Support refresher (VCCEM )

This year’s Integral Ecology Fellowship experience is worthy of its own post, and I've written a longer piece for Manna Matters which you'll find here (until it finds a more permanent home). In summary, I’m incredibly grateful to have been gifted the opportunity to be included in this wonderful learning community, especially the building of a community through immersive experiences in the Blue Mountains, Queenscliff and Cairns. Daniel Christian Wahl your thinking formed part of our curriculum, along with Joanna Macy, Thomas Berry, Jeremy Lent – so very rich, wholesome and insightful! My fifteen peers came up with the most remarkable and interesting projects, and I appreciated the excuse to collaborate with Justin Simpson on a mini-retreat in Mount Eliza that we called a 'Guling Gathering' (as it coincided with the short indigenous season of Guling, which follows the emergence out of late winter and into early spring).

As I processed my next steps, rather than head back into a local school context (where I’d worked as Careers Coordinator / HR Manager), I instead joined the ISCAST team to assist with the promotion of Tony Rinaudo 's extraordinarily hopeful and award winning autobiography The Forest Underground (you can watch Tony's short TEDxSydney talk for the summary version)!

In October I was also privileged to join a delegation to Canberra, through my involvement with the South East Councils Climate Change Alliance (SECCCA) as Frankston City Council councillor delegate. More generally, I have thoroughly appreciated the opportunity to work alongside and get to know like-minded councillors from across our region. Together we represent more than a million Melbournians (particular thanks to the efforts and support of councillors Michael Whelan , Sarah Race , Rhonda Garad PhD ., Hadi Saab , Leticia Laing and Jenna Davey-Burns . I look forward to serving as Chair in the coming year, alongside Chris Hill as Deputy. Huge thanks Rachel Weaver for your tremendous work on climate-related issues over so many years: I look forward to visiting you in your beautiful new workplace sometime soon! ??

We also saw the establishment of FCC’s Housing Advisory Committee, ably Chaired by my wonderful colleague, friend and ally Cr Sue Baker GAICD . It is such a challenging season to be looking at increasingly complex housing needs across our growing city. There is so much hard work to do, and a range of rather vexing and competing forces. Collaborations across all levels of government are going to be essential, moving forward, together with crucial input from the community/NFP and business sectors. It was wonderful to meet Jayden Battey while on a committee excursion to see Servants Community Housing Limited in action, and a shout out to Lara Waldron and the 100+ volunteers involved in getting the Winter Shelter program up and running, with the support of local churches and incredibly generous community support.

It has also been wonderful to serve for a year on the Peninsula Leisure Pty Ltd board, alongside the incredibly capable Julie Busch GAICD (Chair) and Kath Thom (CEO). Thank you for making me feel so welcome, and for leading such skilled and professional teams. I look forward to another really constructive year of collaboration and contribution.

And this year it also felt like some of my worlds collided - in the most wonderful of ways - with the discovery of the amazing emerging network known as the Climate Coaching Alliance . The highly collaborative effort that oversaw the production of the incredibly rich resource Ecological and Climate Conscious Coaching (Routledge, 2023) will be an ongoing source of inspiration to me.

It is a book I’ve already recommended to countless, especially those feeling called deeper into this emerging field of coaching practice. Thanks to Dr Josie McLean for making the time to meet in person while you were in Melbourne, and to Tim Collings for the opportunity to collaborate on the Sept Learning Lab!

Other highlights have included being appointed to the board of Cooperative Power (also known as CoPower ) as the Uniting Church Vic/Tas member rep (really great to collaborate with Tom Reddington & Godfrey Moase ); learning alongside other members of the Career Development Association Australia (particular thanks to Louise Walsh for her leadership in Victoria); connecting with local career development specialists like Rosie Nelson and Josie Caporale (bring on the regular brekkies in 2024!) and contributing to Naishadh Gadani 's wonderful Big Book of Career Doodles . It is an ongoing privilege to cheer on Jonathan Cornford & Kim Cornford and their work through Manna Gum, and my ongoing involvement on the Ethos board has included a number of opportunities to not only write but to also provide avenues for new voices to be heard (thanks Gordon Preece & Armen Gakavian ).

I’ve thoroughly appreciated learning more about the mental load through engagement with Leah Ruppanner and her research team at The University of Melbourne (watch this space - the research findings are rather fascinating, especially intersections with gender and ecology), and LinkedIn and other online forums have catalysed fascinating new connections to wonderful humans right around the world (like uili lousi , Ronni Gurwicz , Rachael Massey ). Closer to home it has been wonderful to cross paths (in real life, even!) with community champions like Jodie Belyea , Scott Carson , ?? Lisa Brassington (MPIA) , Peter Anthony , Helen Parker OAM and Alison Cooke who are investing themselves in working for positive change in ways that are thoroughly unique to them! There are also dozens of people I'm thinking of, who are too busy getting their hands dirty to be active on LinkedIn: big shout out to Maureen Griffin and the inspiring and hardworking crew at Downs Community Farm. ????

As for farming, dabbling in backyard micro-farming (aka veggie gardening) has been an essential mental health hack for me since 2020. It’s often during these times that I’ve listened to podcasts, including learning more about the High Sensory Intelligence journey, with thanks to Julie Bjelland, LMFT and Willow McIntosh , among others. Foreshore walks with friends, cuppa catch-ups, open mic nights at Yamala Bowls club, a couple of great concerts (including hearing the MSO play Hans Zimmer’s piece ‘Time’ back in May, with Kelly Gibbs ), and even occasional ballroom dancing, have been part of trying to balance the really serious stuff of life with more frequent splashes of colour and fun. Finding deep joy amidst the pain is an ancient art that we need to reclaim.

Of course what crystallizes all so clearly over the Christmas season is the importance of family. As much as they’re getting mentioned last, my kids will always come first (well, at least for the next seven years, before they’re both ready to embark on their own journeys as precious, capable adults).

Those who know me know that I’m never one to bright-side. I think it’s also really important to name some of the darker shades, which are all a part of normal life. Here in the electorate of Dunkley we’re still grieving the death of Peta Murphy MP. As tributes continue to flow , each time we are reminded afresh of what a tremendous human Peta was, and what a rare and wonderful politician she made. We will miss her courage, energy, tenacity and whole-hearted approach to community representation. Her legacy will live on within and through the Frankston community, in so many wonderful ways.

More personally, last month we received a Notice of Decision from council that will finally enable us to subdivide our block of land on High Street, and salvage something from the ashes of what was our long-held dream of establishing a cohousing community right in the heart of Frankston. This will very formally mark the end of a very long (8+years), hard and rather expensive chapter of my life. Do I regret it? I don’t think so. Would I do things differently, if there were to be a next time? Most certainly! Are there things that other groups can learn from our own story? Totally. I am grateful to have found kindred spirits along the way (yay for silver linings - very special thanks to Amy O'Brien & Sarah Stokely ).

As for 2024, my key challenge will be to move deeper into areas of emerging vocational passion and alignment, and to figure out how to appropriately monetise what I love to do without commodifying or instrumentalising people along the way (or adding too much more noise to our already-content-rich world). I’ll be looking to build my coaching practice, Echo Coaching (referrals and bartering most welcome) while being open to short-term project work (career development, coaching, generalist HR, training, carbon accounting). I’m always up for exploring new, innovative and life-giving ways to collaborate in support of common causes, and am keen to preserve sufficient space for whatever emerges next... while also learning, discerningly, to use that powerful little word 'no' more often!

Encouraging good people to stand for election in the 2024 local government elections will become more of a priority as the year unfolds (I highly recommend tuning into the reMAKERs podcast by Australia reMADE for some very solid inspiration, as well as the Follow The Money podcast for refreshing, common sense economics, with thanks to the ongoing work of The Australia Institute ).

Early next year I’m also looking forward to engaging with a senior leader training pilot program - Governing in the Climate Emergency - run by Climate Emergency Australia, and I'm extremely grateful to have Sue Baker GAICD along on the learning journey with me.

But before all of the busyness of a brand new year, you’ll likely find me pottering in the garden, out for a long walk, reading a book, enjoying a dance, or quietly appreciating one of Frankston’s stunning foreshore sunsets…

With thanks, once again, to the hundreds of people who have added shape, colour, texture, inspiration and human connection to my journey these past couple of years, along with serious levels of curious expectation as to where the SUPs (shared-user-paths) will take us all next.

Here’s to prioritising people, planet and purpose in 2024! ??????