Richard Skrein - Reciprocity, Play and Thank You as foundational skills. Episode 25

Art by Cille Vengberg

Today I speak with a really good friend of mine, Rich Skrein. We’ve been in the same storytelling mentorship for nearly a year now. We share many different interests and I’ve been curious about his work with nature, children and educators since first getting to know him.

It became a heartfelt conversation about our place, as humans, in the greater eco system.

Rich shares about his work, about returning to England, being a primary school teacher and started taking his students outside to experience nature. He observed the transformative effect it had on the children, witnessing them coming alive in ways that couldn't be fully expressed within the confines of the classroom. A transformation happening in him as well.

We get into the more personal wonder about and in the world and how we as adults need this just as much as the children.

“How much awe and wonder was there when I was able to take them to the beach? How much awe and wonder was there when I took them to the deep forest? It’s right there. They were able to grow in ways that I couldn’t give them in the classroom.”

— Richard Skrein

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Richard is a Forest School teacher trainer, ecological educator, storyteller and author. He can be found in the woods of Europe and England and is a storyteller and experienced educational professional with a profound and enduring passion for the natural world.

He worked for many years in the classroom as a primary school teacher before swapping four walls for the magic of natural environments.

He is the author of three books: 5o things to do in the wild. 50 things to do with a stick and 50 things to do in the snow.

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Find him here

Instagram @richardskreinoutdoors

His website

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Other episodes you may enjoy

HOLISTIC SURVIVAL WITH LUKE MCLAUGHLIN ☾ 9

THE ROOTS AND STITCHING OURSELVES BACK TOGETHER STORIES WITH JAN BLAKE

DISCOVERING THE CRACKS IN THE MIRROR WITH BAYO AKOMOLAFE

Why knowing your story matters, when holding space

The first thing we look at in The Art of Holding Space is our stories about being in relationship, community, together. What we bring with us into the spaces we create or participate in. The old, the new. The family ones, the School ones, the others. 

The stories about our place, roles, expectations, assumptions, wounds and longings.

There are the obvious ones and sometimes the more subtle threads. But they can have a lot to say about how safe we feel. Or the way we connect inward and outward as we take a seat. Without feeling we have to play a part, to be worthy. 

A new edge for me is becoming more visible and it is really shining in relation to motherhood. I feel my old stories poke as I witness their interactions and school yard challenges. It takes a lot of consciousness to remember what is mine and what is actually their experience.

I am meeting them A LOT at the moment! Even though many carried threads have found some ease, they will probably never leave my system completely. It weaves in. 

Knowing our history of togetherness, the in the light and the ‘in the shadows’ can support us in creating a safer container for not only participants, but also ourselves. We can tend to ourselves with intention and care in a different way. It can become easier to get proper supervision and plan curriculum and content that we can actually hold in a responsible way.

Having this perspective and insight with us, I feel, it’s important. The things we often think set apart, are the stories that truly connect us.

The art of holding space begins February 8th - read more here

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When we compete, we can't connect

image by inuit artist Germaine Arnaktauyok

For 7 years I’ve offered a course on the art of holding space. When I first started out I had listened to a Ted Talk with Chitra Aiyar. In the talk she mentions her work with communities with minorities on campuses in the US. She states in the talk ‘When we compare, we can’t connect’. 

The more I’ve worked with the content and people, that statement has changed for me. I think it’s more a case of ‘When we compete, we can’t connect’. 

Of course in many ways they are linked, the ‘compare and compete’. We compare all the time, it’s natural. When it takes over, the energy can change. I’ve been down the spiral so many times. The compete element feels more intense. It’s not one that brings the heart to heart feel. It’s been a key learning of mine I think. To feel safe enough to let the story of having to fight my way through to get anywhere, rest. 

It’s also something that often gets glossed over in the spiritual settings. We pretend it doesn’t exist and we stick to the love and light. We stay with the all positive feels and suppress what also exists when people come together. I think most of us have, well I think all of us have. In business, in all kinds of groups - the spiritual is no exception, the competition has a certain effect on how we connect. I’ve seen it in the yoga world, the meditation world, the shamanistic the the the. And as mentioned in myself. Something we don’t talk a lot about. It’s not really pretty and comes with some level of shame or ick. Which makes it grow in intensity. 

I work with this a lot. Relearning how to be in ‘it’ with fellow humans, myself. And it is a huge part of the foundation of my work. 

As a people we are increasingly recognizing the importance of coming together in a different way. To heal our stories of being in community and the ways we walk this Earth. 

AND we meet edges here. That may surprise us at times. Wounds and past experiences that were not easy and are brought into the room with us. 

Creating space for all of that and the chance for us to witness the brilliance in ourselves and others is powerful. Healing a story and experiencing the ability to be here as a whole entire being. I love this work so much. The honeymoon and the chaos. 

READ MORE ABOUT ‘THE ART OF HOLDING SPACE’ THAT BEGIN FEBRUARY 2024

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{Conversations with the Earth} A Story by Clara Pagliaro

A story: 

The rain slowly moved in,

the ocean calling her name.

Finding herself walking down nearly bare,

perhaps showing up to be.

Hesitation encompassed her mind as she stood upon the waves 

gently showing her her own currents. 

"Do not fear" sang the sea.

She sat, surrendering and immersing her body in the vast and salty milk of the mother. 

Every hair on her body stood, her breath deep. 

Her mind whispering prayers to the universe,

"Don't let me go, keep me right here"

The ocean pushed her small body back and forth like a child being rocked. 

Her body frozen, desperate to shut

yet every breath releasing discomfort and opening her soul. 

The rain slowly moved in, 

It is only here she can see herself in all her wholeness. 

Mind still, body numb, lost in nature's power. 

It is here she listens. 

Clara Pagliaro

Meeting Mortality with Sarah Kerr

When it's over, I don't want to wonderif I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,or full of argument. I don't want to end up simply having visited this world

Mary Oliver
When Death Comes

This conversation felt very personal in the emotional waves of loosing my mother in law. Sarah’s way of bringing compassion and clarity to the process of dying is beautiful and important.

My partner and I had a long talk about it after I had ended the interview. This is the power of bringing openness to these difficult themes - we don’t have to sit alone with our grief, fears, missing. Death is so foundational to life. And still so abstract. I hope you listen with some care and space around what it brings up for you. We need these conversations.

About Sarah Kerr, PhD

Sarah has been a death doula and ritual healing practitioner since 2012.  Her work helps dying people and their families connect with each other, and with the innate wisdom of the dying process. 

Sarah’s approach draws on nature-­based spirituality, sacred sciences, and the richness of the human soul. She designs and facilitates ceremonies that help her clients to integrate experiences of death, loss, and transformation. These rituals honour the spiritual significance of what’s happening, and bring healing to the living, the dying, and the dead.

As a founder of The Centre for Sacred Deathcare, Sarah is a teacher and mentor to death doulas and others who are called to offer spiritual support at end-of-life.  Sarah’s teachings validate her students’ intuitive knowing about death and dead people, and guide them to meet mortality in ways that are more healing, more whole, and more holy.

Find more of Sarah’s work here:

www.sacreddeathcare.com

https://www.instagram.com/sacred.deathcare

https://www.facebook.com/sacred.deathcare

https://www.tiktok.com/@sacred.deathcare

An ode to blubber; this body is not your battleground

I wrote this post for a site back in 2014. Yet we’re still talking about this. Still asking for the right to be body. To feel safe. To have body, not give you the right to traumatize. There is a long way to go. I have conversations with my three daughters about this a lot. I am sharing this again, as the blog I wrote it for no longer exists. My feelings and experience with being a body still does.

Denmark, 2014

Do you strive for perfection or feel shitty when you look in the mirror?Are you pretty sure that Self-Love is a short drive from Minsk? These are my thoughts on why being called fat in public once again pushed me to change how I related to myself - for the better.  

My weight… just writing that sparked so many thoughts that I have a hard time keeping up. Feeling forced to relate to how I look, what I weigh and most importantly what am doing about it has swung into my life again and again. 

Some have said I am easy on the eye, others say that there is so much of me I am hard to miss. This is a recent story about a personal-space invasion by opinions and the ripple effect of them. 

The foundation of my work is that you belong here exactly as you are. I believe that there is no perfect ideal to strive for. Body image, intellect, beauty, coolness. It has been the work I needed to do with myself to feel free in my life, and it is how I support women to feel content, happy and strong as they are. 

I know that for me not owning that statement has been exhausting. In motherhood I read books, looked at women who wizzed through the challenging parts smiling and looking great, and I felt like a constant failure. Going to meeting with oatmeal in my hair, or saying that i JUST gave birth to excuse the blubber on my belly. 

The art of comparison once again left me feeling less worthy. The foundation of being wrong or less than, isn’t a nice place to be and very very seldom leads to a life with happiness and ease. The self-compassion practice and showing up just as I am changed my life. 

Does this mean that that foundation is never shaken? No. But it takes a bit more to get the earth quaking, and it happened a few weeks ago. 

A little story I want to share.

I was out for drinks with my two sisters. We had a great time and we decided to end the good times with a burger. Now it is no secret that I have put on weight after the 2 pregnancies and what not, but burger it was – YOLO or something.

In the cue some guys felt that we had cut in line, and looked at me and said that I probably shouldn’t be in there anyway considering my weight. Well tears galore and I felt shitty. Reduced to an unworthy lump of Blubber (did you every read Judy Blume’s book? It’s awesome… anyway).

The sense that everyone in there were looking at me deciding whether they agreed or not felt humiliating. I had to get out of there. Shaken by how someone could effect how I felt about myself stayed with me for days. 

Fast forward 2 weeks and my man and I are away for the weekend at a music festival. As I am coming out of the toilet area a woman stops me. She is a scout for a model agency and thinks I would be an awesome model for the normal size/curve department… huh…

All of the sudden someone’s opinion of me steered me in another direction. 

So which “truth” do I go with? A third – my own? How I see myself? How I feel about myself? Or do I let either of their perspectives rule and dictate wether I feel worthy just as I am? Do I wait till I have xx weight to go out again or do I pout my lips and work it like a supermodel? The “you belong here, exactly as you are” reminds me that none of the above is my truth. It is their eyes looking at me. What matters is how I look at me. And this has been such an awesome reminder.

BMI and weight has nothing to do with it. I feel it is relevant for most women. I believe it begins with how you feel. Does the need to shift come from “I am a problem that needs to be solved” or does it come from a deep knowing of worth and compassion and from there asking “So what do I want”. 

This is what we can work on – how you see you. And knowing that you belong here, because hey you already are. <3

Discovering the cracks in the mirror with Bayo Akomolafe

Most often we talk about the cracks being where the light comes in. In this conversation with Bayo Akomolafe, he says “Sometimes mirrors rupture and cracks start to emerge. And then our images start to get distorted. And in those would could despair and seek to polish the mirror back to it’s shininess again. Or we could use in a different ethical move, use the cracks to seek out the darknesses, the shadows the cracks occlude”

This conversation has invited me to look at those in my mirror. Where I try to polish and where I accept the invitation. In the broader scale where we in West are so busy polishing that our arms are falling off. It takes some breathing deeply and a commitment to not turn away.

I had so much emotion running through my veins as he spoke, words fell short and felt that as well. He is an important voice of our day. In his words, poetry and in the way those ask me as the receiver to reflect!

Please let us know what you take away from this conversation.

Listen here:

About Bayo:

Bayo Akomolafe (Ph.D.), rooted with the Yoruba people in a more-than-human world, is the father to Alethea and Kyah, the grateful life-partner to Ije, son and brother. A widely celebrated international speaker, posthumanist thinker, poet, teacher, public intellectual, essayist, and author of two books,

These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (North Atlantic Books) and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak, Bayo Akomolafe is the Chief Curator of The Emergence Network and host of the online postactivist course, ‘We Will dance with Mountains’.

Where to find him:

www.bayoakomolafe.net

www.emergencenetwork.org

Resources mentioned:

Feminist Scholar Karen Barad

Bayo on Facebook

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Rewilding Farmland with David Katznelson

How easy is it to buy farmland and give it back to nature? This is what we are talking about in this episode.

A dream I know many hold, to bring back the wild - myself included. It feels like a solution to many issues. But is it that simple and what challenges are you faced with when you embark on that journey?

In this episode I’m speaking with David Katznelson, his work, his vision to create a national park in Denmark and the journey is such an inspiring one, I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.

About David

David Katznelson was born and brought up in Denmark, David specialised in Cinematography at the National Film & Television School in the UK. Since graduating in 2000, he has lived in London, and shot a number of feature films, TV pilots, TV series and won several awards including an EMMY, a BAFTA and an RTS

He has now bought a huge piece of land in Denmark and wants to create a national park. Listen in on his journey. 

To support the National Park go here…

Find them on Instagram here…

Find out more about David Katznelson here…

Other resources mentioned:

‘Wilding’ by Isabella Tree - Buy it here

Karen Mogensen Costa Rica -

https://costa-rica-guide.com/photos/wildlife-reserves/karen-mogensen-nature-reserve/

The Will of the Wild with Jay Griffiths

Nearly 10 years ago I read Jay Griffiths book ‘Wild’, it had a great impact on me, in a subtle way. Because it was hard to put into words, what it was like to read her’s.

She spent 7 years writing the book, about her journey around the World, meeting indigenous people and seeking the will of wild.

This is where this conversation begins.

• what is wild, wilderness

• what is it to be an apprentice to something

• what does it mean to give time

• a note on activism and climate despair and fatigue

It was just as rich speaking with her, as it is reading her book.

Or listen on

Spotify

iTunes

or where you listen to your podcasts

ABOUT Jay Griffiths

Jay Griffiths has written on the politics of time, and the importance of wildness in the human spirit and the natural world in childhood. She was born in Manchester, studied at Oxford and has lived in Wales since 2000. 

With her first book, Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time, she won the Discover award for the best new non-fiction writer to be published in the USA and with her second, Wild: An Elemental Journey she won the inaugural 2007 Orion Book Award. She is the author of Tristimania: A Diary of Manic Depression and Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape. 

Her fiction includes A Love Letter from a Stray Moon, about the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, and Anarchipelago, about the road protests. 

She was the Hay Festival International Fellow for 2016.

“Her work isn't just good - it's necessary.” - Philip Pullman

She is to be found on social media, but find more about her and her work here:

http://jaygriffiths.com

Other sites mentioned

https://rebellion.global

Melting the ice in the heart of man with Angaangaq

This interview is special to me. I got to sit with elder and storyteller Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq from Icewisdom.com.

He is a shaman, traditional healer, storyteller and carrier of the Qilaut (winddrum), whose family belongs to the traditional healers of the Far North from Kalaallit Nunaat, Greenland. His name means ‘The Man Who Looks Like His Uncle’. Since he was a child he was trained by his family- especially by his Grandmother Aanakasaa – for becoming a shaman. The spiritual task given by his mother is: “Melting the Ice in the Heart of Man”.

The conversation started very personal, about his visit to the tiny town where I was born, North West River - Labrador. I haven’t met many who have been there. The conversation took off from there, with the question of ‘What is the spiritual significance of climate change’.

He is warm, full of heart and wisdom. I hope you enjoy his words. He closed our talk with a song. It still sits in my body.

LISTEN HERE:

Find his work here:

https://icewisdom.com/

Donate to the Healing Center - Healing Center - Aanakasaap Illua - Icewisdom - EN - Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq

The Body and Envisioning a New World with Stefana Serafina ☾ 14

Oh my has this episode been a long time coming. But it is landing here at just the right time.

My dear friend and mentor Stefana Serafina is our guest today. Her work has transformed my life. The way I live in my body and what I experience because of the intimate relationship with its language.

It became a very rich conversation about body, my body, your body, the body as the extension of Earth. .

A conversation and reflection about the risk of not including our bodies (again!) in the visioning for the new world that might be shaping with this crisis. 

About the body having to be the guide and the way in this hopeful emergence of a renewed human race. 

I’m so excited to share her work with you! We would love to hear what you take away from this episode.

ABOUT STEFANA:

Stefana Serafina, M.A., is an embodiment educator, writer, and embodied empowerment facilitator based in the San Francisco Bay. She is recognized for her unique and multi-faceted approach to body–based self–discovery and transformation.

She is the founder of Intuitive Body and Dance ©, which has grown into an international platform providing resources, experiences, and education for returning to our bodies’ inherent intelligence

For over a decade, Stefana has been teaching and facilitating transformative, movement-based embodiment in California, Europe, Central America, and online, and developing the Deep–Body model that is at the foundation of the work.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

My Grandmother's Hands : Racialized Trauma and the Pathways to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies - Resmaa Menakem

The Body Keeps the Score : Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma - Bessel van der Kolk

My bodies, My earth - Ruby Gibson

Waking the Tiger - Peter Levine

FIND STEFANAS WORK HERE:
https://www.intuitivedance.org

Plant Whispering with Rachel Corby ☾ 13

Well well well, back again with a new episode for you. This time with a woman I love dearly. Rachel Corby is a very special teacher, and I’ve had the privilege to have her teach courses 2 years in a row.

In this episode we will be talking about working with plants. About what plant whispering means and how this work is more important today than ever. She is a very experienced and respectful teacher - to the plants and students and her wisdom runs deep.

ABOUT RACHEL CORBY
Rachel Corby is a plant whisperer, medicine woman and organic permaculture gardener. Rachel has been working with plants and their healing properties since having her eyes opened to the incredible healing world of plants whilst working on a volunteer project in Guatemala back in 1998.

Rachel has been teaching remedy making and how to make more spiritual connections with plants since 2006. She runs workshops, online courses and retreats teaching these skills and encouraging the rewilding process. She is the author of the book, Rewilding Yourself; Becoming Nature. 

GO FOLLOW RACHEL HERE:

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

WEBSITE

Sacred Storytelling with Leah Lamb ☾ 12

Welcome, welcome, welcome. If you are returning you know that this episode has been a long time coming. If you are here for the first time, thank you for being here. But to all welcome to the new home of ‘The Becoming Nature Podcast Show’. 

I can’t wait to bring you new interviews and converstations. I can’t wait to continue connecting with you all. I can’t wait to see what this new Podcast home can bring. ENJOY TODAY’S episode. <3

I’m excited about bringing a new episode to you and this interview was fun to do. This conversation is with Leah Lamb. She is a storyteller, a writer and thinker. An activist. Last year I joined her course and dived in to the world of storytelling and storytellers from around the world. This art is revolutionary and we are all storytellers. So what stories are we telling? Listening to? And trusting?

In this episode talk about: 

☾What a storyteller is today

☾What a storyteller’s role was years ago

☾What a scared story and a zombie story are

☾We talk about how story can change our  ways

☾We talk about how the current story about climate isn’t helpful

And so much more… 

Please enjoy her words of wisdom. 

About Leah

Leah Lamb is a writer and producer. She is the creator of Soul Stories and the Speak the Spark, storytelling for a new paradigm, program. 

Her work plays with a lexicon that weaves myths, archetypes, and the hero’s journey into our modern world. She’s been a voice for the environment as a producer and host of the green channel at Current TV, and have written for Fast Company, Vice, Spirituality & Health Magazine, National Geographic News Watch, GOOD, The Huffington Post, and the Discovery Channel’s Planet Green. 

Also Leah’s first novel, The Whale Dreamer, is almost ready for you to read. 

Where to find more about her work: 

www.leahlamb.com

www.speakthespark.com

ALSO MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

Stephen Jenkinson - listen to my interview with Stephen here…

Find his work here - Orphan Wisdom

Sacred Ceremony with Sandra Ingerman ☾ 10

This talk was important. With the increase in longing and ceremonial offers, I wanted to talk about what we understand, when we talk about ceremony. Sandra’s newest book ‘The Book of Ceremony’ was released just before the interview and it too is worth a read.

Ceremony is beautiful, it takes intention and preparation. For me it brings us together to honor the things we don’t in everyday life. To give thanks. To give back before we take. To lean back and listen. To honor the life-giving foundations.

This talk evolved into how we bring this work to our children and why it is so important to include them.

Listen to Sandra <3

About Sandra Ingermann

Sandra is a world renowned teacher of shamanism and has been teaching for more than 30 years. She has taught workshops internationally on shamanic journeying, healing, and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. Sandra is recognized for bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern culture addressing the needs of our times.

 Sandra is known for gathering the global spiritual community together to perform powerful transformative ceremonies as well as inspires us to stand strong in unity so we do our own spiritual and social activism work while keeping a vision of hope and being a light in the world.

 She is passionate about helping people to reconnect with nature.

Find her here

http://www.sandraingerman.com

https://www.facebook.com/SandraIngerman/

Holistic Survival with Luke McLaughlin ☾ 9

I was so excited to interview Luke, and now get to share it with you. The way he shares his knowledge and skills is super inspiring. His love for this Earth poors through the screen.

His mission is close to mine and I feel honored to ham him on the show. The work speaks to our cells and hands more than the modern ways of comfort. But it is a language more and more are beginning to speak and learn.

Listen in on our down to Earth talk about earth based skills, survival in a modern World and what it means to live close to the nature of being human.

Also get is fire starting record… you may want to take the challenge. ;)

About Luke:

Luke McLaughln is a naturalist, teacher, rewilder, mentor, survivalist, and founder of Holistic Survival School. Luke has committed his life to mastering and teaching ancestral and indigenous living skills in order to help people find their balance and connection to the Natural World.  Luke learned his skills working at a primitive wilderness therapy program in the West Desert of Utah.  With over 500 days on the trail, Luke has mentored hundreds of people in the wilderness and learned how Earth skills teach us vital life lessons. Furthermore, Luke has witnessed first hand how nature connection helps bring about growth, health, and vitality to everyone’s life.

Luke combines humor, knowledge, and patience to create an easy-going, yet informative experience. He is dedicated to meeting people where they are at, with love and compassion in order to help foster a new (actually old) way of being human. 

Go follow Luke and his work here:

Instagram - it is a treat

His site <3

And youtube channel

The Wise Ones with Stephen Jenkinson ☾ 4

You know those times you listen to a voice, a talk, a something that when it’s over you feel changed? That’s how I felt the first time I listened to Stephen Jenkinson talk.

Even more so after interviewing him. 

I could sit next to him around a fire and listen forever. In the lack of many elders in my life who I go to with my questions, in many ways here is a man who leads the way.

In this episode we talk about

*elderhood and the disappearance of elders in our society

*wisdom and what it is to be wise

*his new book ‘Come of Age’. 

*his work with people facing death

His way of presenting these important themes is not full of fear, it is full of life and hope. 

Enjoy his words. 

STEPHEN JENKINSON is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He has a master's degree in theology from Harvard University and a master's degree in social work from the University of Toronto. Formerly a program director at a major Canadian hospital and medical-school assistant professor, Stephen is now a sought-after workshop leader, speaker, and consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations. He is the founder of The Orphan Wisdom School in Canada and the subject of the documentary film Griefwalker.

Find more about him here: 

https://orphanwisdom.com/events/

His books:

Come of Age

Die Wise

His Orphan Wisdom Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/orphanwisdom/