Thank you to the lovely ladies who popped into my DM’s this past few weeks. It means a lot that you bothered to check in while I am clearly enjoying not posting or sharing for a spell.

We’ve been getting ready for the busy season at the retreat, and our legacy projects are growing and evolving at a pace we simply cannot manage without some serious support stat.

And help is on the way as we’ve engaged an enthusiastic and aligned recruiter. Interviews commence next week, after a tsunami of interest.

The first OFFICIAL Persephone event (after countless soft launches and practice runs over the years… anyone remember my attempts to launch heartache and cheesecake?) is this Friday in Poneke/Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington.

The poetry competition went staggeringly well. Spearheaded and supervised by Holly Rowsell who is hosting the Poneke party. Women all over Aotearoa dug deep and shared slivers of their shimmering and sometimes shattered souls on the page. This competition will continue as is for two more consecutive years, and we will add a similar photography submissions strand to the tapestry of the Persephone projects.

I am struggling with so many aspects of these efforts.

Naming the foundation. Battling with the chip on my shoulder after years of volunteering, steering committees, donating and being deeply disappointed by so many charitable entities. The tension between my desire to do something impactful and disappear completely. And the constant and crippling fear of humans after being kicked far too many times by people who I helped or lifted as best I could.

I do not have the market cornered on any of these struggles.

Being a human means being hurt and disappointed sometimes.

Trying means failing far more often than celebrating clear successes.

Healing means hurting.

Helping doesn’t always help.

Being brave means being vulnerable, there is no safe way to stand up in a world that is increasingly and inarguably divided.

So fuck it.

I have picked a side as society struggles through whatever rebirth it is destined to endure.

Whether or not people are willing to accept the reality of our situation, the objective fact is that we are fucked if we can’t pick a socially just side. Ed Sheeran this week is a case in point – sitting on the fence is not a winning strategy. If you have a platform and a voice now is the time to clearly choose your side and then let the wider community decide if they support your position (this week Macklemore’s bravery and courage clearly won the popularity contest over the sitting on the fence position of Ed’s).

FMCG fuckery and overconsumption fueled by corporate greed have changed the very fabric of our ecosystems. Not just the environment, not just the oceans and soils, not just the air that every carbon based creature needs to exist, but also the social, economic and spiritual fabric of life on earth.

Successful shareholder values have scarred delicate systems that took billions of years to evolve.

So my little anxiety attacks over sticking my head up above the parapet seems seriously silly.

We live in a time where neutrality is a luxury that only comes with privilege. That privilege costs every corner of life on earth a tangible price. Noone is free until everyone is free. Nobody can rest until the earth is able to heal and regenerate to an extent that allows life the fundamental building blocks to exist and regenerate.

I am absolutely a hypocrite and a climate criminal because of the carbon it takes to ship my body around the globe in search of meaning.

It is my responsibility to acknowledge and act upon the damage my activities incur.

So, that’s what I intend to do.

But today, dragging my weary ass to the march for nature protest in Albert Park is the only thing I have the bandwidth to do.

So, watch this space.

I will be sharing more as more happens in my microcosm.

Thanks for reading.