A ‘week in the life of an earthconverser’

Let me give you a ‘week in the life’ or thereabouts..of an #earthconverser. Más o Menos!

Back-ground

I, Penelope Mavor founded or found Earth Converse, a nature based collaborative in Roma. It is a result of many learnings, but notably thanks to a few decades of working with leaders and organisations, and the ripple effect of my own inner work such as vipassana meditation and a vision quest in the New Mexico desert with School of Lost Borders. The name came to me from the ground, when I reflected on how I best work in service of people and planet. And how it could also be collaborative in the sense of working with organisations bigger than myself.

And the mycelium running through my work and indeed life, is this conscious practice of earthconversing (my friend turned it into a verb and I have used it since). You will have your own word for it, but for me it is about being intentionally in communion with nature, including our own inner nature.

And apart from my own daily earthconversing in Mallorca where I have the fortune of living, here is how I support others to have the conversations they need to: with themselves, each other and the earth that is our home. Over a typical week.

Wednesday

I’ll start midweek, because well it’s a Wednesday I am publishing this. But also because it links back to a key moment for Earth Converse when on Wednesday 22nd April 2020, on Earth Day, I launched the Earth Converse Podcast. I see it as a unique contribution to the life-affirming narrative of our times. An anthology of 50 episodes, it is an eclectic and empowering mix of stories, perspectives and practices about how we relate and converse with the earth. What does that even mean? What conversations are we having and which do we need to have?

One of my interviewees the wonderful Susanne Haegele interviewed me on the podcast. Here is that interview, if you would like an insight into my journey.

The podcast and my work, spurred another of my interviewees the amazing Lorraine Smith,  interviewed me for her matereality assessment work on “interviewing” non-human stakeholders.

And as of August 2022 (also on a Wednesday) I started creating a bonus series on the #earthconversepodcast, offering guided future visualizations.Interviewing the likes of Bill Plotkin on the podcast, or being interviewed by Sarah Climenhaga on hers, it became clear to me that we need to activate this part of ourselves, our human ability to visualize, imagine and co-create our life-affirming futures.

And so all that podcast activity created the start of ‘earthconverse seeds’. Seeds of inspiration, prompts and practices on becoming more conscious with our relationship with nature, which I share on various social media platforms and online communities. You can check them out here on the Earth Converse YouTube channel. Also thanks to Lorraine Smith en-couraging me, I became a teacher on the meditation app Insight Timer, where I offer visualizations and meditations.

I haven´t got a social media person, but I do my best to scatter these seeds, and well, Wednesday is a good day for it.

Thursday

One of my collaborations, is with global conscious leader network The Argonauts. Thursday is my day for facilitating a trust circle, and it is an immense privilege to hold space for such depth and conversational fluency. The Argonauts are now venturing out to offer this to businesses so if this tweaks your interest, let me know.

For sure, my favourite and most impactful work with individuals and groups is being a ´futures facilitator in the now´. Helping to ground them in the present and coaching them to imagine, explore and embody the futures they want.

Friday

Friday’s are a popular day for me to run the ´Solo Together experience´ here in Mallorca. This is a 6 hour experience centred around a micro vision quest centred and coaching. Where I guide people ´to go out to nature to go inwards´ and ´take their questions to the land´.

And for most of the year, most Friday evenings, precisely from 17:30–18.30, my friend and I run a community theatre we call Poble I Planeta (People and Planet). The parents love it right, as not only is it inspiring for their children, they get one hour child-free time to have a drink in the plaça. It is where we help the kids practice storytelling, embodiment and improvisation. And would you believe we have written and produced two trilingual plays, one for Earth Day and one as a Christmas play. Both now offered as open source.

Saturday

Generally found up a mountain, at the sea, on a bike, alone or with friends. And then in the plaça.

Sunday

It depends for a sacred Sunday. Sometimes I run Solo Together or do my own weekly micro vision quest. It really is important for my connection, inspiration and belonging to do this regularly. Sometimes I run the Mallorca Mirror which is a 2.5 hour nature immersion experience that reminds people about the gifts nature mirrors back to them. In doing so, I bring alive the 5 pathways to nature connection research of Miles Richardson and team at the University of Derby.

On the advice of my dear friend Tracy from Curious Experiences, I have begun offering both the Solo Together in Mallorca and the Nature Reconnect on AirBnBexperiences, which is an opportunity for tourists coming to Mallorca, to have a unique, intimate and grounded connection.

Monday

Registrations for Earth Converse’s two open mainstay leadership programmes has just opened and so a big focus is getting these groups filled. And Mondays are always motivating to do that right? I certainly am excited about which leaders will be ready to sign up for the Earth Converse Leadership journey or the Coaching Journey. Both have a retreat element here in Mallorca — which is a nice selling point don’t you think?

And as of the new school year, every Monday between 15:30–17.00, I get to immerse myself in the world of the child. I have a small group of ten children ranging from the ages of 5 -10 in a Vitamin Natura after school programme. It´s pretty chaotic to say the least with the age and language mix (english, castellaño and mallorquin) but I seem to manage to hand them back to their parents not only alive, but with their gorgeous ‘outdoor faces’ on, and having enjoyed whatever nature exploration we did.

Tuesday

Another fundamental and precious part of my work is to be able to coach leaders who are ready to step up to their people and planet responsibilities. And I particularly love it when I can do that in person, outdoors. (On that, I so appreciate what Alex Burn and Anna-Marie Watson are doing to promote outdoor coaching on the Coaching Outdoors Podcast)

This Tuesday, I also did a shout out for another organisation I am an affiliate of, Mujer Cíclica/Cyclical Woman. Their various projects offer feminine pathways to connect to our inner wisdom and the sacred. And this week, I was keen to remind my community, that a new cohort of the online programme Medicine Woman: A Journey to your Centre starts son.

And so we cycle back to the week. For sure, it has involved a few inspirational or informative postings on Instagram, Facebook, Linked In talking about #earthconversing and showcasing the work of others including books I have been reading related to serving people and planet.

And most of all, being out in nature, enjoying one conversation at a time.

Thanks for letting me share.