Here’s a little more about me and what I’m up to here.
As we’re all a product of our relationships, before anything else I’m Jennie’s partner, Pippa & Evelyn’s bonuspappa, and mutual best friends with my wonderful rescue hound, Edward.
We all live in close connection with the lək̓ʷəŋən land on which we reside, growing food, flowers and ever-deeper roots in a heritage farmhouse property near the Salish Sea on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
Me, I grew up at first on this same island, with a forest in my backyard; later, at the confluence of two rivers, in between mountain ranges, in the heart of the province. Consequently, I’ve come to think of myself as having blood born of the sea, and mountains in my bones. And these wild places have shaped my existence, my pursuits, my purpose.
I’ve explored, grown with, and shared them with others, drawn by lifelong pulls towards motion, learning, and endurance – toward testing body and mind with/in the natural world. I’ve been on multisport national teams, run along trails and up mountains faster then any before me (but not since!), paddled remote coastlines, and contributed to building movements through movement. All this has always been less about competition than connection: to land, to place, to others, to a truer version of self, to the quiet disciple of just showing up … and continuing to do so, for all these things.
I find that when we move together in Nature – regardless pace or purpose – we remember and resonate with what it means to belong to something greater than ourselves.
Professionally, my path began in study and stewardship of my favourite places, as a wildlife biologist. I traveled though, in time, from working on the symptoms of issues to the systems underpinning them – to law, coaching, facilitation, creative and advisory services – and most-recently to the work of transformation with/in government. Along the way, I’ve worked to bridge and braid science, policy, design and delivery in service of public impact and collective well-being.
About this Site
Why. I built this space, and keep tending it, for three reasons:
- To think out loud and work in the open, in conversation with an ecosystem of ideas and the communities that make them meaningful.
- To keep a record of what I’m learning and doing, for my own sake and, I hope, for the benefit of people working on similar things.
- To contribute to a better internet: one where more of us host our own sites and connect them through open protocols, instead of living on corporate platforms – that is, as part of the IndieWeb community.
What. My longer articles live here, in my writing. Photographs from trips, projects, and client work are in photography, and what I’m working on and imagining is on my projects page. A record of what I’m seeing, reading, and doing, and the half-formed thoughts that arise from it, goes in my commonplace book.
How. I follow the POSSE approach: Publish on my Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. The work starts and stays mine here, yet is findable and shareable almost anywhere. To follow along, you’ll soon be able to subscribe to my occasional newsletter or tune in to any of my RSS feeds.