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August 2025
As summer winds down, folks are ready for sweater season/ spooky season. I'm personally really looking forward to the leaves falling. It's a perennial reminder that nothing lasts forever, that everything has an end.
It's a reminder of the slow decay as the world prepares for dormancy. My dear friend Marvin, who was released from serving thirty years in prison back in April, has recently taken a job as a farmer in eastern Washington. During the summer months, he has been working twelve hour days, easily. He is grateful for the hard work and looks forward to winter months, when those hours will be draw back- all things ebb and flow.
Working on a more natural timeline resonates. Late summer with its long rays of sunlight tell us that we can slow down. The earth breathes across seasons. What might it take to slow down? What does it feel like to rush less? How can we cultivate an abundance of time? What do we have to release or shift or grow?
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Dolphin is the keeper of prana, Sanskrit for "the energy of pure consciousness," which manifests as your life breath...Dolphins' exuberant embodiment is closely linked to their mastery of breath. They hold theirs as they swim underwater. When they surface, a powerful, clearing exhale precedes the next inhale. To move energy and release emotion, Dolphin guides you to practice "letting go" through a deep out-breath. Then, as you breath in, welcome the flow of spirit into your physical body- this full breath of life connects you to something deeply interfused, a motion that runs through all things. Dolphin from the Wild & Sacred Feminine Deck by Niki Dewart & Elizabeth Marglin, illustrations by Jenny Kostecki-Shaw
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I've had some great opportunities this past month to create and connect. I enjoyed seeing TN statewide prevention folks at HIDTA this past week. I've also really been enjoying Thursday's Morning Connections groups, where I met Joyce from Weakley County. (For a national call, it's incredible that there are two, sometimes three folks from my home state present.) She recommended The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning: Meditations for racial healing by Dr. Catherine Meeks.
This coming month, I'm soft launching the New Leaders network- a way for me to continue to build community and offer the tools, thinking, connections, and resource I've been curating and called to share. Please consider joining me and others working for change in that space.
Curious about how Confluence can support you and the work you're doing? Have feedback or just want to check in?
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up to & offering
Introducing the New Leaders network
I'm excited to be sharing a new virtual space. I know, I know, there are tons of virtual learning spaces. What makes this one difference?
It's hard for me to quantify the how. But the New Leaders network aims to do just that- by focusing on how we are showing up and doing the work, how we are resourcing ourselves and building trusting relationship with one another, we inevitably change the what of the work.
I have loads of sayings, and here's a new one: I can't change the world, but I can change my world. That's the essence of New Leaders network. In monthly circles and quarterly coaching, with myself and (if all goes to plan) some of my incredible colleagues and friends, you will gain skills, practice in community, be fortified for the work ahead.
The world is really, really real. This is a space to try, a space to learn and grow, maybe even a space to heal. I'd love for you to join us in this experiment and declaration of what can be, when we make it together.
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One more week of Breaktime Breathwork
I've been really enjoying gathering a small group of folks in practice each week in August. Want to join us for our last week? There's still time to sign up.
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on the calendar
Mending the Arc with Resonance Network
I've had the opportunity to join a story circle with Resonance Network. It was blissful. Such sweet nectar in the middle of a work day. If you have the chance, join in.
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Come to Radically Rural!
Radically Rural is going to be incredible (again) this year. I know some of my Alaska peeps will have a much longer haul to get all the way to New Hampshire, but I promise it's worth it! Wherever you are in the US, especially if you're rurally-located- this is our conference.
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read | watch | listen
Here is the hyper-short list of things I've been digging this past month.
📔
"compression culture is making you stupid and uninteresting" by maalvika
Read this substack.
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Recovering Our Communties: making the case for a systems approach
I made a zine! that tells the story of systems thinking and change work as a recovery process.
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mutual aid
Opportunities to help people in the Confluence sphere. Give what you can, when you can. Even sharing these opportunities in your networks can go a long way in helping folks reach their needed goals.
These will be updated monthly. If you have a need that folks can help with virtually, email them to me (with links!) by the first Friday of each month.
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Confluence Consulting is located in Lewisburg, Tennessee on the ancestral lands of the ᏣᎳᎫᏪᏘᏱ (Tsalaguwetiyi), Chikashsha I̠yaakni’ (Chickasaw), S’atsoyaha (Yuchi), and Shawandasse Tula (Shawanwaki/Shawnee) people.
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