Last call for conversations on rites of passage

Last call for conversations on rites of passage

Over 12 months, I have been dreaming in, developing, planning, fundraising and adapting a modern day rite of passage programme for my son and a group of his friends.

This Friday, a year long process comes to a slow stop.

Very little of what I/we planned is going to happen this year.

I don't have the words to unpack this more right now, but my body is tight and sore as I sit down to try and breathing halted. Thankfully Nynke Vos and I are hosting a seasonal grief session next week.

Despite the disappointment, and because of the joy based practices I cultivate, I notice some things.

1) What I hoped to explore and achieve through this modern day rite of passage, is already present in my son, because he has had a lifetime alongside me.

2) At 16 he can communicate his needs well, knows which direction his life is heading right now, climbs trees and has a beautiful relationship with the ecological world. He has developed a multitude of friendships, is healthy and well.

3) He is registered as self employed, and alongside being off to college in September is working on three projects for clients this summer and at festivals.

4) I've noticed that in the space that has been created by not having a summer of planning and delivering a modern day rite of passage, some things that I sorely needed are unexpectedly happening.

5) The conversations that have taken place because of this work over the last 12 months have been nourishing, full of wisdom, poems and interesting reflections.

6) We built a Open Collective platform to receive funding for all the potential radical work we do and hope to do as a collective in our communities (https://lnkd.in/d4d_tiFx)

7) Often the goal or the focused outcome for success can lead you to lose sight of what happens along the way. Thankfully, the process of this emergent work was always the work. Curiosity based, learning all the time, emergent and relationship orientated.

Celebrating this does not make the financially reality of a very low income for six months, plus no future planned income for the next six months easier.

I am writing this because I think this kind of work, the skills and presence I and my friends and colleagues offer to world, are sorely needed right now.

And because we need to keep talking about money and funding in open and clear ways.

So here is an invitation. Join me on Friday for our last conversation on rites of passage and modernity.

If you feel inspired by this work and have capacity to give financially, visit our opencollective page and donate. This work isn't done.

If you know funding bodies that want to fund collective work that can make a difference in our lives and in the world, send them here for a conversation with us. We are open and ready.

Thank you to Eri Mountbatten-O'Malley (PhD, FHEA) Moi Tu 徐 貴 梅 Laurence H Johns Delfino Corti Louise Winters and many others for joining in the conversations so far.