I seem to have lost a whole year (actually 18 months) since I last wrote here. Astonishing and a bit scary! What made me too busy to up-date this journal? Well, despite being (theoretically) retired (or, at least, long past pensionable age) I seem to have been pretty busy…

• The retreat programme SPACE TO BE has really taken off. A 3-day retreat in the wonderful setting of Trigonos in Snowdonia, North Wales. 
• My writing still takes me over in bursts of activity when inspiration strikes. A friend (who also happens to be an editor) told me a few years ago that my ‘stories’ are more ‘dramatic monologues’ and I think she is right. Do I stand up and perform them??? One of many questions I am grappling with…
• An interest in art has led me over the past year into the domain of collage which I think I like because it requires ideas and a kind of visual intelligence and does not require one to be a good artist as such. 
• I have also done a lot of reading – particularly biographies – with an eclectic mix including Virginia Woolf, Tom Stoppard, Georgia O’Keefe and, most recently, Chairman Mao(!)

If any of my slightly mad range of activities interest you, I would love to hear from you! ros@rostennyosn.info

This business of re-inventing oneself is ‘interesting’!

In short bursts of excited activity new opportunities pop up and new directions of travel are identified. But there is always what has gone before lurking nearby to keep you stationary…

This year it has been a great pleasure to work on compiling a new publication entitled: Light, Warmth & Life: Exploring the Textile Work of Eta Ingham Lawrie and to launch it together with an exhibition of her spectacular wall hangings at Trigonos on June 5th.

The book is available from Trigonos (www.trigonos.org)

Also Trigonos-connected – the regular SPACE TO BE retreats are going so well that I have decided to create a new website to explain and promote them more widely…(www.spacetobe.info) this will be going live in early July – hope you like it!

Meanwhile there are a few places on the up-coming retreat in September (22nd to 25th) – contact Trigonos (www.Trigonos.org) if you want to book or contact me (ros@rostennyson.info) if you want to know more.

Look forward to hearing from you about these things or in response to any of my writing on this site…

There are still a couple of space left – early winter is a wonderful time to be at Trigonos in Snowdonia  – offering dramatic landscapes, quiet spaces, warm fires.  The S2B retreats follow a simple principle of working together within the small group (up to 7 people) to co-create the programme. Usually the agreement is to offer lots of space for quiet reflection or individual activities held together by early morning and evening meditation, gatherings of the group 2 or 3 times during the day and some lightly structured group activities, if wanted. The latter, to date, has included story telling, journal writing, exploration of the senses, mapping pathways from past to future…

Want to know more, feel free to contact me.

There are four more dates for 2022 – go to the Trigonos website for details.

One way of looking at my past 2 years, is to see it as an on-going experiment in letting go. In some ways, letting go has always been easy – I am notorious (with those who know about it) for ditching diaries, emails and paperwork when they have served their purpose. I am uncomfortable with clutter whether physical or mental. Similarly, holding on to any ‘intellectual property’ has always been anathema – perhaps because I believe we stand on the shoulders of giants and any insights or new ideas come through us, not from us. So we really have no right to a sense of ownership.

Nevertheless, having let go of a leadership role in two projects that have been very important over many years has given me pause for thought.

https://partnershipbrokers.org 

https://trigonos.org

So many people (including those that I thought knew me well) have said that I must find it hard to let go (they assume I feel possessive about projects I have created and carried for so many years) or that I must feel sad about stepping back and / or moving away. But I really don’t feel either of these things at all. I actually feel relieved to be shedding responsibility, combined with a kind of objective curiosity about the future of the work in which I have invested time and effort.

Above all, I try (rather late in life!) to exercise the discipline of simply waiting to see what comes next – whether reigniting interests from the distant past or welcoming something entirely unexpected from the future. Patience never having been my strongest virtue (understatement) this is a new experience and whilst on some days I find it challenging, on most days I find it completely intriguing.

About two months since I loaded some of my writing onto this site and I have had some responses which have been really pleasing to receive. Now more stories and poems are up-loaded and I really relish getting responses / feedback!

Last week I returned from 3 days at Trigonos – facilitating / curating a SPACE TO BE RETREAT. It was good to be back, to see so many of the team coping brilliantly with Covid requirements without the atmosphere being spoiled and to see that flourishing biodynamic horticulture. It made me confident enough (in Trigonos under new management as well as in the value of the SPACE TO BE retreat to book new dates for 2022 – one per season where we can enjoy and build on the changing landscape over the year.

I am currently involved in facilitating a PBA (Partnership Brokers Association) MOVING FORWARDS process with its 70+ Associates. It is humbling to hear how important this distributed organisation is and the impact it is having – despite being small, somewhat ‘niche’ and without any core financial support. We’ll see where this leads.

On a (more) personal front, I have spent much of the past 3 months transforming a run- down courtyard garden into a sun-filled (when the sun shines) sanctuary. Have learnt a lot (not being a gardener) and enjoyed having to be inventive when it comes to making changes as I learn from my mistakes.

Welcome to my newly up-dated website!

The Covid-19 pandemic has given me the space to re-consider my priorities and the time to re-connect to past interests and to even create some new ones. Handing over trigonos in September 2020 and moving to Machynlleth (a small market town in mid-Wales) during lockdown mark a pretty massive change of focus as well as (literally) of views!

I have also taken the opportunity to read more widely and even to study new subjects on-line (the latest being a course on psychology). Never too old…

So I hope you enjoy what’s here and will feel encouraged to get in touch on whatever issues interest you.

Contact me via email on:

ros@rostennyson.info