In this episode, Daphne, Emily, Nynke, and I sat in circle with the enquiry ‘What hope and grief brings us’.

We started our circle exploring our hair, and how we can discover

Episode 7’s Circle Members

Nynke Vos is an expert in group dynamics, works with a systemic perspective, and is trained in grief counseling. She has a special interest in rituals for grief, mourning and death. She has led groups of teenagers and young adults over 15 years, supporting them in their transition into adulthood. Currently she works as a coach in youth care and as a grief counselor. She hosts on- and off-line conversations about grief and death, and organises ‘grief and dance’, an evening where grievers come to dance.

Daphne van Run grew up in The Netherlands where she was thoroughly educated in the world of law and business. She then moved to Devon, UK, to immerse herself in sustainable living. For 13 years, relational awareness is at the heart of her work with leaders, change makers, and groups. Reach out to Daphne here.

Emily Bazalgette helps people to collaborate in regenerative ways and design graceful endings through facilitation, coaching, organisational design and grief tending. She is a co-host of Foregather, connecting women more deeply with creative energy, and the writer of GriefSick, a project that explores chronic illness grief. Emily also authors the This Might Resonate substack.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit annamarieswan.substack.com

Jes, Joe, Evva and I all author work that arises from deeply-explored, daily-lived enquiries and a desire to move through the world in connection with ourselves and the world around us.

The circle we sat in together became a beautiful, rich enquiry into what meaningful work ‘is’ when we it’s rare to receive trusted signals and feedback that lets us know that our work is useful, how it lands, or the ripples it creates.

And, this enquiry was more than just an exploration of meaningful work; the experiences we’re having and the questions we’re holding as authors of our work are also experiences and questions around belonging, relationship, community, and guidance. It’s also an exploration of big and large stories and finding space in those stories.

Ecological Us endeavours to bring listeners a fly-on-the-wall experience of facilitating and participating within a circle from arrival to completion. To keep the experience as authentic as possible, these recordings are only lightly edited and you’ll join us when we sit in silence and reflection.

The act of being in circle together, whether actually sitting in a circle (in person) or in intention (i.e. online), embodies the perspective that we are all of equal worth, with no one person's worth being greater than another's. It also reminds us that while we are individual and unique, we exist within many wholes: from our shared humanity to our membership of different communities, as well as being kin within a multispecies, multigenerational world.

Note: at the start of this circle, you’ll hear us talking about the Guest Circle Member Foundational Agreements that Ecological Us guest circle members are asked to complete to craft our circle container. (And, if you’re curious about the guest circle member journey from invitation to completion, you’re welcome to dive in to the Guest Circle Member Guide here.)

Episode 6’s Circle Members

Jessica Böhme calls Berlin her multi-species urban home. She is a professor and academic director for technology management and vegan food management at the FHM Berlin. She is also the founder and director of the Institute for Practical ekoPhilosophy (IPeP) - a post-disciplinary research and education institute for personal and planetary health. Her passion is to empower action towards healthy futures by living a philosophical life. Sign up to Jes’s substack wild:health.

Evva Semenowicz is a daughter of Agata and Tomasz, and mother to Zora. She shares her life with Jason and looks after Cherry. She works as a facilitator, experience designer, and artist, and lives in Bath, UK. Evva is the co-creator of Becoming Crew, a community and platform hosting relational (un)learning experiences in service to life. Evva is also a creative collaborator with Of The Wild, an ecological circus collective gathering artists, performers, musicians, poets, and facilitators around seasonal rituals that centre cyclicality and our belonging to earth. Connect with Evva on Instagram.

Joe Culhane drew his first breaths at the western most tip of the Great Lakes in North America. He currently finds himself part of the Cascadia Bioregion in the Pacific Northwest. He'll be moving to the west of Ireland in June of 2025 where the new home of the Institute of Relational Being will reside. He is an eco-cosmic generalist who does his best to navigate life from a framework of not knowing, dancing with the mystery of life as a part of this living world. Sign up to the Relational Being substack.

Anna-Marie Swan’s ongoing discovery of herself as an ecological creature saturates her work, interests, and perspectives. She walks herself home in Devon alongside her husband, W. Navigating health challenges throughout her adult life has widened her gaze far beyond her self, into animism, interbeing, the more-than-human, living systems, place, ecology, and more. She is the author of Ecological Organisations: A Design Lens and the underlying story of ecological organisations, and is developing ecological enquiry, a living practice and way of being.

Would you like to join Ecological Us as a guest circle member? Or know of someone you’d love to have join a circle? If so, please reach out here or write to me at [email protected]

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit annamarieswan.substack.com