Where have I been? 

With the many pressing aspects of life, I don’t imagine you have necessarily noticed or wondered why newsletters have been less frequent. 

And yet, I have been somewhere different, both physically and subjectively. 

Over the last couple of years, my life has transformed in ways I could not have imagined. 

After taking a sabbatical in 2022 and 2023, I was re-launched into my work as a transformation strategist with the invitation to some fascinating and complex assignments in Europe. 

As I worked with my fresh post-sabbatical eyes, I began to see that there had been a missing component of the curriculum I had put together over the last many years. 

A gap I didn’t realise existed as I had been writing, speaking and living the nuances of this gap for years, but didn’t dare approach it at its heart as it was so very unconventional and yet deeply real. 

Taking time to reflect

To understand this more fully, I devoted much of my time outside of client work to contemplation and reflection. 

Although I logically could have found a way, I felt energetically unable to find the bandwidth to continue many of the activities I had planned. This was likely due to a combination of the intensity of my work schedule and the need to be with the beauty and intensity of the inner transformation unfolding. 

Some of the insights required time to distil, and I distilled them in the joys and dolce vita of being based in Italy and travelling through Europe for work, as well as in the silence and stillness of sacred places like monasteries and mountains. 

The inner and outer journeys complemented each other in surprising ways.

Photo captured at Île Saint-Honorat.

What is ahead?

Over the coming months I plan to make the fruits of this work more visible. For Academy members, this looks like new opportunities to engage and explore the themes in Self-Authoring together. I am also working towards the publication of a book which will bridge the gap I found in my current curriculum and I am preparing to emerge from my retreat from social media, to share insights more broadly.

I know that more people than ever are seeing through the ever-changing masquerades of where false power lives and how it infects every area of our life, from technology and algorithms to how our governments spend our money and the havoc created through greed.

We are done with endless cycles of oppression, war and unnecessary sadness.  It is time to live more kindly and abundantly. 

In the well-known hero’s journey arc, I perceive I am somewhere on my way to the return.

This is the time when I take the elixir or gifts of my journey of transformation back to the world to share the treasure or wisdom gained with my community. 

My close ones are already experiencing this and I’m preparing to share the elixir more widely now. 

Book and Movie Recommendations from my last months 

 ❤️Jules, the movie is a beautiful and funny story about how we can find care, companionship and healing by engaging with “other”. Particularly pertinent when we see how much “othering” and polarisation are spreading in the world.

 🌿Material World by Ed Conway is a comprehensive exploration of the origins of the materials that comprise our world. It helped me see more beauty in what we have created, reminded me of an elder who said that everything in our world, at some stage, originated with nature. It is also a deep education on geopolitics, human greed and understanding the global economy. 

 🫶🏻The Vegetarian by Han Kang is a short but incredibly powerful novel that shows just how close we all are to madness.

Quotes on our Theme: The power of Retreat 

“To understand the world, one has to turn away from it” 
Albert Camus

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”  
W.B. Yeats

 “Wake Up and Live” 
Bob Marley

While I may not have been writing newsletters, you’ve been in my heart, as the reason I step forward and the reason I retreat is all to be of a greater service. My intention is to help us all navigate the increasingly difficult terrain of living with heart in a world which seeks to undermine it. 

I’d love to hear in response, how have you been? Send your reflections to alison@alisoncameorn.com 

With love,

Alison.