It's great to be back here with you after a long and adventurous summer. Apart from my own personal journey of discovery and transformation, there have been various changes at SEED, which will create new empowerment and growth opportunities for women all over the world.
The SEED Learning Programme for women entrepreneurs is now being developed into distance learning opportunities by our technology partners, Cambridge Training and Development. CTAD are part of The Tribal Group, one of the UK's largest suppliers of services to government and the public sector.
Norma & Joseph
Norma Bishop, who many of you know as SEED's Operations Director, will be joining CTAD - Tribal to develop and market SEED through further education colleges, regional development agencies and other enterprise support providers around the UK. The programmes will be extended to include disadvantaged women, including those with English as a second language and will now incorporate literacy, numeracy and IT skills. There will, of course, continue to be an emphasis on values in business, with special focus on social enterprise and community collectives. Norma also got married this summer to the lovely Joseph and for all of those of you who've had the good fortune to meet her, I know you'll join me in congratulating her on both of these big changes in her life. She can still be found at norma@seednetwork.com
We've had two other marriages in the SEED garden and one engagement - it must be something in the air! So congratulations to lead facilitator, Angela Brier-Stephenson, who married Rick in Austria in August and our former website editor Tara King, who got married just last week in Kew Gardens. And finally congratulations to lead facilitator, Sarah Clarke, who has also announced plans for a December wedding.
And back to SEED plans…
Lynne with delegates & organisers, Walk Your Talk Conference on sustainable business, Findhorn, Scotland, Sept 2005.
I am continuing to create new SEED leadership programmes, for women in the developing world and will be initiating some of this work with South African NGO, ASAP (African Solutions for African Problems) at their conference in spring '06. There has also been expansion of SEED women's leadership programmes in the corporate world, with exciting results in one of the world's largest multi-nationals. Our SEED peer groups have been continuing to meet through the summer - some at branches of Starbucks and some at members' homes - and we've had great feedback. If you'd like to know how to start your own local SEED group, just click here.
SEED is also becoming more global with new alliances in Poland and China, where The SEED Handbook is due to be published in 2006.
On a personal level, I have truly followed my heart and my intuition over the last few months and gained so much knowledge and wisdom from the incredible people I have been fortunate to meet on the way.
I've danced in sacred valleys in Wales and interviewed women world spiritual leaders Dadi Janki and Dadi Galzar of the Brahma Kumaris in London. I revisited the spiritual centre and ecovillage at Findhorn in Scotland, which has had such a profound effect on my life in the past month. Here I taught a workshop on “the feminine way to create business” to men and women. At the beginning of this month I spoke about the return of the sacred feminine into society at the W.I.N. (Women in Network) global leadership forum in Geneva.
I danced with my heroes; singers and statesmen, Youssou N'Dour from Senegal and the Brazilian Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil and with my friend Neneh Cherry, when they performed in Switzerland to fundraise for medicines to stop malaria. I facilitated a conference on women and leadership at the Brahma Kumaris Global Retreat Centre in Oxford where we were reminded of the power of silence. I also played with my baby granddaughter in Deia, Mallorca but most of all I learnt how to dream a new dream for our planet in Ecuador this summer, with colleagues and friends from The Pachamama Alliance. We spent time with the Achuar Indians in the Amazon Jungle and with ancient shamans in the Andean Mountains. I learnt that those of us from so-called civilised society have so much to learn from indigenous people on how to live and work with our planet, instead of exploiting and destroying it.
Lynne in the Amazon jungle, Ecuador, with Achuar Indian Leader Domingo & his young daughter - a highlight of her journey with the Pachamama Alliance, Aug 2005.
Natural disasters, bombs and general disarray are daily news wherever you live and there has never been a more crucial time for the human race to step into their full power and create a new future for this planet. We have to learn a new way of living and working, which will enable the planet to sustain our lifestyles - and indeed learn how we can in turn sustain our planet, for the sake of the future generations to come. It's up to all of us to create a new dream, where women and men can live in harmony in a world based on love and co-operation.
Lynne dancing in Sacred Valleys, Wales
So while I am still very much involved with SEED, I, like so many others, am going through a time of transformation, taking the space to discover my true path of service and contribution. I joined in traditional women's rituals with The Sacred Horse Community to welcome in the winter back in the valleys of Wales this weekend. I am off to the Tertulia Literary Festival in Deia later this month to speak on Magic and Politics in the Land of the White Goddess. In November I'll be meeting up with my Pachamama friends in San Francisco and dancing with Gabrielle Roth, the goddess of ecstatic dance, for Thanksgiving in Big Sur, California. I hope to meet many of you on my journey and if not….see you in the garden,
Love Lynne x
P.S My office is going virtual, if you need to contact me, please call Kim Norris on 020 8440 7325 or email
info@seednetwork.com
.
We'll be back in touch next month to introduce you to some of the new SEED team!
To unsubscribe from this newsletter, please email
info@seednetwork.com
with 'unsubscribe' as the subject.
Hi there,
