Poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer served as featured guest of WholeHeart’s recent Poetry As Portal event online. She and Holly Wilkinson conversed about poetry as “companion” or a “living presence” that can accompany us through our most challenging days, providing passageway into our own hearts and souls. Enjoy this recap of the June event!
Dru Roessle, of Danville, Vermont, brings deep insight to the WholeHeart board of directors and beyond. She works as a facilitator of groups and teams problem-solving some of society’s most intractable problems. Dru centers relational justice in the spaces she engages in, believing that we already have what we need to create just systems that are designed for care, reciprocity, and collective well-being. Enjoy this provocative, inspiring interview!
On the eve of a full moon, WholeHeart launched its newest program series, Poetry As Portal, featuring Julie Cadwallader Staub, a poet from South Burlington, Vt. More than 40 participants gathered on Zoom, March 25th, to participate in the event, part-poetry reading, part-conversation with the poet, and part-listening exercise for attendees to reflect upon their own lives.
What does it mean to live one’s life like a prayer? Heather Omand, of Huntington, Vt., is pioneering a different human way of being in the world as a Queer person, mother, partner, and caretaker of agricultural lands. Read about their insightful journey. Listen to their prose, “What Queerness Means to Me.”
What does it mean to be in deeper relationship with the land where one lives? Three friends spent last summer wandering in the mountains of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, coming to know the plants/medicines growing on the land, preparing meals with the foods harvested, and learning to navigate the wind and waves off the coast of Maine. This story encapsulates some of their heartfelt insights gained.
Many years ago, I read a book called, Wade a Little Deeper, Dear. It was about fly fishing for women - how to step into the deeper pools where the action is. I heard it as an invitation to life, wellness, and growth. When we were developing the WholeHeart Wellness Model, we began by talking about the progression of wading, then swimming, then diving into wellness and mindfulness - key aspects of a buoyant life. The process felt evolutionary, AND the journey could begin wherever we are in life or on any given day. We knew that a wholehearted journey is a deep dive. I learned the hard way as a child that diving requires deep water. We wondered what the nautilus, nature’s ancient, deep diver, had to teach us.
WholeHeart board member, Marissa Colston, shares her experiences in Ghana – visiting the Elmina Slave Castle and traveling with twelve high school students to a Pk-12 school in Ajumako. Her story offers a perspective on wholeheartedness – connections beyond borders and and the deep wounds and atrocities of slavery. The whole is not shiny. The heart is strengthened by the genuine and the generous.
Q. What do you mean by your organization’s vision statement, “we envision a world with a global operating system based on love?"
A. At this time in our world, so much is driven by fear. We envision love as an essential element needed for us all to survive and thrive on the individual, community and global levels. We are not talking easy, shiny love, but the real, raw and tenaciousness love it takes to care in the face of disagreement and disappointment. Love requires discipline, practice and commitment to weave us together rather than apart.
I’ve participated in small protests before, but nothing on the magnitude of the Women’s March on Washington. Shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds of thousands of people on Jan. 21, it occurred to me: this is what courage looks like.
As I stood on the National Mall breathing in the view, women, men and children with placards paraded in from every direction. A bundled senior citizen in her wheelchair held a sign, “100-year-old for women’s rights.”
Originally published by Philantropy Northwest, Trish Alley shares her insights on the creative tension between current reality and visions for a future that call for wholehearted support. At this time of great need, deep wonder, and unfolding questions, we share this piece to provide imagery, reflection and a process to assist you in assessing the intention of your generosity in this season of giving.
