WholeHeart Inc.
Poems as companions for listening

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!

Poems as companions for listening
WholeHeart Inc.
Feeling the poetry of everyday life

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!

Feeling the poetry of everyday life
WholeHeart Inc.
Bringing tenderness to light

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.

Bringing tenderness to light
WholeHeart Inc.
Living our life like a prayer

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.”

Living our life like a prayer
WholeHeart Inc.
Listening to land whispers

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.

Listening to land whispers

Solstice Family Reflections

Solstice Family Reflections

Alexandra and Nate Millarhouse (Operations Director at WholeHeart), share their thoughts in a time of reflection: In our family, the period between the autumn equinox and winter solstice is spent in overlapping waves of gratitude, listening, reflection, giving and celebration. It is such a fun time of year. Squeezed in between all the normal everyday routines are moments of magic, joy and abundance--reminders for ourselves of the connections we share as a family and with our larger world. It’s also a time of surrender and inner trust during the darkest time of year.

Listening Across the Table

Listening Across the Table

Listening is one of WholeHeart’s core values and is a common thread through all of our work - bringing people together to enhance their listening skills to self, to others, to the world around them. November is a time of gathering together in this country, and often anxiety is something we bring to the table. Strengthening our listening practices may be even more essential than our favorite dish. As we bring together our work with listening and our work with equity and hold the question of “how to hold tension in life-giving ways,” we invited three WholeHeart board members share perspectives and resources on listening:

The Listening Journey

The Listening Journey

Listening is a core value at WholeHeart.  Deep listening, or generous listening is a way of being that takes practice and dedication.  When we listen to others in this way we are able to hear more deeply the essence of what they are saying.  When we give the gift of listening generously to ourselves, we bring our precious presence and attention to what really matters in our lives.