Contents

Next H&S meeting 7.30 Thurs Jan 28th, TTT office
Sunday Workshops
TTT AGM
Kanyini
What's in a name?
H&S web forum
Next Pulse group
Report on Dec workshop

Happy New Year to all of Totnes' Heart and Soulers.
We start this year with the disappointment of the Copenhagen process still with us, but also the amazing news of £625,000 funding from the Dept of Energy and Climate Change for TTT's expansion of the Transition Streets project. Five years ago I don't think I would have imagined there even being a Dept of Climate Change, let alone it sending so much money our way. So progress is happening, it's just not always obvious.

SOWING THE SEEDS OF THIS YEAR'S WORK

Is there more that we could be doing as a group? Are there other H&S projects you would like to help set up? Do you have skills and enthusiasms to offer?

Would you like to see us doing more networking with other H&Sers locally and nationally? Should we be trying to set up more Home Groups?  Could we have more of an input into the Transition Streets project, to make sure Inner Transitions are discussed, not just Outer ones? Would you be interested in being part of a writing sub-group, looking at how to put our ideas out on paper and the web? Would you like to see us set up a Practitioners Network for those involved in leading and/or attending 'Work that Reconnects' workshops?

We will spend the first half of the next H&S meeting on Jan 28th inviting ideas - and committments - for this year. Please come along and add your support to our work.

H&S SUNDAY WORKSHOPS

In the autumn we presented 3 very successful workshops themed around Joanna Macey's 'Work that Reconnects' (see below for Rosie's write up of the December one). They were all well attended (the largest had over fifty participants) and raised a useful sum of money for the group. It was also impressive how broad a range of people were attracted to them, as one of our needs in H&S is always to reach out to as wide a section of our community as possible.

Our hope is to continue to produce a rolling programme of future Sunday workshops. However, it can take quite a bit of work, and Amanda, Suzanne and Annie, who all worked very hard on the programme in the autumn, are unlikely to be able to continue it without some extra help. Our aim is for there to be a specific H&S project group organising the workshops, and we will be organising a meeting about this soon. So if you would like to be part of this important work, either as part of the organising group, or just offering specific assistance, get in touch with Suzanne or Annie or look out for further details.

TTT Ltd AGM
On February 10th  LtTTT Ltd will hold its first AGM to elect a new board of Trustees. This board manages all the legal, financial employment and other services that support the wider activities of TTT. The procedure is described in the attached doc. Nominations for trustees are currently being sought, so if you would ike to nominate or be nominated, follow the attached process - closing date Jan 20th. Each theme and project group will then be able to vote for 8 candidates, so we plan to spend the second part of the next H&S meeting discussing the list of candidates and who we will vote for.

ALSO COMING UP
Thursday 18 March Methodist Church Hall 7.30 – 9.30/10.00 £4/£3 concs.
Kanyini
Film, Discussion and Story with Joanna Lathan - A powerful and inspiring evening exploring how the Earth’s First Peoples lived in a harmonious and sustainable way with all life-forms for over 40,000 years – with a reading from the book Story About Feeling by Bill Neidjie. More info on www.kanyini.com and www.wyldheart.co.uk.
BEYOND COPENHAGEN EVENING RESCHEDULED
This is being rescheduled from 27th January as there was a double booking at the Barrel House. The new date & venue will be in the TTT bulletin. Hear from those who were in Copenhagen during the talks in December, and join a discussion about how it is to watch our leaders fail to take significant steps towards tackling the challenges of our times.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Is 'Heart and Soul' the best name for our group?  Are there people who might be put off by it or find it too 'New Age? Would 'Inner Transitions' have a braoder appeal, both within and outside of Totnes? This is an ongoing debate in the Pulse Group, so if anyone has a view they'd like to add, let us know.
NATIONAL H&S WEB FORUM
A Social networking site now also exists to connect people who are interested in the inner aspects of Transition. There are people from many different other Transition projects already here. You'll find it at http://transitionheart.ning.com/ Please join your voice to the debate.

PULSE GROUP - INVITATION FOR NEW MEMBERS!

Amanda has now decided to step back a little from the Pulse group of organisers. We owe her much gratitude for the hard work she has put in over the last year, and are sure that she will continue to woerk just as hard, but in other ways.

This leaves the Pulse Group composed of Annie, Suzanne, Sophy and Sylvia. Which is not many of us, and there is so much more that we would love to be able to do, if only we had enough people to do it. So if you'd like to join us Pulsers, or take on a specific role (web page, writing, presentations), please come along to our next meeting on ........... and find out what we're all about.

REPORT FROM DECEMBER WORKSHOP

Deep Time - a workshop in the tradition of Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects  Dec 13th '09

As Copenhagen was approaching we gathered to explore the current crises in our world within the perspective of the length of time of the world's existence, looking back to ancestors both human and the animal and plant forms from which we are evolved, through whom Life proliferated so abundantly and with exquisite detail and without whose existence we would not be here. We then looked forward to those future beings, descendants of those alive today, whose existence depends on the choices and decisions we humans make today.

To give a flavour of the experience:
1) In a milling exercise we were invited to rush around at our normal pace, then SLOW  up, to experience the "necessary dance between pauses and action", for our understanding to begin to be lodged in our bodies, not just our minds.And because the"juice" that sustains action comes from "felt experience". We stood in front of one person, then another, then another, looked into their eyes and were invited to reflect silently on a number of questions and on the strength, ingenuity, creativity, courage, persistence that person carries from all the ancestors standing behind them.

2) At another point in the afternoon in a Double circle, one facing outwards, one inwards, those in the inner circle "spoke" for those future generations, alive in 2029, asking questions of those alive in 2009, such as:-  what got you started on the Great Turning/Transition? what supported you to keep going to create this marvellous sustainable way of life we now enjoy? Finally those future beings spoke of their reactions to hearing what it was like in 2009 and gave  support to their ancestors who had soon to go back out from this workshop, into the world of 2009.

I felt the space beautifully created by the facilitators allowed real "meetings" between participants and the time continuum invited a deepening of connection with past and present and future. Not all feelings were easy  ones, as we all brought our own individual histories and awarenesses. It was certainly a rich tapestry. Perhaps the feeling that most of us were left with was the wish for more time together at this depth?
Rosie Bell

Well, that all our news on this cold and snowy start to our new year. And although the earth may be frozen, deep within it are seeds and roots just waiting to stir and send forth new life. As the days lengthen and the sun grows stronger, may this new year bring us all new stirrings of hope and desire.

Sylvia