Roisin Markham

This week definitely had full moon energy and a slow lengthening of days.

As the wheels of enterprise stirred and began whirring so did my work in the fourth sector. There are still some projects getting started more slowly, I am respecting that pace. As a former PMO I’d have been all about the push to get it done. I’ve observed in the last few years that certain types of work has its own pace.

This post is not written with AI, so enjoy the figaries of my brain and choice of words. Also this weeks notes seems a bit unwieldy but I’m exploring the format and adding a recommendation at the end.

My studio notes

• clients priorities & work was balanced with spaciousness to think + make space for design work
• applied learning for net-zero initiatives progresses & I’ve committed to prototypes by the 23/01 testing them the following week, please to be committing to best practices of co-design and this new way of working for this work
• asked for blurb for a piece of work in early February that I co-designed with a client in November brought me on a kaleidoscope journey. I moved my brain through things I knew and did not yet have formed. Distilling information, melting it. I used AI as a thinking companion to help me write the blurb. But that presented its own problems. Notions, I shared a mythic-poetic explanation of the work. Have I told you about my hideous writers block? Metaphorically to write I have to climb 2 mountains. Hence the reason for more practice. Anyways a good conversation with said understanding client, some early morning creativity and eventually Friday afternoon I rewrote the blurb. More grounded in all the aspects I’m bring together to create a time travel future ancestors workshop. This is part of my offering to help create new social imaginaries. More on this soon
• I’ve been asked to speak at some events, this led me to review my bio I’ve been using a very ‘say less bio’ that needed updating – not landed it – and also reviewing my speakers fee and doing some research on what I should be charging, which in turn prompted me to think about gender pay gap and uplift prices by 0.09c per euro specific to Ireland based on research, let me know if you want the link.
• as a small business owner invoicing, accounts, bookkeeping and tracking unpaid invoices consume time. I’d rather spend it elsewhere in the business. I’ve not invested in setting up the new system
• a university researcher interview was interesting, my potted past spanning 10 years in big tech, 10 years as an artist with a social research practice, 10 years in cross-sector fractal services across innovation, design, education, PMO & business consultancy services
• filmmaker, Dónal Ó Céilleachair – Anú Pictures reached out to catch up of the film we collaborated on – Seeding the future, an ecological storytelling based on 7 generation ancestors. How have I not shared the full story of this yet? I have mentioned it in two previous blogs, it deserves a sharing – it’s a real systems interlinked & creative interbeing story which has deepened my work and unhindered self expression. He’s seeking funding to make a full length version of the film. It’s been shown in IMMA and at the IFC and we continue to share it. He mentioned people’s emotional responses to it especially at big screen showings. A 9 min. preview for a feature length film currently in development, read more about it here.
  It is inspired by the work of WEALL Ireland’s Cultural Creatives Community of Practice; a community of over 40 artists, academics and activists working towards a wellbeing economy for all. He said people are emailing him feedback and taking about saving oaks. If you watch it, you’ll understand why that’s important for me and this place.
• spent time connecting with trusted associates
• posted on linkedin, unusual for me, just had things to say despite my current social media ick
• my new client, our garden gifted me an extraordinary joy on Saturday, hard work, muck, composting, plentiful worms, seedlings, physical graft, a hedge planted that will feed bees with early flowers in the Spring. Here’s to more moments of joy with clients!
• caught up with IDEN University Debates Circle being lead by two of the young leaders, all set for the first event in February & a few other universities interested

Insights

• saying less about things here because I’m dissatisfied & frustrated
• still taming my neurofizzy brain
• moving office = my internet/tech set up slowing me down, my mac is on its last legs the battery needs replacing & fan cleaned
• my new ancestors & social imaginary work has threads back to mid-late 1990s all the way to 2023 WEALL Ireland Hub Creative Community session & connecting with Active Hope, Seeding the Future film and 2025 framing of narratives going forward
• I don’t have a project page on my website, hmm, my beautiful beetroot project will definitely need some space and new social imaginaries deserves it
• As part of my ecology of practices I’ve added a ‘what went beautifully today’ a way to build gratitude, grace and acceptance
• deepening relationships is always worth it
• Joanna Macy’s work & WEALL Creative Community is deeply influencing my work, I mapped all the connections and links, I was really surprised at the depth, I’m tempted to make a Kumo systems map bringing more visibility to it
• inspired myself by attending a session with Rob Hopkins about his new book Wednesday evening, I’ve been humming and hawing about booking into his next training event
• reflection is so powerful
• While I have been growing and planting native hedging around the parameter of the garden, the hedge I put in on Saturday is not native. As land stewards we have been observing how plants and the land respond. One of the joys in our place has been the early spring scent of tiny burgundy flowers on the Pittosporum and the hum of bees feeding, see photo below. The fragrance intoxicating and heady, fills the air, inviting us out of the house to enjoy it. It is a marker of seasons. Although not native we’ve decided to use Pittosporum to create an evergreen hedge, it seems to tolerate the marl soil & bees love it. Potting on self seeded Pittosporum plants over four years meant I’d enough plants for the 8m hedge.

Recommendations

Perhaps because I’ve been doing a small piece of work with the Bioregional Weaving Lab SE Ireland I’m more aware of their work & curiously they embed Joanna Macy’s work deep within their approaches. Tomorrow they are offering this lovely thing…

✨transform Blue Monday into a celebration of Bioregional Hope ✨

Bioregional Weaving Lab SE Ireland, & all the BWLs work is deeply embed in Active Hope. They are connected to a network of Bioregions across Europe and the globe. The have a lovely offering for 20th January, blue Monday,

premiere 7 short films, each featuring 3 bioregional changemakers, brought together by Bioregional Weaving Labs across 7 European countries, who are protecting, restoring, and regenerating their lands and seas. Virtually travel to at least two bioregions, watch their films and interact live with the changemakers. There will also be inspiring guest speakers and we’ll end with a clear call to action to get involved in the larger bioregional movement, find out more and register here.

I’ve shared it with the Active Hope community in Ireland and with some of my other networks. The Irish and Romanian films are lovely, I’ve not seen the other ones yet.

Questions for you

Do you have a reflect practice in work or personally? Love to hear about what works for you…