Hey lovely Reader
Today we're looking back to look forward - and I'm announcing the new podcast name. I'm not completely clear how these two things are related but I expect they are!
This is still the same podcast, the same space, now naming its essence: everyday compassion with Henny Flynn.
I feel there's more to say on that but I'll hold it for the moment. I'm still percolating what drove me into action on changing the name. Instead, I'll dive into today's episode...
As it unfolded, there were three threads that appeared:
- I reflect on what it means to look back in order to look forward - not as nostalgia, and not as a refusal to move on, but as a discerning kind of attention.
- I share a conversation with my husband Anton over thirty years ago, sitting on a bench in Nottingham, where one of us said 'this feels more like a separation than a divorce' - and how being willing to look back changed the whole course of both our lives.
- I also think out loud about a kind of discarding I notice can be so prevalent (and so human) - how easily we decide that an idea, a relationship, a version of ourselves no longer has value simply because it belongs to the past. And how often what gets presented as something new is really something old, rediscovered.
I'm really curious about this last point - another impact of consumerism or the illusion of modernity perhaps? I'd love to know whether that resonates with you, or whether you see it differently.
This link will take you straight to the episode (listen or watch) or just search the Henny Flynn podcast.
Lastly I share how A piece of quiet is itself a living example of this whole idea of looking back to look forward. It's a practice I created, let go of, and am now bringing back... as something freely offered and shared live. Just 25 minutes, every Monday at 6.30pm (UK), starting 5 October.
In the meantime, may we all be safe, happy and well. May we all find a place of greater safety, within ourselves and with each other.
With love
PS: If you'd love A piece of quiet this Monday, I would love to welcome you there - 6.30 (UK), all welcome.
Go straight to the episode: Looking Back to Look Forward (S21E5) or search for the Henny Flynn podcast wherever you love to listen.