Nothing Missing Leadership:
learning from the wisdom and power of the forest

In this weekend retreat we will explore the logic and nuances of leadership as a practice of healing.

Nothing Missing Leadership is about knowing who we are as humans and how we would like to show up at this time of climatic, social, and political crisis. How can we be fully alive and deeply helpful – free from both denial and despair?
 
Complex natural systems, perfectly exemplified in the ancient forest of Windhorse, offer useful models for how we can build a sane society, including individuals, families, communities and countries.
            What are the nature integration practices that can reveal our inherent capacity for beneficial leadership?
            How are practices of “connecting” the very foundation for caring, and how does the 4-step cycle of caring lead naturally into the four powers of healing engagement in the world? 
           What would it mean to decolonize and re-indigenize our concepts and practices of leadership?
            How can we move beyond conceptual understanding to embodied experience?
 
This retreat is “serious business”, which will include the natural leavening of curiosity, wonder, play, humour, delight and the reminder that rule #4 is always appropriate.
 
We will be a gathering of humans, within the context of billions of other-than-humans, yearning for connection with ourselves, with each other and with our whole world. Without doubt, we all will discover opportunities for collaboration with other participants on future work and play.

Drawing upon ancient wisdom and Indigenous methodologies, Diane and Jim operate under the healing philosophy that "Healers do not heal others but merely hold the space for those awakening their own inner healers, so that they may heal themselves."
 
Leadership, inherent in everyone, is the dynamic expression of kindness, insight and bravery. At its best, it is a celebration of life and death - in each moment.

Although we will sleep in Juniper Lodge, we will be out on the land much of the time. Conceptual teaching will be interwoven with experiential practice so that we come away with an embodied sense of the wisdom and power of our own unique leadership. Other-than-human teachers will awaken our intrinsic qualities, and we will explore how to implement these in our lives.

Arrival time 3:00 Friday 
On Sunday afternoon we will end at 3:00 sharp.
Everything in between will be rich and spacious, with full explanations and practice experience of integration with the Land, the 4-step cycle of caring and of the four powers of engagement. All of this will be hosted in and by the forest itself, with Jim as guide and translator.

---

The cost of the program, including course fees and materials, accommodation in Juniper Lodge and catered meals, is $446.00. There is some funding available to assist participants, so if you need it, please ask. 
If you would like to assist an emerging leader in coming to this program, that opportunity exists. Please ask.

Diane Obed, an Inuk woman and mother from Nunatsiavut, Labrador, has lived in K'jipuktuk, Halifax, for 17 years. Diane's work and interests are in Indigenous methodologies, health, education and specifically how Indigenous knowledge and healing systems converge with emerging science. ​

---

Formally trained as a forest ecologist, Jim Drescher, is a co-director of Windhorse Farm (windhorsefarm.org) and founder of Nothing Missing Leadership (nothingmissing.ca). He was trained in the observation of living systems by his grandmother from the time he was seven. Since 1973, he has been a student of the Buddhist meditation master, Chogyam Trungpa. Today his teaching and coaching play at the confluence of his family lineage of nature practice and the ancient Buddhist leadership teachings.  For the past 3 decades, his practice ground has been in the forests and wetlands of Windhorse Farm.

---