Listening to New Land: Finding Rhythm After Moving

Since completing the Spiritual Rewilding course with my 2025 cohort, I've been a little quiet here. There's a good reason for that; this summer I moved from the UK to Ireland, and I've been getting to know and listening to this land that is new to me, and tuning into its particular voice and rhythm.

The whole work of Spiritual Rewilding is about deepening our sense of belonging and connection to place. So this has been a profound time for me to reconnect with first principles while settling in, of slowing down, listening to the land, feeling its rhythm, starting to hear and connect with its voice so that I can learn to work with and be connected to the place I am now in and on. I want to feel my beingness intertwined with this landscape, and I look forward to sharing more about that journey in the Spiritual Rewilding Community of Practice.

When Seasons Feel Upside Down

One thing that has felt really out of sync this year is moving shortly after the summer solstice. My year felt quite flipped upside down, something particularly challenging because working with the rhythms of the seasons and the cycles of nature is such an important part of the Spiritual Rewilding course (especially in the Wild Rhythms module). So it was hard to be pulling against these natural flows that I teach and live by.

In the deep winter, when it should have been time for rest and winter dreaming and visioning for the year ahead, I was instead very busy making plans and arrangements, getting things organised and sorted for the move. I had to be busier than normal, and things were more stressful than usual.

Then, as we came towards summer solstice, I was marking endings and cycles and goodbyes. While I looked out the window and everything was coming into its fullness, I was marking the end of cycles, saying farewells, and looking ahead to new beginnings. I was getting ready to depart.

Arriving here in Ireland in the summer meant starting to get things organised and settling in, completely out of sync with the cycles of the land around me.

Finding Welcome in New Rhythms

But the land here in Ireland has really held me nicely and welcomed me. I have felt the spirits of the season guiding me back into rhythm and sync. This process of the year, which felt so disjointed, now feels perfectly in line with the seasons; the big culmination of the year was the move itself.

I am glad to feel now back in alignment with the seasons. I am seeing the fruits readying for harvest from that journey, that experience, that cycle, and I am starting to gather the seeds of wisdom from it. Those seeds are inspiring the preparations for the winter to come.

Something as big as moving house and moving country is naturally going to feel disjointive. But it's beautiful to be starting to feel back in tune, in time, and in rhythm with the cycles of the land as I deepen into connection with this place.

The Participatory Nature of Belonging

Many who have taken the Spiritual Rewilding course have embarked on that journey because they're moving to a new place, or because even though they moved somewhere years ago, they've never really found that they connected to it or belonged to it. They're wanting to connect more deeply to the land around them.

What I'm always shared, from my own experience is that belonging and relationship to place is a participatory process. It's not something that happens spontaneously or passively; it requires our active engagement, our willingness to listen, to be present, to show up to grow that relationship and connection.

In this space between Spiritual Rewilding cohorts, it's wonderful to work with these paths and practices myself as I get to know this place that is new to me. I'm living the work in real time, which deepens my understanding of what it means to cultivate authentic relationship with land.

Looking Ahead

I'm looking forward to the upcoming workshops and talks and teachings I'll be giving later in the autumn, and to the preparations for the 2026 Spiritual Rewilding Online course. There's something grounding about feeling settled enough in this new landscape to begin offering from this place again.

The land teaches us that every ending carries the seeds of new beginning, and every arrival asks us to listen before we speak. I'm grateful for this time of deep listening, and for the way these Irish hills have already welcomed me.