Category: Full Circ-Us

What Nancy is Doing These Days

Two buckets of greens (turnips and kale, to be specific) from the garden and a glimpse of a pair of feet in green garden clogs.

When people ask what I’m up to work-wise, I vaguely mention my “rewirement.” I’ve been in the process of redesigning my “working” life into a more consciously designed life flow. In other words, I’m doing less “paid work,” and devoting more time, attention and prioritization of family, my own learning, playing my guitar and spending time in my garden.

What does this mean if you want to hire me? I’m only taking on 1-2 clients at a time. I’m done juggling many work balls, now reveling in a more spacious life. And I have three criteria for saying “yes.”

  • 1. Work that matters in the world. Is your project trying to solve for a community? The world? Does your work echo beyond an event or project? I’m interested.
  • 2. Great people. I’m deeply attached to who I am working with. This is a relationship, not a transaction. We are in it together long enough to supports relating to each other as people?
  • 3. Everyone’s learning edge. I’ll refer you to wonderful folks to provide you a known service. I’m interested in the edge where we all learning. Together. Further, we are committed to sharing that learning.

If you and your work resonate with this, let’s talk.

Holiday Missives With AI Help…

…a rare and unique holiday letter from Nancy and Larry White

Larry White, Grandperson 2, Nancy White and Grandperson 1 sitting on couch in striped holiday PJs.
Grandparents and their grandpeople in holiday striped PJs…

I’m not sure this will ever get sent. I’m not sure where I have viable snail mail addresses to so many of you, so it may also end up as a blog post. (Yup, just became a blog post!)

I realize I SOOO enjoy getting cards and letters from many of you. (Well, fewer and fewer every year because like, why send a card to someone who never responds, right?) So it is time to repay the favor.

Wait, there is a hitch. I am trying a new AI-Assisted writing tool called LEX and I thought I’d let it enhance your reading experience. So what you are about to read in italics probably isn’t true! But it may give you a bit of entertainment.

I have moved around a bit since I last had a “normal” address. Larry and I got married in 2014 and we moved to his place in the woods outside Eugene, Oregon. In 2016 we decided to leave the US due to rising political tensions (Larry is Canadian) and we spent 10 months in New Zealand. We really liked it there, and we had every intention of making it our permanent home. But alas, the best laid plans… (LEX got this ALL wrong. But I like the idea of New Zealand!)

We are also more than full time grandparents. Our two grand people, Staley and Byrne, live with us Sunday nights through Fridays. Our two adults sons, Chris and Alex, live in Seattle. They clearly did not inherit their mother’s wandering genes. …

Life has been a bit unusual lately. In September, we took in a Syrian refugee family. It has been interesting, to say the least. We are definitely not in Kansas anymore, Toto. The kids are great, but their parents are struggling to adjust to small town living in the US. And we are struggling to help them while still maintaining some semblance of our own lives. But it is all good, and we are all learning a lot. (Again, LEX has quite the imagination.)

We continue to deeply love and enjoy our little cabin on Skagit Bay. Living on an island (Fidalgo) is pretty great, especially one you can get on and off of via bridges. No ferries for us! I spend a lot of time in our garden up there, growing food that mostly gets snacked on by the wildlife. Our garden in Seattle has suffered in comparison.

The biggest personal news is I have semi-rewired. In other words, I’m barely doing paid client work, but still keep connected and practicing facilitation and group process, but mostly just for old clients/friends or pro-bono. Most of the latter is lazy, coaching stuff. I let others do all the heavy lifting.

I’m really enjoying this slower pace. I like having time to read, and to go on long walks with Larry and the dogs (we have two now… Maggie, the American Eskimo Dog shown in the picture, and Simon, a Shetland Sheepdog. They are both rescues, and they are both spoiled rotten.). (Nope, LEX, no dogs. I wonder if ChatGPT would have done a better job. Too bad their servers are overloaded. Non-geek friends, I apologize for this garbage!)

I also like having time to travel to see family and friends. We went to Vancouver Island in September to visit Byrne. (Hey LEX, Byrne has never been to Vancouver!)

I have picked back up my guitar and actually have calluses on my fingers! A couple of times I have been able to sing and play with Ellis, a friend of our friend Karen. I miss singing harmonies. My old bluegrass band, Nobody’s Bizness, was supposed to gather this year but, well… maybe 2023!

I also continue to read voraciously, both fiction and non-fiction. Currently I’m reading a book about North Korea and another about the history of medicine. (NOPE!)

Thank goodness our local public library makes e-books easy to get, so I can now start whittling down the piles of books that sit everywhere. I can. But will I?

So, that is enough about me. Please write and tell me about you. I would love to hear what is going on in your lives.

Happy holidays!

Love,

Nancy and Larry

Ping me if you want more family holiday pics! Holiday Fudge recipe here: https://fullcirc.com/2012/12/22/happy-holidays-and-make-some-great-fudge-candy/

Archives: ROSVIZ 2012 Video Harvest

From the Draft Archives, Summer 2012, the RosViz graphic facilitation workshop with Michelle Laurie. Just. Plain. Imperfect. Fun. The always creative Jason Toal produced. Never underestimate the amount of fun people can have when let loose. I think this is a thread as I reflect back on these old blog drafts!
#MondayVideos

For a slightly more polished harvest video, also from the 2012 archives, take a look at what these kindergartners did for THEIR harvest! https://www.samchaltain.com/this-is-what-student-learning-looks-like

All Work and Now Play – No Way – Part 5 of ISS Fellowship

This is the fifth and penultimate in a series of posts about my ISS/Chisholm Fellowship in Victoria State, Australia. You can find the previous posts here: Part 1, Part 2,  Part 3 and Part 4.

Besides my iterative round of cafe visits in Melbourne, I have also had the chance to hang out with my Aussie friends and see some of beautiful Victoria State. No fellowship journal would be complete without a hint of that beauty. So this slide show speaks for itself of what I saw. And, I must say, I got lost in the Ashcombe Mazes on the Mornington Penninsula, and ate some fabulous chocolate at Mornington Penninsula Chocolates. 🙂 I had cake to die for at Moo’s in rural Gippsland, and spent most of my nights in Karramburra. I even got to go to a school fete! (Ah, I loved the bake sale.)I went to the Night Noodle Market, the Victoria Library and ate/drank at many of the fabulous Cafes in Melbourne. Mama mia, y’all have a great Cafe Culture! And yet again, I saw no roos. I think they avoid me.