As a guest facilitator of the Renew and Rise Festival last year I was delighted to be a part of an inspiring and creative team. The online festival was hosted by Mel Greblo, a dear friend and colleague. Mel has invited me to share some of my journey with cancer and recovery. I would love to invite you to join us in conversation and I’ll be sharing some poetry that was written during this time.
Wednesday 20th July 7.30pm-8.30pm AEST (Sydney, NSW)
‘The end of 2021 for Wendy Haynes brought with it a stark and unexpected diagnosis—a rare ovarian cancer. The dawn of the new year would be marked by radical surgery to remove the tumour and learning whether the cancer was contained or had spread – that deeply uncertain time of not knowing, so much, including whether one would live or die.
Wendy’s journey into the dark and light of her diagnosis, treatment and recovery was and is profoundly poignant. For 27 years Wendy had been holding ceremonial space with families – weddings, namings, intimate home and community funeral and memorial ceremonies. Wendy also facilitates Ongo: Everyday Nonviolence, empathy circles and mindfulness programs online. In a beautiful convergence of all of these practices and teaching, Wendy developed the acclaimed six-month program, ‘Celebrating this Precious Life, Honest Conversations about Death and Dying’.
All of this work – teaching and learning – came before her diagnosis, and as such her journey with ovarian cancer became an invitation to drop deeply into life, into the practices she’d been learning and teaching, into transformational learning.
We are honoured that Wendy will join Mel Greblo in a conversation about this sacred journey, sharing the various layers of unfolding, undoing, sense-making, practice, deep listening, being and giving Wendy experienced along the way. Please join us to discover more of your own unfolding as you drop into the life you’re in.”
Click here for more information and to register to receive the Zoom link.