Show-Off… or Celebration?

At the moment there are quite a few things in me that I would love to celebrate. And with some of these things, I notice that I have some discomfort coming up, in sharing them with others. I don’t want to show-off like the peacock… Well actually… I would LOVE to be this peacock that

The Elephant Puppet

The Giraffe and Jackal puppet are symbols we use when sharing Nonviolent Communication. The Giraffe reminds us of our compassion whereas the Jackal is a symbol for our state of judgement, comparison or evaluation. Recently I had a one-on-one session with a new client. She was introduced to these puppets for the first time and

Community Living at WantooWantoo

Kris Kolff – who recently turned 80 – was filmed a few years ago and this documentary has now been made public. It gives a glimpse into his life and the life of all who are calling WantooWantoo their home. If you are interested in Nonviolent Communication, community living, parenting or home-education – settle down

Poor Man’s Guacamole

The broad bean season is upon us. While doing some gardening this afternoon, the broad beans got my attention. I swear that the beans had doubled in size since last time I looked (which was yesterday!). I had already made plans to have nachos for dinner and <lightbulb moment> I decided to turn some beans

I hear you

How a challenge became a gift. This morning, my husband, Jan Albert, and I had a moment of disconnection and it led to a most wonderful insight… The background… we will soon have two house-cows with full udders, wanting to be milked. Over the last few days we have been talking about sharing this task

The Yacón Tuber

I’m not trying to show off here… But our Yacón harvest this year is phenomenal! If you are new to the Yacón, let me share the link where you can read about this easy to grow and store, high-yielding, supernutritious and crunchy like an apple, Yacón root (pronounced ya-kon). We have had a few nippy nights

Connection before Education

I love sharing the tools of Nonviolent Communication. The local coordinator of Voices for Freedom approached me with the request to run a workshop with the title “Bridging across Differences”. Of course I said ‘yes’ to this invitation, always keen to share the tools of NVC. The topic was how to keep the connection during

Let’s Start with our Children

Kris Kolff (with Cella in the background) The below article describes the role Nonviolent Communication can have in parenting. It also shares Kris Kolff’s experience about living with my family.Kris has lived and thrived together with us at WantooWantoo since 2005. Longing for a more Humane Society? Let’s Start with our Children! Two years ago

Boat-Pooling

I’ve gone fishing! Do you want to buy a boat with us? This was a question asked last week by two couples. We hesitated… how often will we use it, was our main concern. I’m so glad we said ‘yes, let’s do it’. Now we are the proud one-third owner of Rockin’ Rosie, a fifty

Giving and Receiving

I gratefully received. Receiving the support of my friend, Emma, has no doubt been a gift to her in return. Look at the smile on both our faces… toasting – with a glass of home-made, cherry-flavoured kombucha – on the launch of my website! Creating a website from scratch has been a completely new experience