Hi dear friends, Welcome to the second conversation in this series of slow seasonal explorations of the five elements : The Element Sessions.

Today, I’m sharing, for all subscribers, a glorious conversation I had with writer, mother, grower and holder Kerri ní Dochartaigh. (More on this below!)

Next Tuesday morning I’ll be holding a live workshop and journalling session focussing on the element of EARTH. I’m so looking forward to putting some faces to names and meeting some of you in person. If you are curious about the offering but not yet a paid subscriber, DM me and I’ll share access to this first session together as a taster gift of the year to come.

My wish for these sessions is they will provide us with an opportunity to explore, in all it’s messiness and confusion, what it means to be a human, living on the planet right now. I want to ask questions about how we can navigate this strange and tricky time we are living in together in new and radical, yet often very simple ways.

The framework for this exploration are the touchstones of each of the five elements of Earth, Metal, Water, Wood and Fire. I see these as jumping off points from which to explore the ideas above in a simple, real, manageable way.

I would like these sessions to be portals through which we can explore tenderly ideas around safety and gathering, grief and heartbreak, fear and longing, lust and joy, growth and anger.

I’d love for you to join me as these conversations and these explorations evolve and deepen.

Now! On to this week’s conversation… It has been a week of big realisations and tough truths for me. It has been a week of asking how, as I navigate so much loss, can I find ways to be held?It has been a week of really asking myself what is my relationship to the more than human world?Is there mothering and support offered by it? And if so, how, how, how, can I soften enough to let that in?

So many of these questions have arisen because of the conversation I had with Kerri ní Dochartaigh that I am sharing today.

Kerri is a writer, mother, holder and grower. She is the author of two beautiful books – Thin Places, which was awarded the Butler Literary Award and highly commended for the Wainwright prize for nature writing, and Cacophony of Bone which was longlisted for the Wainwright prize and was a Waterstones book of the year. She also writes regularly on her Substack newsletter Glimmers - a page dedicated to those sharp, bright moments of joy in our days and which meditates on why we need creativity, inspiration, and beauty; now more than ever. Kerri regularly runs OAK MOTHER - a free writing circle for mothers, MOSS MOTHER MOON - a women’s circle, as well as teaching and mentoring worldwide. Follow her here on Substack or on Instagram for updates on her offerings.

I asked Kerri to join me to discuss the EARTH element and what the idea of earth in all its forms has meant and means to her. I began our conversation together by sharing Kerri’s words from her essay titled Solas, Solace, which appears in the gorgeous collection of essays by Daunt Books In the Garden. Kerri writes:

I wish I’d known, long before now, that sowing is a way to grieve.As hands scatter seeds into earth beneath feet, they are really sculpting loss.With careful, repeated movements, the hands are moulding it into a thing like light on stone.

So we started here, with these perfect words, and with the word soil, and an hour of conversation flowed.

We talked about soil and safety and seeds, We talked about motherhood and mycelium,We talked about gardening and expectations and failure,We talked about outer space and time, We talked about broken bones and heartbreak,We talked about grace and grief.

I came away from it feeling like we had covered so much, but also that I could have asked her a thousand more questions and filled many more episodes.I’d love for you to take a listen and to let me know what it sparked in you?

A little more about The Element Sessions …If you are new to these sessions, you can read a little more about the structure of them here. You can also join me here for a deep dive slow deep dive in to E A R T H (ideas around Safety | Savour | Mothering | Gathering, including an audio version).

And you can listen to a fascinating conversation I had with five element acupuncture master practitioner Gerad Kite here.

Still to come in this first spiral of EARTH ::Tuesday 24 September | Live call (recording available) | E A R T H - reflections on transitions, gathering, harvesting, gratitude & safety.10-11am UTC + 1:00 (paid subscribers, you can subscribe here, or DM or emails me for free access as a taster gift)

Friday 27 September | Lyndsay Kaldor from Story & Thread guest post | Notes from the garden I’m so delighted to share this post with you - Lyndsay writes so thoughtfully on how the plants and flowers in particular are speaking to her in each season, I always find I look at my own garden and surrounding anew having read her posts. Lyndsay also has a beautiful new membership offering called The Beauty Thread, which is well worth checking out, she is offering so much here.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit laylaomara.substack.com/subscribe