Feeling to Footprint has been inspired by the feelings of pure joy and magic that I experience when I am in nature and motivated by the sadness and anger that I feel when I see the effects of Global Warming as a consequence of our choices in every moment and from that my chance to take a stand and share with the world a way of living that will contribute to sustaining our beautiful planet.

This is how Feeling to Footprint was born...

As a farmer’s daughter from South West Western Australia, I had a beautiful pony that I would disappear on into the jarrah forest and discover the magic in all that I saw, smelt, touched, tasted and heard. The feeling that I had in the bush was something so special, so sparkling, so sensational and surreal almost, that I did not know what it was, I just knew that somehow I was part of the nature that surrounded me. There was no it and me...just us. The colours, the sounds, the feel the energy the touch, was so enlivening. My childhood was full of so much wonder and awe, of joy and freedom and endless possibility...I could do and be anyone I wanted.

The following 30 years continued to take me to places of such immense and awe-inspiring beauty in the Australian wilderness, with 10 amazing years experiencing our stunning Kimberley and Northern Territory regions where the huge open skies and immense rugged beauty of the landscape left me breathless.

Ten years ago I started to feel different about my surrounds. I notice changes in my own back yard...some of the places I use to go as a little girl were gone. Creeks were drying up, the bush was being destroyed and animals and birds had disappeared. I felt angry, sad and helpless, and wondered when someone was going to fix it.

Then Al Gore delivered The Inconvenient Truth. ..at last it was on the agenda in every ones lounge room..Global Warming was real, and Climate Change was happening, and everyone one us was responsible to create changes of behaviour in our lives to correct the damage we were causing on this one and only planet that we live on. I slowly began to see how my every choice was to impact the entire planet...well nearly...there were still lessons to learn.

One day about 2 years ago a lesson was learnt. I was feeling down in the dumps about something, so to fill the void of loss or pain that I was feeling, I did what I always did and reached for food. I found the most expensive packet of beautiful Italian chocolate biscuits to eat. First I opened the packet, then opened the ½ packet in side, then opened the packet that the single biscuit was in. They tasted really good, I think. I was so disconnected and in my own little world of self pity, that when I went to grab for another one and mindlessly unwrap and eat it, I noticed the other 6 wrappers on the floor.

I remember the moment that the big hard brick fell on my head and I saw before my very eyes how I had made a choice through feeling a victim, that was about to contribute to the destruction of the very thing that sustained my very being...nature. 400 years before that plastic would break down in landfill. It would contribute to the 13,000 pieces of plastic found in every square kilometre of ocean that I enjoyed ‘fresh fish’ from. Never mind all the thousands of miles and carbon emission in the energy that was used to get it to my doorstep...because I had to have it. The stunning and sad realisation was that in my disconnection to that choice I had contributed to Global Warming and the destruction of our planet. Then I really cried.. and cried and cried for the all the choices I had made when I was truly disconnected from the consequences of my choices and my feelings.

So when I see all the effects of Global Warming, I see these as signs of a footprint without feeling. I believe that if people were connected to their feelings and the feelings of the outcomes of their choices that the last 100 years on this planet, would look a whole lot different. Consumerism is the reason we have a planet overheating. We consume and waste at such a rate that the planet cannot keep up with providing the resources to support our modern living habits. We continue to choose ‘stuff’ that feeds the cycle. More money, more things, more emptiness, and more money more things, more meaningless lives and so the cycle continues.....We are leaving a footprint that has no feeling....

Finally began to get it. Every choice I make, I mean every single little choice I make..impacts the planet somehow, somewhere without exception.

It is my purpose to share with people the magic and beauty of nature that surrounds us, to open up the space for people to re-connect to that beauty inside each of us and when that gift is realised once again, we will choose our lives differently. We will choose from a space of awareness, authenticity, of courage, of creativity and of caring and community.

My wish is for many, many generations to come where children can discover for themselves the very magic of their own being when they are in nature, and to really respect, understand and feel privileged in their innate connection to all things on Earth.

My answer is simply this .... It is up to each and everyone one of us to take responsibility in caring for this planet, the only home we have, that we are privileged to be the custodians of in each of our lifetimes. Sustainability for the planet will start with you and me...conversation by conversation, step by step...when we take the time to stop, be in nature, be aware, remember who we are, re-connect to our inner state of fullness and joy then choose from there and leave our legacy with a lighter footprint.