Welcome to the new members of our whanau, 5 more chookies who needed some homes. They will be joining the resident chookies as well as Mr. Moo and Stealthy and of course Sam who some of you have met on retreat days.
What have chickens got to to with mindfulness you may ask!? Well quite a lot really. Mindfulness is a practice and a way of life rather than some techniques or limited to meditation. Some who know me are aware that I am also a passionate permaculturist, since my discovery of it over 20 years ago I have been developing a permaculture property (in between working, training, teaching etc…so very slowly!)
I see peramaculture and mindfulness going hand in hand and will be exploring this further through workshops and retreats in the future.
So yes back to the chickens…..for those of you who have the pleasure of having chickens in your lives, you know…….they are just great to hang out with and just be with. I often sit with them and even meditate with them as they go about their chickeny business . It is a lovely way of connecting with nature and the earth and non human beings.
Over the years of teaching mindfulness it has struck me how many people feel joy and mindful in the presence of nature, animals, trees, plants etc. This is no coincidence I feel , as we ARE nature; it is like coming home to our essential selves and thus feels good (even when things are difficult).We just know this intuitively.
Especially if humans haven’t been the safest or most easy to connect with for us……nature is always there for us; our home and place we always belong. Kate 
Mindfulness North Canterbury 