Valerie Brown, JD, MA, PCC

By Valerie Brown “….Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world. Rely on human goodness. Stay together.” —Margaret Wheatley, from Turning to One Another As I return next month with a group of pilgrims to Walk in Beauty: Pilgrimage of El Camino de Santiago, Spain, The Way of Saint James, to walk this 1000 year old […]

By Valerie Brown, JD, MA, PCC Recently, I was part of a webinar in a year-long online learning course on transformational leadership.  We opened the session with a ritual practice  For a moment, I was stunned.  In my rushed and productive life, moving breathlessly from thing to thing of a never-ending list, I had forgotten, lost track of […]

Cultivating a kinder world by reorienting your vision.

Ghost Ranch is a place that gives voice to ‘your whole self’, to ponder the big questions of life purpose, meaning, and direction.

The clearness committee, developed by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), is an individual and communal process of spiritual discernment, an instrument to understand the movement of God (in Quaker terms) in a person’s life, and a way for a community to offer support and guidance at critical times. The Light Within is one […]

It was a long day on El Camino, The Way of Saint James, the famed thousand-year old pilgrimage route across the north of Spain. I set out at daybreak and now the sun was setting low on the dusty hills. As I rounded the final bend of the day, my back- pack and boots heavy, […]

Fly-fishing looks effortless but that’s deceiving. It’s an intensely complex process. The angler needs to know exactly the right ‘fly’ to cast to lure fish.  She needs to know how to cast, when to cast, and where to stand in the stream. She needs to understand the depth and speed of the water, and be mindfully aware of […]

Tamika, an assistant principal in a large urban school, is strong; she’s been told this for as long as she can remember. For Tamika, being strong is a heavy load, a burden that she has carried selflessly and silently nearly all her life, a burden she can’t put down. She is the consummate workaholic who […]

“…when we learn how to listen more deeply to others, we can listen more deeply to ourselves.” ~ Parker J. Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness Research on listening indicates that the we spend about 80% of our waking hours communicating: Writing 9% Reading 16% Speaking 30% Listening, to people, music, TV, radio, etc. 40-50% About 75% of […]

By Valerie Brown and Gayle Williams “Is it possible to become more intentional about creating spaces – in relationship, community – where our fearful shadows can emerge into the light to be seen for what they are, when the truth and love within us can appear and make a claim on our lives?”  – Parker […]

 “…every trouble wants to draw the very best of you into the world.” —Mark Nepo, from Seven Thousand Ways to Listen When trouble happens sometimes we want to avoid conflict, look the other way, or pretend that there aren’t any problems until things go back to normal. This approach hurts more than it helps. The […]

Listening is the oldest and perhaps the most powerful tool of healing. It is often through the quality of our listening and not the wisdom of our words that we are able to effect the most profound changes in the people around us. When we listen we offer sanctuary for the homeless parts within the other person.  […]