Blooming, Together: Bloom Journals Campaign Launch (with Maya Ward)

What does self-reflection need to become, if we are to support the generous, courageous, and ecologically-attuned selves our world so desperately needs?
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Since 2021, over 2,200 Bloom journals have found their way into hands and hearts across Australia and beyond. Returning after a year of pause, we’ve been reflecting on what ‘self-reflection’ really means, or what it could really mean. What if reflection wasn’t just a mirror, but a doorway—opening us to older ways of knowing, to the chorus of our more-than-human kin, and to invitations that draw us back into rhythm with life itself?

It's time for Bloom '25 to come into the world, and we're excited to invite you to a gathering of some of our close community to usher in and welcome it forth!

“Self-care is never a selfish act - it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives we touch.” ― Parker Palmer
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Our evening of Blooming, Together will entail:

🌸  light food and drinks

🌸  facilitated dialogue with Maya Ward and Al Jeffery, exploring a wider view on 'self'-reflective practice, including Western, Eastern, and Indigenous philosophies, nature-based contemplation, and self-reflection as stewardship.
🌸  guided nature-based contemplative practices

🌸  short introduction to the 2025 Bloom Journals Campaign's reframed intent and offerings

🌸  live music by local Naarm folk artist, Cooper Lower

🌸  poetry

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"I might say that, despite our culturally conditioned perception, we are nothing less than everything, and therefore everything is involved with our questions. So let’s open the door for their contribution. They absorb us into their knowing, and we give ourselves over to deep listening long enough that we are changed." ― Maya Ward

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Donate to join us
We are asking for a small donation to attend to cover the basic costs of the event. Any proceeds from this event and all proceeds from the campaign itself will go straight to this year's campaign benefactor, CERES School of Nature and Climate.

Accessibility notes:
We will be gathering in the newly opened Community Hall at CERES. This venue is wheelchair accessible and can be entered directly from the main entrance to CERES.

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The beautiful hearts and minds joining us for our evening together are:

Maya Ward (https://www.mayaward.com.au/)

Maya Ward is a teacher, writer, dancer, and designer who works to foster an intimate and ethical connection to our animate earth. Her memoir The Comfort of Water: A River Pilgrimage detailed her long walk from the sea to the source of the Yarra following the length of an ancient Songline. Her PhD in Creative Writing explored shamanistic and somatic metaphysics through the Western and Indigenous philosophical traditions, and the role of embodiment in facilitating ecological and spiritual renewal. Previously she worked as events co-ordinator at CERES and in eco-city advocacy and design with placemakers Village Well, but now lives by Birrarung in the tall-forest mountain village of Warburton where she designed and built her permaculture home and gardens. This is where she holds her co-becoming writing courses, created to impart embodied, intuitive, and intellectual understandings of interdependency. 

Cooper Lower (http://www.cooperlower.com)

Cooper Lower is a Naarm/Melbourne-based folk artist whose songs call us into intimacy with our quieter parts. With brave and tender vocals, Cooper’s stories have captivated audiences all throughout the world. He has lived internationally and played key festivals in Europe, UK, the US, and right back to home to his roots in regional Victoria. Cooper is one of our most exciting local songwriters, artists, producers, lyricists, and creative collaborators. He will be performing songs from his upcoming record that he has recently recorded in Poland.

Al Jeffery (https://www.aljeffery.com)

Al is a co-steward of Bloom Journals, as well as a psychotherapist, regenerative leadership guide, wanderer, and writer, endlessly fascinated by the relationship between minds, cultures, and Life herself. Currently, he lives in Thornbury, Naarm, and is committed to supporting Naarm’s transition to a life-affirming culture through his work at Turning Ground, a lighthouse and lab for place-based personal and cultural renewal. He carries a burning hunger for the return of communal rites, ceremonies, and spaces for the soul to speak, and for us to listen our way to right-relationship, again.

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Unable to join us for this launch gathering?

Join our email list at www.bloomjournals.com to receive the link to pre-order your journals from September 22nd.

Give the gift of reflection this festive season, and support the good work at CERES.

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May we remember our wider communities, take refuge in true belonging, and in service, Bloom, Together,

James and Al xx

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We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional custodians of the lands and waterways in the area CERES is located, and pay respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging, as well as to all First Nations’ communities who significantly contribute to the life of the area.