Whether that is your findings in a more logical or data-oriented way or within the creative spectrum—where it can become a bit more metaphorical, and we can play with symbols, story, and different ways of expressing emotion—I hope to appeal to a wide variety of folks who are interested in joining me on some loosely guided research walks, strolls, or whatever way collecting research may occur out in the natural world.

When we have the opportunity to engage with this, which is called Citizen Science, there's a great article by Bhandari (2024) that talks about the promise that this approach really has for the future of sustainability.

In a circle, as one of my mentors, Asha Frost—an Indigenous medicine woman, Anishinaabe—notes, no one is above or below, in front or behind anyone else.

The great thing about circles is we see them everywhere in nature. It is kind of an ode to nature's harmony and peace—this sort of closed loop, the cycles of nature where, at the end of the day, everything nourishes everything.

So, I hope to bring the spirit of that circle into these spaces, where we are not engaging with a hierarchical framework, but we are friends.

You know things that I don't know, and maybe I know some things that you don't. We can come together and share our expertise from our direct experiences, from the things that we feel, from the things that we experience.

In these circles, when we engage in research in this way, we might pull in research from professionals or from alternate sources. If we do, we make sure to cite those sources in our observations and creative reflections.

In a community setting like this, we have the opportunity to share, and when we share, that’s when the magic happens—where we can connect some dots.

The focus of these Body Peace Circles is to reiterate and mirror to one another that your experiences have value and that you have space to express. We might not have degrees or diplomas in conservation or ecological restoration. If you do, great—you’re welcome here too.

But the fact is that education as an institution is inaccessible to many people. I think that our ability to engage with nature and our senses—everything that makes us who we are—allows us to come away with reflections that only we can come away with.

The beauty of that, and of sharing it in the circle, is that we can, in a peer listening style, take in what other folks are identifying, finding, and experiencing—what certain things invoke in them. Then, we can connect the dots of how we can work together, how we can take our personal experiences and turn them into collective action toward beneficial change.

I keep this broad as the final movement of these circles because I want to centre what the collective, the community, the circle is representing, showing, and telling—what they care about. From there, we can move forward to something meaningful.

The beauty of this process is that we never really know who will be in the circle, so we get unique perspectives, people with unique positions in life and gifts. The sky is the limit because we are limitless.

Join Us 

If you would like to join a Body Peace Circle, we meet at Toronto Public Library branches because they’re usually near parks. This gives us the opportunity to pop outside as well as engage with research materials at the library.

August is the next one—mark your calendar! I would love to hear from you about when is a great time. I am open to your suggestions in that regard. If you're interested, you can pop your email on my newsletter so I can keep you updated.

*I will also send out a short survey because I want to hear about what you care most about as well as your availability, so we can tend to our community in that way too.

BODY PEACE CIRCLE FRAMEWORK