Welcome to the Dare to Blossom Newsletter
A warm welcome to you, thank you for opening this first newsletter of 2026, which I hope will arrive in your newsletter before New Year's Eve comes around.Monthly Dare to Blossom Zoom circles
Three Card Listenings for 2026
Reflections 1: Looking back
Reflections 2 : Beauty and Love
"Becoming You" - Taster circles and a new programme for 2026
Monthly Dare to Blossom Zoom circles
The first Saturday Circle of 2026 is very soon, at 11.00 am (UK time) on Saturday 3rd January. Contact me to book, find the event on Facebook, or simply use this Zoom link at the time of the gathering.
The February Saturday circle is on 7th February at 11.00 am. The monthly Monday evening circles will resume on Monday 30th March at 7.30 pm.
Three Card Listenings for 2026
A New Year special offer for you, a Three Card Listening created individually for you. People who are unable to attend the live circles on Zoom may find this particularly useful, especially at this time of crossing the threshold into a new year.
Full details on my website here. If this is new to you - I draw three cards for you from the combined Dare to Blossom Rediscovery decks and then tune in to listen to the whispers of your inner wisdom.
I have limited time (and energy) capacity so if this appeals to you, book your Listening soon if you would like it to arrive (by Messenger or email) before 14th January.
The price is £14, and you will receive an illustrated pdf of your cards.
Reflections 1: Looking back
Looking back, 2025 has been a year of immense change for me and those I love, and for many people I know, not to mention all that is happening out in the world, which I will not comment on here.
It is natural perhaps to focus on those events that feel negative - illness, injury, loss - but I will not do that here. Some of you already know some of the details, others do not. In any case, with the benefit of that wonderful quality of hindsight I may well find that some of those bring hidden gifts along with the pain.
I drew this card, Resilience, for this newsletter, and I notice how striking the quality of resilience has been this year, whether my own or that of other people - and of aspects of nature too. This card is from the Dare to Blossom Rediscovery Cards No 2 Deck (click on the photo to find out more). I was amused by the irony of the two words of the year I chose at this time a year ago, Ease and Rest. My first response is to laugh, but when I consider for a moment I realise how important those two aspects of life have been. One of the lessons of the year has been just that - remembering to give myself time to rest,to be at ease.
Some of the highlights of 2025 for me have been hosting over seventy Zoom gatherings, with cards being drawn and Magic Carpet Ride visualisation journeys being taken. And sharing a word of the day in my two groups, Dare to Blossom into Joy, and The Wisdom of Wild Cornwall (find them on Facebook if you would like to join us).
I also began writing on Substack, where I shared a piece for each of the fifty cards in the Wisdom of Wild Cornwall Original Deck. I had intended then to compile those into a companion guide book, but the set-back of breaking my wrist at the end of August has restricted my ability to spend time writing on the computer. All in good time. I think I had just begun pieces for the No 2 deck, but since then I have only shared a few posts there - mostly these newsletters. If you enjoy Substack do come and follow me there, thank you.
II have appreciated my walks on the cliffs and beaches near my home here in North Cornwall as always - and even more after being unable to drive for the five weeks my wrist was in a cast. This photo was taken very recently on the cliffs up above Trevone.
Another very special event was the opportunity to spend just a few hours with my niece while she was visiting the UK from New Zealand. The 'store of hugs' we exchanged during our short and very precious time together have sustained me through all the hard events since then. We keep in touch through video calls which is very special too, and I also appreciate all the messages and emails from family and friends that add so much joy and love to my life. I can truly say I have never felt alone when I needed support even though very few of those people live close enough to meet in person. And I am so, so grateful to the kind neighbour who drove me to hospital several times.
Reflecting now, I feel that for me to sustain my resilience, taking rest and being at ease are two of the important things I can do for myself - despite my inherent inclination to feel I should always be busy doing something.
Reflections 2: Beauty and Love
This year I have chosen two words, Beauty and Love, which both have special meaning for me. I have decided to choose something different for these reflections during 2026. Just now I am playing with a few ideas, perhaps a quarterly card using the Compass Rose, at the Equinox and Solstice points, or something else altogether.
Beauty refers to the wonders of nature all around me. Even when I can't get out I can watch the birds on the feeders outside my window, and a walk around my garden always reveals hidden beauty, even if also highlighting lots of work to do as well. These camellias are just beginning to blossom now, with the two bushes covered in buds. One is pure white, and the other this gorgeous cream. We also have a small bush with pink blossoms that is yet to produce any flowers, maybe next year.
As for Love, my husband and I met in 1976 - fifty (fifty!) years ago. I think we first set eyes on each other in March, it had been a very warm and sunny spell (a precursor of the hot summer to come), and my friend and I had rather overdone the sunbathing (people were not so aware of 'sun safety' in those days). I seem to remember a comment being made that we looked like a pair of lobsters (not very romantic....).
In May 1976 I began working for Rick Stein (of the Seafood Restaurant) at the short-lived Great Western Hamburger Restaurant, which was popular with many locals as a place to socialise - the atmosphere was informal, often with live music, and the prices good. Dave was a lifeguard on one of the local beaches and as I only worked in the evenings I spent a lot of time there. The photo below was taken one evening after work.
We soon became a couple and when I left that autumn for a planned working holiday to Australia and New Zealand we soon realised that we were meant to be together. On my return we married in April 1977.
Despite all the ups and downs, health-wise for each of us, and in life in general - jobs, redundancies, the challenges of commercial fishing (and of being a fisherman's wife), and each being self-employed - here we are, still together, still arguing over silly things, still laughing together. With us each having health issues, it can very often take both of of us to accomplish the simplest of tasks and we are being made to slow down and take things slowly.
No one can predict the future (thank goodness, otherwise I am not sure how I could have faced 2025), so I am going to remember Ease and Rest from 2025 and add in Beauty and Love as I enter into 2026.
"Becoming You" - Taster circles and a new programme for 2026
The first run of the new format that arrived with me as an inspiration from wherever those things appear in my mind - became the True Essence eight week programme which was a truly wonderful and extraordinary experience.
Here is a testimonial from one of the participants, Susan Latchford:
"I’ve participated in a number of Mary’s Compass Rose programmes over the last few years and have always found them a unique way of exploring myself and my current situation in a safe environment, expertly facilitated and gently held. They are always transformative.
The True Essence Programme had an additional two weeks to the usual six: Deepening and Expanding. I appreciated the extra time and opportunity to peel back another layer, to delve beneath a surface as yet unexplored and then see what that felt like coming up again. This space between the in and out breath is truly liminal. I am always astonished at how the soft nature of the process belies its effectiveness in helping you to access your own wisdom, or reveal aspects of yourself that were previously unknown.
I would recommend a Compass Rose programme to anyone who is curious about their own self but particularly to those who are feeling stuck, confused and challenged."
(Susan is a talented fiction writer and I can highly recommend her trilogy, The Bloodsong Series, available from her publishing house, Gabansby Publishing).
The extra spaciousness allowing time to connect more deeply with each other, and with our own inner wisdom felt very special so now I am planning another eight week programme to open 2026: "Becoming You".
Unbecoming and Becoming will be the titles of the two extra weeks. Unbecoming after the week for East – Passion and Potential, an opportunity to let go, to choose which aspects to keep hold of and which to let slip away. The other extra week will follow Power, the South, where we remember nature’s powers and step into the power that is arising in us – and into Becoming what we now wish to be. A new year feels a perfect time to be letting go of the old, to focus on the most vital things in life just now.
'Becoming You' - simply signifies stepping into the next version of yourself. Unlike traditional New Year's Resolutions, which for me can feel forced and impossible to keep, I invite you to join me in a gentle exploration.
The word ‘unbecoming’ makes me smile. The sense of something being unbecoming in a rather traditional, old-fashioned sense of the word, as in unbecoming behaviour not being right or proper in polite society, not appropriate.
And, for me, that does fit too – sometimes I do not wish to be bound by those definitions of what is appropriate, maybe I want to become something quite different, to behave in ways not expected of the 73 years I have lived in this life. Another way of looking at 'growing old disgracefully' perhaps?
If you have not experienced one of my programmes before, I would like to reassure you that there is no pressure. No assignments, or challenges or deadlines. No expectations of any particular outcome. And perhaps paradoxically, people tell me they experience profound insights and transformations during these programmes.
So – this is where I am with this just now – more clarification will follow as I begin to write the descriptions for each of the eight weeks. The start date will be Monday 2nd February, with a private Facebook group opening the weekend before. There will be taster circles, on Tuesdays 6th January, 13th January, and 20th January, all at 2.30 pm UK time. Contact me by replying to this email for the Zoom links (or find the events on Facebook) and please know that you are welcome to come along to any or all of the tasters.
The fee is £224 for the eight weeks - and I know that the post-Christmas bills are a challenge and budgets are stretched, so there will be an easy-payment schedule if this would help you, along with the usual discount for anyone who has participated in previous programmes, and some discretionary rate places for those who would love to join us but do not have the funds just now.. Basically - if you know this is right for you, we can find a way to make it work financially for both of us, so do not hesitate to ask for a private chat to discuss.
Please do contact me if you have any thoughts on this programme or have any questions - and do come along to one or more of the taster sessions. There is absolutely no pressure to sign up, simply an invitation to spend a gentle hour together in a small group and experience a little of the magic we create together in the in-depth programmes.
If you are ready to book your place, contact me now to arrange payment in the way that suits you best. Bank transfer is good within the UK, and PayPal if you are elsewhere in the world.
Thank you for joining me here this month, any thoughts, feedback, or questions are always welcome. I wish you and yours a happy and healthy 2026.
