wildflowers was chosen as our work group name by Vashima Goyal, a gifted pedagogist and dear friend, who had reached out to me, during the early months of my recrafting the work for Bilberries Blue.
We had travelled to Ipoh, my hometown, together without a plan. I think in a way, it was a very special customised and privileged EduRetreat for me. The epic moment was when we were at Moonriver Lodge and she started calling out, “PEK, you did it, you turned on the stars!” I went, “No, I didn’t. They have always been there.” And then later, I understood what I did. I had gone around the Lodge systematically turning off the human generated lights. Two fireflies popped up. And a whole sky full of stars and the Milky Way greeted us!
Vashima and I were dancing in the moonlight, with our own shadows. And then we went and woke up our dear friend, Himal. At midnight, she stumbled out of bed, and muttered under her breath, “You mad-hatters.” But she got up, and joined us at the swings, and we all watched our own moonlight shadows, and wondered, in awe, in silence, in togetherness.
We subsequently met on a Wednesday evening, what we call our moonlight shadow gathering. To brainstorm. I don’t really know about what. But that’s what we like to do to our brains. To brainstorm it. So Vashima compassionately and skilfully navigated us out of our seriously severe serious tendencies, and reminded us of laughter.
Ken & Jainee joined us and something really, really popped between and amongst us.
So we played and wondered instead. Instead of the work mindset, with concepts and strategies and workplans. We talked. Shared our hearts. And were courageously supporting each other and being vulnerable in open explorations. Old woundedness surface, and healed. And old dreams started to peek out of hiding.
And so, wildflowers was birthed. An accidental work group, because, in under one week of our surprise, unplanned, unscheduled, unstrategised encounter, we were able to birth and commit to everything that is in our hearts. Our longings for good work that we had buried, without even knowing we had done it. I learnt something very precious. Until we find friends who believe in and along with us, can our dreams truly come into fruition.
The following is the flowering garden of wildflowers. May we water each other’s dreams graciously, tenderly and with great care, love, attention, respect, and great, great humour and laughter:
The Strangest Encounter Inside This White Cube
The Silent Dancer in a Pregnant Pause
The Inclusive Workplace. This longing birthed Transitions.
The Inclusive Spoken Word & Musical Theatre
Peng-Ean Khoo
Co-founder,
Bilberries Blue Pte Ltd
Bilberries Blue 