Stuff and story – personal reflection Nature as mentor

I am going to share a personal reflection on something that has really supported my journey and capacity to turn up authentically.

Ten years ago, someone asked me: Who are you in the forest? It wasn’t asking about my job, my achievements, or how others saw me... I read this to mean who am I… and what natural force resonates with me?

Newport Lakes

I considered birds, carrying seeds and connecting distant places… Mother trees, nourishing the forest network. Water, flowing and shaping everything it touches. Sun and stars, radiating energy.

But none of them stuck.

Not until I was walking and thinking about this question building a regenerative development course at Melbourne Uni and I was writing about biomimicry and thought about mycelium. Something clicked into place. There was resonance and recognition… I had found my metaphor.

Newport Lakes this morning.

Mycelium doesn’t advertise itself. It works in darkness, underground, mostly invisible; yet powerful, enabling and building in the forest. This single realisation explained so much about me that no personality assessment ever had, no mentor, no coach.

The beauty of mycelium, as I understand it, is that it is mainly underground building filaments that support the structure and nutrient flow through the forest. It literally helps the depth of the forest grow.

“Plant–mycorrhizal associations enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, mitigating the negative impacts of forest degradation… Incorporating mycorrhizal diversity in forest restoration strengthens resilience and supports the development of multifunctional, stable forest ecosystems.” (Li et al., 2025)

BUT it also pops up as a beautiful mushroom... the fruiting bodies that briefly push through soil to spread spores before retreating underground. That is me too. I can present and be on stage, hold space and share. I can be in the spotlight. But afterwards when I should be networking, and answering questions, being the person that leverages the spotlight… I retreat… I say the wrong thing. It is so interesting to have a model to use to understand my nature.

Now I know it isn’t a limitation. It’s my design. Now that I understand this about myself, I will try to exit gracefully and not force myself to linger in conversations after presentations, exhausted and unable to string words together.

Newport lakes this morning.

How this has helped me make decisions

I was walking around Newport Lakes feeling conflicted about someone I wanted to support, but they needed an entrepreneur who could raise money, to do the hustle.

That wasn’t me.

Reflecting on some mushrooms and remembering that they have only just started appearing I realised… Mycelium isn’t a colonising species, it appears where conditions allow, where there’s already a foundation. I work best supporting and strengthening existing systems. Moving them from early development to more stable and resilient, complex and holistic. Having the realisation gave me the mental frame to understand myself and to say “no”.

Thank you, mycelium, for teaching me that my gifts are different: building relationships, nurturing potential, connecting people, enabling others to thrive. I stabilise systems so they can flourish.

Now it is your turn - who are you in the forest? Or river? Or farm? Or ocean? What calls to you and asks let’s learn together.

Reference

Li, T., Phillips, R. P., Rillig, M. C., Bonfante, P., Eisenhauer, N., & Liu, Z. (2025). Mycorrhizal allies: synergizing forest carbon and multifunctional restoration. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 40(10), 983–994.