There’s a cuckoo singing outside my home office window right now.
It started a few weeks ago – as April tipped into May - and it's been an oddly comforting sound in our lovely spell of find weather. Every time I hear that two-note call, I find myself wondering: How does he know to do that?
Cuckoos are raised by other birds. The chick never meets its parents. Nobody teaches it to "cuckoo." There’s no school for it, no mentor, no role model. And yet, every year, at the same time, the call rings out – clear, certain, unmistakable.
I admire that the cuckoo (despite its less-than-honourable lifestyle!) knows one thing for sure: that its voice is already within it. No need to learn it or earn it. Just the instinct to show up and sing.
I choose a lesson in that. A lesson about instinct, about voice, about trusting that we already hold what we need - even if we don’t always know where it came from or how it landed in us.
That’s a theme that runs through a few things I’m sharing this month - including stepping once again into the role of Sustainable Track Advisor for World Travel Market London 2025 (a bit intimidating in my first year, mostly thrilling this year), reflections on what makes events great, and a little cheat sheet that might help with your own next event.
I’m also including a few quotes that celebrate the power of conversation - something I’ve come to see as one of the most regenerative acts we can engage in.
So, here’s to May. Here's to gut instinct, to finding and owning our voice, and to trusting that we will do the right thing with it!
Beir bua,
