Stories from Real People
Without Barriers is a collaborative charitable book project exploring the barriers people encounter in different parts of life, and the creative, unexpected and sometimes wonderfully ordinary ways people find to participate, belong and flourish anyway.
The first book is:
Nature Without Barriers
Real Stories of Connection, Belonging and the Practice of Flourishing
Nature means something different to all of us.
For some people, it might be a woodland walk, a garden, wildlife on the doorstep or an afternoon outdoors. For others, connecting with nature may require creativity, adaptation, support or finding a completely different way of doing things.
Nature Without Barriers will bring together real stories from people who experience, enjoy and connect with nature in very different ways.
The aim isn’t to create a checklist of barriers or to tell people how they should experience nature.
It’s about listening to people’s stories.
What gets in the way? What helps? What have people discovered along the way? And what does it mean to find a way to participate, belong and flourish on your own terms?
A collaborative project
I’m currently beginning conversations with potential contributors, organisations and people who might help open doors to stories and perspectives that deserve to be heard.
Contributors won’t be expected to fit a particular mould. Some may have encountered obvious barriers to accessing nature; others may have found creative ways around less visible barriers. Some stories may be about disability or health, while others may explore access, identity, circumstance, confidence, belonging or simply finding a way of connecting with nature that works for that individual.
The important thing is the story.
This is intended to be a genuinely collaborative project, bringing together a diverse range of experiences rather than a collection of predictable voices.
The book is currently being developed for publication in 2027, with proceeds donated to a relevant charity.
Nobody – including myself – will be paid to or charged to contribute.
And then…
I’ve realised that Nature Without Barriers may be the beginning rather than the end.
The idea has grown into a wider Without Barriers series exploring participation, belonging and flourishing across different parts of life.
I’m keeping some of those ideas under my hat for now!
There is a lot more to come.
Interested?
If you have a story you might like to share, know someone whose perspective deserves to be heard, or work with a community or organisation that could help connect the project with people, I’d love to hear from you. Please email care@nourishflourishuk.com
There is no obligation to commit to anything at this stage. I’m simply beginning conversations and seeing where they lead.
Notice more. Exhale often. Flourish, wild ones.