The Impact of Context

Every morning this past week, on my walk to connect with my local island and the ocean, I’ve passed two small children’s sunhats. Each one must have been dropped unnoticed. And on two separate days, in two different places, someone picked them up and placed them carefully on a bush and a post—visible, safe, waiting to be reclaimed.

What has struck me is not the hats themselves, but what has happened since.

For a full week, dozens of people must have walked past them. No one has taken them. No one has tossed them aside. They’ve simply been left there - left in place by a kind of quiet, collective respect.

It’s such an ordinary thing. And yet it feels extraordinary.

A small, everyday expression of the context I live in: honesty, safety, care, and a gentle regard for what belongs to someone else. I’ve felt unexpectedly moved by that. Proud, even.

And the contrast with the wider world right now—its turbulence, its fractures—has been sitting with me too.

It reminded me how much context shapes us and our stories about ourselves and others. How much we draw on the environments we inhabit. And how, in times like these, the steady, respectful presence of coaches matters deeply.

We are often the ones holding a space that is safe enough, caring enough, and spacious enough for others to think, feel, and find their way – their story.

And for coaches, supervision can be that same kind of space—a place to reflect, replenish, and stay connected to the best of who we are and how we work.

Where is your safe, caring, and respectful space - the one that helps you stay connected to the story you want to live and work from?

One that leans more into story, metaphor, and meaning‑making, while still keeping the tone gentle, grounded, and reflective.