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BE PART OF THE LEGACY

TAMPA BAY • FEBRUARY 23-24 2026

This FINAL encore experience will be unlike any other. Because like everything we do, it's been "reimagined" from beginning to end. It's not a virtual or hybrid event. It's not a conference. It's not a seminar, a workshop, a meeting, or a symposium. And it's not your typical run-of-the-mill everyday event crammed with stages, keynote speeches, team-building exercises, PowerPoint presentations, and all the other conventional humdrum. Because it's up close & personal by design. Where conversation trumps presentation. And where authentic connection runs deep.

Dance with the Desert

Dancing in the desert, whirling swirling, insane
Inside a spiral cone of sand, arms chopping wildly about
Dry timidity heats the day, then shies away from night
Mutinous, shifting mountains underneath,
Draw along the pathways of my feet

No-one understands the currents of the sea
Or of the deserts, both the same to me
Naked, scoured clean in the desert
Sharp rocks and interlude

Open, reactive and alert to sound, high and low
Rustles, chirpings, breeze through cactus leaves.
Be gentle and quiet with me, bathe me
Let me speak with the desert
To find sleep and rapture there

How old is your soul?
And what has it learned?
White, vapour skies above the desert say
“The truth is simple and always remains the same”.

When all is said and done
Doesn’t matter who says it and never did,
So many names- names are such silly things
And often not remembered

“Love, compassion, care of life, words and deeds of Peace
Reaching out and looking upwards to aspire
As well as inside to learn the secret ladder there
Heal and be kind to other creatures
Without regard for their stings or bites
Though sometimes these are hard to do

Feel my heart as it beats to the desert’s chime
I am the dancer and shall always be
The fierce heat, the blood from my arms and feet
Running also from my wrists
Has long stained the desert floor

Blue inky nights, a million diamond pinprick stars light up the sky
Snakes and shiny scorpions
Both black and brown dwell in the desert too
Crystals dance, out of their minds
Alongside the dry white bones
Which are scatted far and wide
All of this with a single purpose-rain

We shall, one day bring rains to the desert
For below its dryness there awaits a deep lake to fill
This is our task, to fill the lake and flood the earth
Then cause it to spring forth with fresh, green grain
And other, strange new forms of life abounding
Searching, reaching, questioning all
And this poem shall be the spell to release that ancient call

Ian Hale Ph.D
Ian Hale Ph.D
I am Dr Ian Hale, from the historic City and County of Bristol in England. I am a member of British Mensa, The Athenian Society, the Accademia Costantiniana and a graduate of Portsmouth, Bristol and Bath Spa Universities. I have severe Asperger’s Syndrome, PTSD and an IQ of 170, which present both complex rewards and equally complex problems. I am a keen cat, book, sports (especially watersports) and photography lover who is best known as a world authority, speaker, podcaster, and senior consultant for Autism, being the author of the highly-praised Asperger’s, Autism and You (IFERS, Beverley Hills, Ca 2018), Amazon, iTunes etc. I’ve been writing poetry from about the age of nine and have received many awards, the most prestigious ones in 2011 from the annual International arts competition organized by the historic National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW) (Founded in 1897) where I won the maximum of three prizes. I am an award-winning member of the United Poets Laureate International (UPLI)-the World governing organization of Poetry of 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 “Poet of the Month” Winner.

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3 CONVERSATIONS

  1. This is breathtaking– a journey into the soul of the desert. Taos speaks to me in the same way, and the sky is so enormous you can feel your ordinary personality empty out into it, until you are left with the sense of being the most subtle presence, a container for the life around you. Ian, you might like to know about my friend Mary Reynolds Thompson who is doing work on the desert as an archetype. I shall surely show your poem to her, as she’s finishing a book on five landscapes and how they affect our spiritual and psychological development. Her theme is “untame your story — rewild your life.” And that is what you’ve done so beautifully here. https://www.maryreynoldsthompson.com/
    Looking forward to more of your posts.

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