Heart Songs 2 - July 2026
- Jul 21
- 11 min read
Updated: Jul 23
The Hague Center team welcomes you to share in our stories from the heart of our practice.
Left to right: Lisette Schuitemaker - long time friend and supporter of THC, Anita Floris (Board), Natascha van den Ban, Marriane de Jager (Board),
Anne-Marie Voorhoeve (Co-founder), Pieter Wackers, Diana Claire Douglas.
( Not shown from core team and board: Alicia Stammer, Haseena Patel, Henry Mentink (Board), Kara Stonehouse
And from the THC co-creative collective: Aansan Yee, Adrian Iacobus, Anna Freedman, Mona Rabie, Rodrigo Martinez Romero)
This is a sacred virtual space filled with Heart Songs from The Hague Center Team - themes and experiences that make our hearts sing, guidance on the path. This journey is a shared one, and we all contribute to the weaving of the Golden Thread that makes its way through our lives - to YOU, reading this, thank you for being with us..
With Love,
Anne- Marie Voorhoeve, co-founder and Integral Alignment Steward,The Hague Center
Topics
One of my best friends in the 1960s was Winnie-the-Pooh. What I love about him is the way he feels free to break the normal logic. That resonated because I often did that myself, in order to make sense of the changing environments we lived in (Dutch, Arab, British, Chinese Malaysian, American).
According to Benjamin Hoff, author of The Tao of Pooh, Pooh is following Taoïsm.
Anyway, reading Pooh helps me in this new reality I find myself in - this alchemical journey of healing of cancer.
Being a patient in the Netherlands in the medical system that works counter intuitively for me, breaking down so much of the body's healing capacity in order to strengthen it in the end ... It's tough. And I acknowledge and comply with the “Yes” to treatment that I and we as family have given, supported by integral holistic treatment.
In general I am doing okay, coping with the weekly treatments.
I have come to learn that my journey has to do with a systemic re-balancing of former lives. What this entails … well, the Pooh Way is to not ask about this process and to focus on finding the Honey... which for me stands for the Joy of Life itself. And trust that healing will unfold in ways I cannot even imagine.
And so I find myself regularly with our dog and cat outside around our house in nature, in awe of its beauty, with fruits, flowers, roses, songs of the birds, Dutch skies and a little Zumba now and then ... and inside: in a few of those emergent zoom conversations with some of you, that expands the love in my heart even more …
Some topics we touch upon are described in these HeartSongs, while others are jewels I cherish... and all ... well, as Pooh would say: It is the same thing as enjoying honey!
In gratitude and love, Anne-Marie
The pulse from the core team
HONOURING ERVIN LASZLO
The Club of Budapest International Network gathering, Budapest July 2017
We take this opportunity to honour Ervin László, who passed on from this life on 29 June 2026. For many years Anne-Marie and Ervin worked together in different contexts for a “global shift” toward a more peaceful, equitable, and sustainable world. With Pieter Wackers and THC she supported the Club of Budapest. We honour Ervin’s evolutionary contribution to the world and his contribution to the many lives he personally touched. Our world is richer for having had his wisdom and now for his legacy which will live on through his many books, the Club and the László Institute of New Paradigm Research.
In the words of dear Carita and the family, “Together, may we all strengthen the field of love and coherence that surrounds, supports, and transports him on and beyond this mortal life.”
SOULS IN ROLES IN RESONANCE
Integrity at the Center
By Anita Floris
Our team has been enlivened by our explorations of using sociocracy lightly in conscious governance, while sensing and listening deeply to the spirit of The Hague Center as our primary guide. We took time and care to define and practice the roles in our organ’isation. Last Heartsong we explored the Energetic Wellbeing Tenders Role. This time it's about the Integrity Guardian.
My name is Anita Floris and I have stepped into the role of Integrity Guardian of THC chosen with a sociocratic nomination process. It is so interesting to notice that by having accepted this role, it has empowered me to intervene when questions around integrity arise in me. Would I otherwise perhaps ignore or park these question marks, now they alert me to my responsibility. I am not a ‘medler’, but I have been given permission to ask, to take a pause from everything that is going on and reflect on where we stand. It is a beautiful opportunity to make use of the skills I have been trained in and the sensitivities I have that I can now bring into the service of our cocreative collective. This is a role that is close to my heart and I feel truly called to do.
In THC we have agreed on purpose and principles and hold them high. We have our own personal integrity and interior experiences, they don’t stand alone, we are embedded in the culture around us, including our volunteers, supporters, partners, grant givers and so on, with specific requirements and legal obligations. Are we sure these are aligned? Do our actions reflect that?
We appreciate that we all do our best to show up and contribute to THC, and that sometimes we have blind spots and slip up, and these need to be addressed. Part of our commitments and practices are that we all contribute to be open, to look into our actions and motives and to create a supportive and loving environment that enables us to be open to both receiving challenges and giving them.
As Integrity Officer I might take the lead, or I support others in having a compassionate conversation. Central to our inquiry is always to support opening our awareness, our growing insights and development, and strengthen our integrity.
We all feel that we can help evolve the power of conscious governance by practicing it in real life, together. It means we make the moves and do the hard learning that makes the difference in how we evolve.
Integrity GuardianRole Holder: Anita Floris (1 December 2025) Purpose: Sensing and safeguarding integral alignment with ethics, and also legal requirements Accountabilities:
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By Diana Claire Douglas
Inspired by our love for All-Life, THC.FI, co-founded by Anne-Marie and Diana Claire is a holon of The Hague Center for Global Governance, Innovation and Emergence. It is a Center for deep inquiry into big questions using an experiential and embodied practice we call Constellating for the Collective (C4C) - a branch of Systemic Constellation Work (SCW).
C4C is a creative process with many options for how we find the question or issue to be explored, name the elements of the system, map the system of elements, listen to the messages from the Field, and gather insights from the process. Our explorations are in service of the Whole.
As a facilitator of Constellating for the Collective, I appreciate Bert Hellinger’s “discovery” through phenomenological experiments, of two things that distinguish SCW from other processes: 1. There is a Knowing Field, a sacred container within which we can explore and experiment. 2. As human beings we have the ability to tune into the Knowing Field - we are the antennae receiving and broadcasting information and energy from the Knowing Field. This is Representative Perception.
Representative Perception is shifting from thinking, imagining, and intuiting to in-forming and sensing. Although this is our natural state most of us learned to shut down this awareness. Developing Representative Perception is one of several benefits of participating in Constellating for the Collective sessions.
To learn more (link to full article) What is Representing?
As Ervin Laszlo said to the Constellation Community, “The 'new' paradigm, where everything in this universe is eternally connected with everything else, opens the door to an entirely new possibility of understanding Representative Perception and where the concept of the 'Knowing Field' or the 'Akashic Field' makes sense.”
Constellating for the Collective is an experiential process. The Knowing Field welcomes you to try it out!
THC.FI offers Constellating for the Collective facilitation for individuals and groups who wish to explore deep questions. Diana Claire Douglas is author of Whole Systems Design: Inquiries in the Knowing Field (a manual on facilitating Collective Constellations) and can be contacted here for inquiries about Constellating for the Collective.
Artists Catalyzing Evolution - Sacred space we call home.
By Kara Stonehouse
As part of the evolutionary leaders, I have been a member of the Artists Catalyzing Evolution (ACE) monthly meeting for several years. This space has grown into an intimate, safe container where we all feel held with so much love and divine devotion, where prayer sweeps us up and holds us, where pain is allowed space and healing happens. Recently, we experienced a particularly rich session, where we shared about our experiences with our loved ones contemplating birth and death and new birth giving hope to those near death. We explored how dialoguing with family members about our feelings and desires around death can be so healing. Many shared how the Graceful Passages audio by Gary Malkin has been a balm as the sound track to these tender moments.
The Ace synergy circle is excited to be building the ACE Gallery, hosted by Julie Krull within the collaborative Connection Field in Mighty Networks. Here is a sneak peak of a post from ACE member and Poet Charles Gibbs.
As part of that, I have shared a Love Organized art gallery. Join the Connection Field Mighty Network to check it out!! You can find there a link to my TEDx talk “BECOMING LOVE ORGANIZED “ which launched on May 28th for my birthday with an absolutely beautiful party blessed by the singing of Tatiana Speed! I am very much enjoying practicing artful distributed leadership with the Love Organized project team and Guardians. It is a joy bringing my voice and art into my mission for new governance and finance systems. We would love your involvement and support at www.loveorganized.com
Reflections from the Holomovement Wave in Portugal May 28th - June 2nd
By Kara Stonehouse
The Wave was a time of beauty. The music and production were truly divine and a young, enthusiastic crowd was highly engaged in the event. We started with a breath work journey, improvised music in the evenings with the amazing duo Jurgis and Amikayla and many others. The new Holos networking app is very inviting. Hats off to the team! I was honoured to graphic record and be a full part of this sensational event. My highlight was the Ocean Bloom presentation of a diver with deep patience and presence telling touching video stories of extraordinary encounters with whales. Lynne Twist was a gem as expected and Lynne McTaggart Power of 8 was excellent again. The transformation stories she tells are so clear and convincing. She shows crime reducing 40% in intention experiments with just 10 minutes of group intention over 6 days.
On the Activation Day - the breakout groups had exceptional synergy and energy. A tech collaboration project emerged called Trust Flow that is continuing very well.
I can feel our movement maturing and cohering into a whole body capable of the transformation we dream of!!
World Peace Forum 2025
Video for 14th Luxembourg Peace Prize event
By Haseena Patel
The 14th Luxembourg Peace Prize event, an initiative of the Schengen Peace Foundation, took place on June 19th. (The World Peace Forum is also an initiative of the Schengen Peace Foundation). This is an event that Anne-Marie, as Laureate of the prize, and organiser of World Peace Forum 2025 South Africa, would have attended and spoken at. To convey her message, we created this short video about last year’s World Peace Forum as organised by THC and partners. In the photo above, President of the Schengen Peace Foundation, Vicki Hansen, presents the Luxembourg Peace Prize for Outstanding Peace Process to Janet Jobson, CEO of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, to honour Archbishop Tutu posthumously at the 2025 Forum in Cape Town.
Reflections from World Unity Week 2026: A New Beginning
June 21-28
By Kara Stonehouse & Haseena Patel
For the seventh time, we co-produced World Unity Week with Unity Earth and SINE Network. It was a lovely, coherent gathering with a mixture of larger events planned by the organizers and open slots for the community to bring their voices forward in Room ONE. Hubcast Media professionally produced daily Feature sessions for UETV. All replays are available: https://unity.earth/world-unity-week-2026-uetv/ Some noteworthy sessions from The Hague Center were the session on Doing Peace Differently with Jay Naidoo from South Africa, Bridging Continents, and the Commons Economics session with Hunter Lovins and a panel of next generation economics builders.
Ben Bowler shared a rich reflection on WUW 2026, noticing we all enter the Big Tent from different doors of perception and language. We keep and honour our diversity as we discover and celebrate our Unity. https://unity.earth/the-great-tent/
There was a core group of 10-20 people among the 100+ attendees, who seemed to attend every single session, especially co-producer Shawnda Clawson of the Earth Mother Network was the queen busy bee, spreading love, care and deep presence in each session. We honoured her and the women holding space of World Unity Week with a hand created watercolour painting and hand written notes of appreciation.
As we all continue our missions and witness acts of compassion as we journey together over the 99 days of Peace through Unity taking us to Peace Week in September, we are reminded to report on all the great work we do to make it visible on the Compassion Games website.
Thanks for all the sweet nectar of World Unity Week!
Global Mayors Academy Launch
By Pieter Wackers
THC is proud to be a co-founding partner in Living Cities Earth, where we continue the work on cities and ecoregions we’ve been doing together with Integral City for more than a decade. Living Cities Earth is a growing ecosystem of people and projects united by the idea of cities as living systems — a field where researchers, practitioners, and dreamers of a different kind of urban life have found each other and begun weaving their work together. Our goal has always been to bring it into action, to let this vision take root in real cities and real lives.
That's how the Global Mayors Academy came to be, with its City Leaders Program — a six-month journey for city leaders (not just mayors) in small and medium-sized cities, combining learning with real projects in their own cities. So much of humanity lives in these cities, and if we can help city leaders make their cities a better place to live, and at the same time plant some seeds of unity and interconnectedness, this could be a very strong acupuncture point.
Alongside the City Leaders Program there is a shorter program on leadership maturity, and we're happy to share that the next one will be in person, in Amsterdam, July 25–26. We'd love to see you there — you can find more and register at
GMA Meeting with Mathias Müller, mayor of Lichtensteig - Switzerland
Haseena, co-founder of Leave No Girl Behind International, is co-creator of the I Woman Rise Leadership Accelerator - a 12-week, heart-centred, global, life-centric program for women to UN-Become who they are not and live the truth of who they are, creating the world they dream about, from the inside out. To get a taste of the program, join us for a free 2 hour Live Virtual Experience on August 22, 2026 at 4pm CET.
Peace Week Sept 21st - September will be here before we know it!! Would you like to be featured in Peace Week this year in a THC hosted panel discussion? Reach out to Kara@thehaguecenter.org or Haseena@thehaguecenter.org to coordinate.
The Hague Center is partnering to promote the ORIGIN festival October 17th 2026.
This fits well with our World Peace Forum work in South Africa and Solstice Unites activities in New York City https://ourorigin.earth/
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