What began as a quest to become a better educational leader (more efficient, organized, decisive) in order to support wholism in the K–12 education system, slowly morphed into a practice of being a more awake and whole human. A hermeneutic question offered by Moules et al. (2015) was the impetus for me to stop searching outside of myself and begin listening within. They described a hermeneutic exploration as one of self-understanding that “involves seeing what is possible in a situation for me, what concrete possibilities are available for action, given who I am, given where I am, and given what I am encountering” (p. 26) in particular situations. I came to recognize leading is offered in response to needs arising in particular contexts and is dependent on who I am, how I am, and where I am. Leading is a deeply personal and relational way of being. By engaging with Indigenous teachings of wholism and land, contemplative practices such as meditation and time within natural places, and year-long Compassionate Systems Leadership Master Practitioner Training, my understanding of the habitual, comfortable, and rewarded busyness I had been practising transformed. Within the context of working with children, educators, and families, I began writing short vignettes based on stop moments (Applebaum, 1995; Fels, 2012), initially as a way of capturing what might later become useful in my scholarship. Instead, these writings became my site of inquiry (in-query) and learning. Each vignette contained a description of a stop moment, a related quote, and photograph. Over time, this life writing became an emergent methodology for slowing, noticing, seeing, and understanding. I unfurled within these practices, finding voice through life writing and developing capacity to see through an arts-informed and arts-based practice of photography. I searched for nature scenes to complement my writing and in so doing, land became the impetus for writing. Natural kin and kinship became my teachers. Leading is not indicated by title or role; it is everyone’s responsibility. In order to become response-able we must undertake the process of becoming whole humans, attuned to the interconnected ecosystems of being in which we dwell.