Human to Human

Some of the journey that had me hosting with labour educators in Port Elgin, Ontario, with Berkana friends in NY, AoH in Arnprior, a trip with my boy Isaac to Indianapolis, and moving… The most current on top — the oldest on the bottom.

– Today a new sun rises for me; everything lives, everything is animated… everything invites me to cherish it. Anne de Lenclos French Author

– Story is data with with a soul. Brene Brown, Researcher – Storyteller.

– Working in Utah, imagining a nonprofit to support local artists at next level. Moving from intellectual diversion to cultural investigators.

– Moving Day — From the Pleasant Springs apartment home of the last 18 months to a town home in Lindon. New adventure beginning.

– Settling in to 17 days in Utah after being on the road for 5 weeks. Moving too. Lunch with my daughter. And readying for UT Artists Thriving

– Just toured Indy Motor Speedway with Isaac, including a lap on the track. 100 year old track, built first on brick. Seats 250,000!

– Start with purpose and real intention (accessed through diverse voices) that is clear enough to hold an unfolding of the rest. #AoHArnprior

– With D Durham: Through interaction, we create a center, a hearth of possibility. The warmth is felt through the fire of people’s actions.

– Sweet closing circle. From the belly, promises, declarations, requests, and appreciations. Baricate! #AoHArnprior

– Knowledge Camp: Chaordic Stones Chris; Callings Jean; Theory U Jane; Harvesting and Appreciative Inquiry Tenn & Kathleen. #AoHArnprior

– Checkin with OH cards. Deep places. Provocative words and cards as symbols that offer us ways to project ourselves. #AoHArnprior

– Celebrations. Song. Stories. Music. Poetry. Community enjoying itself in such sweet ways. #AoHArnprior

– The Art of Hosting is the art of getting to places we need to go. And the only way out is through. Chris @ #AoHArnprior

– Lots of laughter as people call sessions in Open Space. The community has arrived! I went with Jean to support an Ottawa CoP. #AoHArnprior

– RT @inlifeawareness: The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new. ~Pema Chodron

– Fantastic cafe on what we as hosts do to prepare the ground for effective and engaging processes. Fishbowl harvest. Really good #AoHArnprior

– Deep circle to open the day. An invitation to share where you are. A witnessing of many deep shifts and much cracking open. #AoHArnprior

– With global vibration changing, attuning and recalibrating is only natural. Good for learning together. Sharing over breakfast. #AoHArnprior

– Sir Ken Robinson on Changing Education Paradigms. 12 minutes of bigger picture. Just watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

– Night walk, 11 of us, along the Ottawa River and into old grown pine. Silent. Good spacing between. Solo and group. #AoHArnprior

– Watched “The Age of Stupid” — Powerful documentary on realities of consumerism, peak oil, post carbon possibilities. #AoHArnprior

– Open Space Sessions. I called “Starting and Nurturing a CoP.” Networks bring us together. CoP grow from shared practice. #AoHArnprior

– Chaordic Path through improv. The 2 loops, emergence at scale roles, leadership acts, well-placed conversations. #AoHArnprior

– Check in with circle dance (Tenneson), followed by Resonant Voice work — the head, the heart, the belly (Jane). #AoHArnprior

– AoH is many practices, none of which is the Art of Hosting as a whole. Just like steaming is not the art of cooking. Chris at #AoHArnprior

– Waste is one of the most abundant resources we have. Aerin Dunford on Upcycling at #BerkanaWTW.

– #AoHArnprior — A good start tonight. Cafe on qualities of life-affirming experiences that can guide us as we explore the next three days.

– #BerkanaWTW: very inspired by Berkana family. Very clear on commitments and offerings. Easy in my breath. Feeling a web beautifully alive.

– #berkanawtw – opening circle: “I want to serve well in places that serve me too.”

– Great day on the Bashakill north of NYC. Kayaking, hiking. Bald Eagles, Loons, otters.

– Groan Zone Learnings — Friendship might be the only thing that can be offered, and protection of space so that learning can happen.

Twitter: TennesonWoolf

A bit of harvest from our local monthly Practitioners Circle, hosted by Jennifer Hamilton and Glen Brown. Jennifer offered the harvest and links below.

To the Practitioner Circle in SLC – It was such a treat to co-host with Glen Brown at our last Practitioner’s Circle to gain support, feedback, and referrals for launching a HUB in SLC.

We opened the circle with the following question…
“Have you experienced an open co-working space? If so, how did it feel, sound, look and how did it affect your work, life, and play?…If not, how do you imagine an open co-working space to feel, sound, look…etc”

Here are some of the responses…
“It feels like a walkable community within a building, an interweaving/merging/layering of industry”
“Enhances the creativity of everyone”
“I see the Hub being a shining example for the SLC community..”
“Joy in sharing = less isolation = less burn out”
“Natural Materials, chimes, mobiles, warm lighting”
“Living Building which honors connection in an urban environment”
“Collective Ownership & Understanding”
“Hip, Innovative, Alive”
The HUB website was projected on the wall and we got to virtually visit the other Hubs around the world… HUB Milan and HUB Amsterdam were some favorites!
After a small break, thank you Glen for providing yummy Pad Tai wraps for everyone, we returned to discuss the Pros and Cons of launching a HUB in SLC. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of a HUB SLC!!! (I will provide photos soon).
With the information gathered I created the attached proposal for a HUB in SLC… which I then sent to several of the referrals give to me during the Practitioner’s Circle. And WOW!! Everyone is LOVING the idea!!
Full Harvest with Next Steps Underway
HUB SLC Proposal

Our next Practitioners Circle will be November 18th (third Thursday evening, 7:00 – 9:00).

Dialogue poems are one way to harvest. There are a growing number of us that are catching the words spoken in circle, and with a bit of jazz-like play with them, turning them into poems written by the group. It is quite a thing for people to hear themselves through captured words and integrated images. This week at Arnprior AoH, Chris Corrigan, Esther van Gennip and I each offered some of this. For Esther, I think they were her first — and it was total standing ovation!

Here is the one that I harvested. It was some sharing from participants after being hosted by Jane Lindsay on the work, developed by the ADIEWA Centre, of finding our deep, grounded, belly voices — resonant voices.

And with thanks to Lorraine for her encouragement to me to further share harvest through audio files.

The written text is also below. Or download it here.

Additional Harvest
– a few of my photos (my favorite, Harvest Faces from an OS group)
–photo collection / movie (Diane King)
-Esther’s dialogue poem from a cafe on Preparing the Ground
-Esther’s dialogue poem from a closing circle on commitments and declarations, Hobbits Rising

 

 

Last week I co-hosted a Berkana gathering, “Weaving the Web.” Held in upstate New York, near Rosendale, this was a gathering of immensely inspiring people from around the world, each part of initiatives connected into the Berkana family. Manish and Reva from India and Swaraj, a progressive university of unlearning. Jackie from Zimbabwe’s Kufunda Learning Village. Edgard from Brazil. Mabule and Nomundi from Southern Africa. The Berkana Board. Art of Hosting and Berkana Exchange colleagues and friends. It was for me, overall, a place of coming home. It was a place of deep ease and appreciation. It leaves me remembering a deep sense of belonging that I feel with Berkana.

One of the learnings for me in this time was a few next levels on communities of practice that are feeling particularly helpful now. A bit on the “what” of that follows. The “why” is easy to seen in many places. People are yearning to form into more deliberate groups with ability to improve them and offer themselves in a way that is helpful. It was so true working earlier this month with labour educators and the Canadian Labour Congress. It is apparent working with participants this week in Arnprior at the Art of Hosting.

The what…

-With Aerin Dunford and others during an open space session on some of the differences between networks and communities of practice. We were talking about how the term “communities of practice” sometimes feels prematurely imposed on a group that, though they may want to become a more deliberate community, aren’t. Communities of Practice agree to particular steps, sometimes very simple, that are shared and practiced (implemented, expressed) by the group. Our example that we spoke of in South Africa was one of parenting. You can form a group of people who are committed to parenting. This is important work, connecting in to a network and building relationships. But Communities of Practice agree to particular steps together — in parenting, to be together at particular times of the week. And then, they agree to return together to share their learning, experience, stories, and in so doing, discover next shared practices.
-As many of us are now teaching with a model that grounds Berkana work, there are key leadership acts. Naming pioneers. Connecting in networks. Nurturing communities of practice. Illuminating systems of influence. The leadership act is to help the group begin. To host and participate in conversations that help a group choose its minimal steps together. For example, in my local practitioners circle we agree to three things: 1) meeting in circle once a month for two hours, 2) the focus of each gathering is on applied use of participative leadership in a project, and 3) we harvest and share our learning.

Gratitude to Berkana friends.