Below is an email from hosting mate, Tim Merry, reflecting on the deeper questions of structure. They come from a Berkana Board call. Tim shifts them to the Art of Hosting community. They are good for many places, particularly given the pattern of looking to structure first. I remember from some of my grad school studies — form follows function. These questions from Tim and others takes this to another new level for me. I am particularly interested in how structure grows out of relationship to enable us to face the next in uncertainty.
Some thoughts coming out of a call I just had with the Berkana Board – to seed our stewards conversations in June …
These times call us into living with, and coming to terms with, uncertainty.
What if the hunger for form and structure in the Art of Hosting community was just us clinging to something concrete in the journey to uncertainty?
What if form and structure was not the conversation to be in?
What if form does not arise when we focus on it – but only as bi-product of our relationships and co-practice?
It is our relationships which allow us to survive uncertainty. Turning to one another.
Form comes and goes – the seed is different from to the flower, yet the flower is in the seed. What if this was about how we move through forms that emerge as part of the path rather than what forms we create?
How can we be together beyond any attachment to form and enter the painful and potent ongoing life cycle letting go and letting come?
What if our hunger for form and structure – was truly a hunger for deeper trust and relationship across the AoH Community so we can be in the inevitable uncertainty of life?
What if we letting go of form was the way to enter into nourishing life and entering the forms of life ..?
Some thoughts to throw in the river ….
Love
Tim