Month: July 2019

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At First Light

It is just after 6:00 a.m. where I live in Utah. The morning temperature is 73 F. An ever slight breeze sways the trees and tall growing flowers. I’m sitting on my deck, as is my habit, to write some of the dream I had last night, and to journal just a bit. I’ll also meditate — breath deeply for a bit from this spot.

I look up after writing, looking east over rooftops. The sky catches my attention. Yes, for the patterns painted. Yes, for the way these clouds stretch to Oquirrh and Lake Mountains on the other side of Utah Valley, 20-30 miles away. But in particular for this bit of red that is just becoming illuminated at first light. Wow, I think to myself, and just dwell on this moment. This is sky that is being backlit, given that I’m looking east, from sun rising over Wasatch mountains behind me to the west. This isn’t red that leans to pink. This is a red that leans to deep purple or burgundy.

This moment is brief. It passes. Those clouds will remain vast, but will turn to their regular grayish, whiteish, blueish colors. I’m glad for the stunningness of the red in the moment.

I believe there is vastness to experience in our work together and in our lives together. I believe there is stunningness of color in our work and lives together. I believe there is momentary awareness to experience together in our work and lives. I believe there is first light, that when noticed together, enriches the day. I believe there is remembering of who we are together, whether in this landscape, or others that any of us notice.

This work of deeper encountering is our work together. I’m glad to live in a time that reclaims this among us, for all of the waking to self and other that it creates, and for all of the utter practicality that that is.

First light.

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The Circle Way Essence Cards — Now Available for Purchase

For purchases, please email me, tenneson@tennesonwoolf.com.

I’m generally the kind of human that appreciates simplicity. Not narrow and with blind eyes (hopefully not, though, garsh, I know I  have that in me too). But rather, an appreciation that reaches for an essence or for deep guiding principles.

Over the last couple of months, Quanita Roberson and I have been working on this set of Essence Cards, shown above. I love the subtitle, “Simple Notes to Guide Skillful Practice.” Because in the end, whether as method or as way of being, circle is a primary container to help many of us turn to one another to be in communality. About what we love and about what perplexes and strains us in these times. What Quanita and I have done is taken simple structure, rooted in The Circle Way Pocket Guide (used with permission) and provided some of our learned simplicity about circle structure and practice. We are beginning to use them with clients and groups.

The cards were fun to make. They are now available for purchase by reaching me. There’s 26 cards in each set (see below), 6″ x 8″ in size. Full color. They come in a little cotton bag. $20 USD + Postage. A percentage of each purchase will be donated back to The Circle Way, and to another non-profit or group of people engaged in circle based change and reform.

For Canadian orders beyond North America, also contact me for special arrangements (tenneson@tennesonwoolf.com).

These cards have short descriptions, a few diagrams, and highlighted essences related to practice. We offer them with hope that they will guide and inspire helpful practice. In organizations. On teams. In community. In family. Purchase if you like. Or talk to us about use. Thx for referring others to them. To be in skillful simplicity together.

Cards:

Introduction
Contents
Welcome & Context

The Common Elements
The Circle Way Then and Now

Preparation & Invitation
Hosting The Circle

The Components Wheel
Three Practices
Three Principles
Check-In
Check-Out
Start Point & End Point

Leadership Roles (That Rotate)
Decision-Making in Circle
Creative Responses to Difficulties
Meeting Planner Using Circle
On Powerful Questions
Examples of Questions

Differences for Business
Differences for Beginners
Differences for Seasoned Circlers
Circling Online, The Technical Side
Circling Online, The Presence Side

About Tenneson Woolf
About Quanita Roberson
Additional Resources, The Circle Way
Invitation, Your Turn

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Off Center, Fucking Rattled

I love these lupines growing in my yard from earlier this summer. I love their full flourishing. I love the round stone balanced on top of these other stones. The total set of three stones stands about two feet above the ground.

First, let’s be clear. “Centered” does have a context in which it is perhaps just a bit over rated, no? When I reference “centered” I generally mean grounded. Or clear. Or in flow. Those are all great things that I seek. When I reference the over rated part of centered I generally mean the blocking of needed disturbance (or some weird inherent shame of being off center). The commitment to a myth of stability. The rejection or repression of learning only available in some disequilibrium.

It was several of my teachers that helped me to learn about the value of change. The reality of change. The ever present process of change. When I reference “change” I am talking about the whole scope and scale. The inner changes in awareness and psychological maturity that have everything to do with outer world. It always does. No, seriously, always. When I reference “change” I am talking about a much more encompassing sense of time, how now connects to a perceived past and future.

I suppose it is true that belonging has always been a challenge for me. It’s a bit funny to say that because I’ve always been with good people in family, friendship, colleagueship, community. I expect belonging. And at the same time, some deeper level of belonging, with its fears and worries, the integration of life’s inherent wounds, particularly in childhood, also accompanies me. I know it is this way for many of us, living in such apparent contradictions. Some of the deepest work I know is an integration of self.

Well, with some of this as background thinking, I wrote this poem recently. I gave myself permission to amplify my description. Sometimes it is some amplification that creates access to the gem. Perhaps the greatest belonging, or the must abundant seed for belonging, is the belonging that we claim with self (and often through good friends that can remind us again and again — I’m grateful for those in my life).

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Off Center, Fucking Rattled

I get off center
(by that I mean fucking rattled)
when I do not trust
in the stories I share,
in the experience that I know,
and in the teachings that I create. 

I get fucking rattled,
thinking that I need to be
something other than what I am,
that I must once again,
abandon myself
to have belonging.

That’s fucked,
right?

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A Story and Three Questions

Toke Moeller has been a friend and colleague now for 20+ years. We’ve co-hosted trainings together in North America, Europe, and Africa. We’ve walked rain forest together in Zimbabwe that left all of us massively soaked. We’ve conjured questions together that insist on the human heart being present. We’ve grown — the way that friends and colleagues do — in interesting configuration. An ongoing appreciation that I have in all of this with Toke has been his combo of wise sage / young boy (in the body of a now 70s ish human). I keep learning about how to trust all of that within me.

Toke offered a snippet of story a few months back, some of his relating to his commitment to the Tao.

I confess
that there is
nothing to teach:
no religion, no science
no information which
will lead your mind back to the Tao.

Today I speak in this fashion,
tomorrow in another, but
always the Integral Way
is beyond words and
beyond mind.

Simply be aware
of the oneness
of things.

Now I love these words that point to the simple. They point to a keenness of awareness and presence. They point to a story behind a story behind a story. I would suggest such attentiveness to layered story gives us much broader set of choices for how we be in the first layer stories that so many of us live in — jobs, tasks, teams, accountabilities.

Now I’m the kind of human, and professional, that tends to think in questions. When I hear / read / see a passage like Toke’s above, I can almost immediately see a few questions to engage a group. To create further connection and learning. I see these questions in a way that is akin to Ron Heifetz, Harvard Scholar known often for his work on “adaptive leadership,” who shares — “One can lead with no more than a question.”

My three questions to go with Toke’s Tao:

  1. What is the bigger story (for you, this team, this community, this family)?
  2. What have we forgotten about that bigger story?
  3. What is important now to do / be to reclaim this story?

There is a ton of leadership available in a story and three questions. I’m glad for that. And 20+ year friendships / colleagueships that grow in interesting and surprising configuration.

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Gifts of Circle - Question Cardsasd
Gifts of Circle is 30 short essays divided into 4 sections: 1) Circle's Bigger Purpose, 2) Circle's Practice, 3) Circle's First Requirements, and 4) Circle's Possibility for Men. From the Introduction: "Circle is what I turn to in the most comprehensive stories I know -- the stories of human beings trying to be kind and aware together, trying to make a difference in varied causes for which we need to go well together. Circle is also what I turn to in the most immediate needs that live right in front of me and in front of most of us -- sharing dreams and difficulties, exploring conflicts and coherences. Circle is what I turn to. Circle is what turns us to each other."

Question Cards is an accompanying tool to Gifts of Circle. Each card (34) offers a quote from the corresponding chapter in the book, followed by sample questions to grow your Circle hosting skills and to create connection, courage, and compassionate action among groups you host in Circle.

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In My Nature is a collection of 10 poems. From A Note of Beginning: "This collection of poems arises from the many conversations I've been having about nature. Nature as guide. Nature as wild. Nature as organized. I remain a human being that so appreciates a curious nature in people. That so appreciates questions that pick fruit from inner being, that gather insights and intuitions to a basket, and then brings the to table to be enjoyed and shared over the next week."

This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in In My Nature. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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Most Mornings is a collection of 37 poems. I loved writing them. From the introduction: "This collection of poems comes from some of my sense-making that so often happens in the morning, nurtured by overnight sleep. The poems sample practices. They sample learnings. They sample insights and discoveries. They sample dilemmas and concerns."

This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in Most Mornings. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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