Month: March 2023

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Parker Palmer’s Book, Let Your Life Speak

Lately, I’ve been revisiting some of Parker Palmer’s material. Let Your Life Speak has been one of my favorites over the years. I appreciate his candidness and encouragements of authenticity.

He quotes former Czech leader, Vaclav Havel, about such authenticity.

“The power for authentic leadership, Havel tells us, is found not in external arrangements but in the human heart. Authentic leaders in every setting — from families to nationstate — aim at liberating the heart, their own and others’, so that it’s powers can liberate the world.”

Yup, gonna enjoy those words. And, yup, gonna have a little extra conversation with myself through the heart.

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In Troubled Times of the Heart

Got another poem published in Sage-ing, The Journal of Creative Aging. It’s p 4.

I’m grateful to the folks at Sage-Ing, including my friend Katharine Weinmann, who have encouraged contributions.

In this particular poem, I linked the edition’s theme of “gratitude” with the learning that can come from a troubled time and a troubled heart.

Peek as inspired. And into the other articles included. I’m finding several insights from these writers that are stirring my desire for deepened soul.

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Rilke

It is sweet to be in the words of Rilke this morning, Rainer Maria Rilke, the Austrian poet of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

He’s oft quoted by many folks that I know. Oft invoked for inspiration and imagination.

Rilke writes,

You must give birth to your images.
They are the future waiting to be born.
Fear not the strangeness your feel.
The future must enter you
long before it happens.
Just wait for the birth,
for the hour of new clarity.

Perhaps there is a future that comes knocking for each of us. Sometimes a future that is smiling and wagging its tail like a joyful dog wishing to play. Sometimes a future that sees through deep and knowing eyes, slowed and tempered by what journeys of growth have required.

It does seems to me, that creativity and birth wish creativity and birth. We humans are sometimes actors. Sometimes vessels. The best life I know is in collaboration with creative mystery.

I so appreciate Rilke’s sweet words. As I sit in a moment of pause on a Wednesday morning, watching through living room window, to see birds pick leftover, fallen cherries from a nearby tree. I sip my coffee, just brewed, which also brings joy.

Future waiting (and wanting) to be born, in and around us. Yes, I appreciate these images.

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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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