Author: Tenneson Woolf

Now there’s a useful word. I learned it last week from Dana’s brother (thx Ed).

Coddiwomple
…to travel in a purposeful manner
toward a vague or unknown destination…

British slang. Points to the journey.

Points to some very needed learning of the inner too.
And to learning to be in groups where emergence is the game and the practice.

Helps me land some nuance on Wander.
Wander School is a bit easier to say than Coddiwomple School.
I like the alternative naming for the same principles.

Let’s coddiwomple.

I loved meeting yesterday in this B & B format. It was an hour. There were four of us (thank you fellow gentle and fierce explorers), each hunching our preferences for “nowness,” for the fullness of a present moment.

We used language, rather outside the norms of use.

“Now” as a verb. We are “nowing.” “Nowing” as a practice — something to do solo, and, with others. “Nowing” as a label — be a “nower.”

And then, there were the observations from the group, which was a key intent — to hold and encourage each other in noticing what emerges. “Nowing” brings us beyond the three-dimensional world, to something most often invisible. “Nowing” as a a way of being with Life, being with Life Flowing. “Nowing” as a way to come home to ourselves and to each other.

I find, we found, that the feeling of “now” is palpable. Words will trip, and become obscure, or befuddling. But the feeling is rather alluring. To stand in the simplicity of “all that nows.” To know the kindness of “nowing.”

I have this sense, and have for many years now, that Life wishes our company in ways that contradict the worldviews of command, control, scarcity and the others that go with that. Life delights in life. “Nowing” wishes our company, our play, our artistry. “Nowing” wishes our awareness, our attention, our shared attention.

What did you do yesterday? I “nowed” with a few friends. It was deep, yet simple. It was playful, yet very purposeful.

B & B is a convening of practitioners and curious humans, almost weekly. It is practice of presence. It is practice of learning. It is practice of nuancing life awareness. There is much that is free-flowing in it. Yet, there is also much that is lightly structured.

To get to the knowing. To get to the nowing. Jump in.

Coleman Barks died recently. He’s a well-known interpreter of Rumi’s work. Which means he’s been rather helpful to invite Sufi poetry and mysticism from the 1200s to contemporary inspirations of now.

Praise to the translators. I’m glad to know such poetry, to be moved by it.

From Rumi…

Sometimes you hear a voice through the door calling you.
This turning toward what you deeply love, saves you.
(Thx Katharine for sharing this recently.)

Praise to the translators. Because I feel like this is a good description for much the work that many of us do. We point to doors and voices. We point to love.

Praise to translating language — from the commonality of mechanization and fragmentation to an invited new commonality of living systems dynamics and connection.

Praise to translating habits of speed and efficiency that are helpful with simple, linear problems to habits of slowing down and reflection that are helpful with complex and socially demanding problems.

Praise to the translators for honoring kindness and passion.

Praise.

That’s Perseverance, which my friend Meg wrote in 2010. It’s really a good goto book, mostly short one-page essays that touch the theme of perseverance. I’m glad for this collection. Meg’s been touching my heart for a long, long time.

In Perseverance, Meg asks,

How is it that some people persevere,
remaining steadfast and persistent no matter what?

How is it that some people, even with failures, betrayals, and set-backs,
still keep going, working for what they care about?

How do they not fall victim to exhaustion and despair?

How do they preserve their energy, their motivation, their faith?

I’m glad to have such questions guiding me. Reminding me — cause, most of us face those days when we say, or want to say, fuck it.

But also because, as my friends Jerry and Kathy reminded me yesterday in our Shades of Life Conversation, most people are inherently good, and care about neighbors, dogs, cats, gardens, helping out.

People persevere, I persevere, when we / I remember the bigger story, the centering purpose. People persevere when they / I have friends and colleagues that learn together, that laugh and cry together. People persevere when they / I have others that understand, “not today, I just don’t have it” or “it’s OK, I got you.”

Thx Meg. Thx to all my persevering peeps close in and a bit more distant getting to the enduring, persevering heart of it.