Author: Tenneson Woolf

Thanks to friend and colleague Bettylynn Stoops in Ottawa, Ontario for sharing this poem. Bettylynn was a participant at an Art of Hosting in November that had focus on holding deep fields. My learning always seems full and rich when in her company. I particularly appreciate the first line, “no, no, there is no going back.” It speaks to me to the deep shifts and lettings go.

          A Wendell Berry poem, for contemplation

No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in time, beloved
then, now, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree
standing over a grave.
Now more than ever you can be
generous toward each day
that comes, young, to disappear
forever, and yet remain
unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason
not to give yourself away.
~ Wendell Berry ~

Appreciating this Hafiz poem, offered by a participant and new friend, Gina Cenciose, who does much in the field of non-violent communication. We were together at the Art of Hosting focused on holding deep fields, recently held at Pembroke, Ontario.

I Got Kin

 Plant
So that your own heart
Will grow.
Love
So God will think,
“Ahhhhhh,
I got kin in that body!
I should start inviting that soul over
For coffee and
Rolls.”
Sing
Because this is a food
Our starving world
Needs.
Laugh
Because that is the purest
Sound.

I enjoyed convening this event earlier this week. To introduce Meg Wheatley to several of my local colleagues and vice versa. To share some of the stories that our harvested in the book Walk Out Walk On, coauthored by Deborah Frieze. To further seed and support a shift toward a participative leadership culture in the Salt Lake Valley. To further support a global shift of how humans can be together in deliberate choice of belief and practice.

It was lovely. I enjoyed seeing so many friends in the room. Nice, simple format. Context setting and welcome from me. Simple identifiers with the participants (stand up if you…). Meg spoke for 20 minutes. Some on two loops model for how systems change, and some on the experience of walking out walking on. Lovely poetry. We had two rounds of small group discussions. The first on “when have you experienced walking out.” The second on “what have you learned from stepping in to the abyss and going to the edge.” A bit of that harvest is in this photo. Lovely points. Lovely connection. In the book signing time, many appreciations.

• AoH Bettylynn to a participant: You are the whole package my friend. Live it rather than say it. Life speaks volumes through you.
• Help The Berkana Institute (@berkanainst) share the stories of individuals and communities living the future now! bit.ly/tFBHZa
• Utah friends / colleagues, will you be joining us 11/29 for this evening event with Meg Wheatley? bit.ly/sZKL7f Reg required.
• On self-organization and offerings in living systems, from my friend Ann Pelo: “Ownership inspires different gestures than devotion.”
• A poem I wrote, called New Story: bit.ly/ulK3p4 Intended as voice for the deep work that many of us are trying to see.
• Simple photos using Open Space as operating system in Occupy Vancouver: bit.ly/mXEQ7d