A Flow Game Question Today

What in your life
could benefit from
the support and contribution
of others?

I quite like having a Flow Game Question nearby.

Me…

  • most everything, like the mostly pastors group I’m hosting next week
  • like the B & B series that is moving a few hearts
  • like the way I’m parenting
  • like the way I’m crafting a collection of poems

You know, most everything.

You?

Unraveling Leadership

Digging in to this one today (thx Krista Betz).
Unraveling Religious Leadership: Power, Authority, and Decoloniality
by Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi

I love the opening quotes:

Martin Luther King Jr.
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

And, Albert Memmi, author of The Colonizer and the Colonized:
“We have seen that colonization materially kills the colonized. It must be added that colonization kills [us] spiritually. Colonization distorts relationships, destroys or petrifies institutions, and corrupts [humans], both colonizers and colonized.”

And I’m sparking on the contents:

  • history that points to the lasting effects of colonialism, capitalism, slavery
  • differences between what individuals can do and what institutions can do

And then asking the most basic of questions — What could religious leadership also be? In the immediate of now, and, in the slow moving evolution of what is next?

Working with a group of pastors / religious leadership later this month who will be asking such questions together.

Sometimes The Simple Is the Super

Five of us gathered. Zoom. Two hours on a Monday evening.

Men in ritual was what brought us together. A workshop for learning from two weeks ago. Some of us have been friends over the years. Some of us are new in friendship, yet somehow feeling the way that good sincerity and connection makes us feel like old friends.

Sometimes
the
Simple
is
the
Super.

I offered format last night, a call-back on material I offered two weeks ago.

  • “There’s what we know. And then there is everything else.”
  • Ritual brings us to relationship with such reality (and then there is everything else…)
  • When / Why Ritual
    • when we need help / relationship with what is invisible
    • when we need help / relationship with something too big for us
    • as regular work-out (I added this one last night; why not practice for practice sake)

And then Check-In. I invited each to bring a candle and then light it when their turn for checking-in.
– Who are you, really? What is it that you are hungry for with Men in Ritual?

Men (humans) checking in is ritual. Listening…intuiting…sharing…

Then Stories. Of the big stuff. Of the small stuff. Of the nailed it stuff. Of the messed it up stuff. A couple of rounds of this — sincerity grows sincerity.

And then Check-Out.
– What has been important to you tonight?
– Pause — blowing out our candles together.

Oodles of insight. And delight. And beauty last night. And, well, spice of ritual. I’m glad for it. Moved by the men. Glad to offer. And to have it called out of me.

Sometimes the Simple is the Super.

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.

This will close in 60 seconds

asd
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.

This will close in 60 seconds

asd
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.

This will close in 60 seconds