Category: General Learning

It’s the most basic string of Wander Questions. Think about them. Journal if you prefer (I often do). Take a short (or long) walk with them. Let insight come. Some are small. Some are big.

What has your attention?
(You don’t need to report everything or only the big things. There’s a gift in picking one thing, that, kinda waves in the wind to your attentional field.)

Why do you think it has your attention?
(Often, it’s exciting. Or challenging. Or embarrassing. Or encouraging. No judgement needed. Just sincerity.)

What might that have to do with who you are and who you are becoming?
(Most things are connected. Some more than others. The psyche loves to make the connections more visible. Seriously. You get to guess.)

For me, today, on this Wednesday…

Well, I’m writing about it now in this post. “Wander” has my attention. The concept. The practice. The whimsy of it. The serious commitment of it. I like looking at the word with the spiral that replaces the “e” of “Wander”.

Why do I think it has my attention? Lots of general things. I like creating visuals. I like playing with visual space. I like creating meaning. I like creating invitation. I’m the kind of human that appreciates a bit of room to seek the deeper meaning. So many of my hunches these days pull away from the restrictions of stories and purpose statements that are too narrow. So many hunches pull me toward more conscious (and sometimes hidden) ways.

What’s that got to do with my being / becoming? This is where the deep values / yearnings / longings show up. I feel alive in the creative energy. I like that feeling. I feel alive in sinking in, and sometimes challenging, many of the smaller stories of purpose. Asking these kind of questions with my colleagues, friends, and teams — well, it helps me, them, us find life-giving ways together. This is the game plan for some of us. And needed. I like that feeling.

Ok, that’s me. Wander Wednesday. Basic questions. Important practice.

You?

Been thinking. It’s setup for today’s B & B.
Becoming & Belonging is

• an energy
• a practice
• a commitment
• an inspiration

B & B’s primary modality is Circle.
Which means

• we listen to each other
• we listen to ourselves
• we listen together to a center

Today’s B & B approach is through hearing a story together.
Think a tale, something a bit old and non-linear.
We engage a story together, to let

• a detail
• a description
• a dynamic

come for us to help to understand our present lives.

There are no prizes for the most comprehensive details.
It isn’t a test.

It’s an invitation.

I love the simplicity that points us to our presence together.
And all that that means on a Tuesday.

Good morning. We’ll, almost afternoon now where I live.

I’m pulling myself up from a morning of AI geeking (creating questions for a program I want to offer). That kind of framing is one of the great gifts of AI. Sometimes the questions are good to go. Sometimes they need just a little tweaking to bring to alignment.

And I’ve been reading. My buddy Chris is distilling a couple of important maps and ways of practicing. Check out his posts on his site about Four Fold Practice and Two-Loops. And read The Tao of Holding Space — it’s one of my favorites.

And, I’m reading some more. Marti Beddoe, a practitioner from The Circle Way tradition that writes about SoulCollage. And she offers some nice evolutions of agreements.

It’s Marti’s writing that has be nuancing some beloved ways of speaking intention and agreements. I won’t speak the whole journey of these. Rather, I want to write what is sparked this morning (and with particular anticipation for a group of men coming to my home next week for a 1/2 day Flow Game.)

Intentions:
– to practice and create time + space + process for thoughtful, honest, serious, playful learning
– to practice and create time + space + process for life to flow, and for us to be flowed

Agreements:
– confidentiality: we need to create a container for our unpolished, unfinished, still-moving selves to be present. It’s important in most dialogues where we are meant to discover what is unknown.
– speak from your experience and curiosity: this is different than offering, or worse, imposing, judgements, fixes, and rescues. We do better when we stick with our stories, and of course connect them in principle to others in their stories.
– offer witness, often silent: this one I just lifted from Marti (thank you). This agreement counters the ever so prevailing tendency to say too many words, comments, and other well-meaning forms of support. Trust the power of the silent witness.
– pause from time to time: it’s been so powerful in the Circle’s I host to let people know that they can call for short pause (tingsha bells rang twice; or the one minute timer). It’s not just for facilitators to decide. The shared tending is rich.
– welcome being moved: and surprised. Moved by life. Moved by what emerges. This is one of the primary possibilities and delights, right.

Good morning again. Thx for reading.

That’s Marmalade the cat. In her own wander I suppose. She’s an indoor cat looking rather regal on the outdoor back fence.

What parts of unplanned do you like?

Wander so often connotes a bit of unplanned. Meander. Not so rigid. Not so time-enforced.

As before, I’m inviting practice — be it for five or fifty minutes today — and, reflection. Give the prompt your attention. Let insight come. Let associations surprise you. Sit with them. Or walk with them.

Here’s my reflection to today’s Wander Wednesday prompt:

Let’s be clear, I like a plan. For the clarity. For the purpose. But, for me, it’s also true that I like not having a plan. I like having spontaneous choice. I like feeling a bit less rigidly prioritized. Or, I suppose reprioritized to lift up what is moving now, not just what was planned. On the weekend, Dana and I walked for breakfast (a place about a mile away). I love the leisure of that. I loved waking up Monday (bonus day, Labor Day) to Dana’s proposal — “what say we walk to breakfast?” I like feeling moved by the spontaneous. I like the spontaneous to be a deliberate part of the operating system. I like feeling that ideas show up, easily, to fill the void. I love celebrating the proposal from the void.

You?

Interested in more Wander? I run several lightly structured online Circle formats to lift and encourage Wander.