Human to Human

Gilles Asselin
Consultant, SoCoCo Intercultural
New Jersey

It was a pleasure exploring some truly wicked questions with you in the past few days. I can sense a subtle change in me. Some of what I call my “judgment barrier” has evaporated, leaving more space for deep conversations. What a blessing this process is! Not to mention the loving folks in the process.

“In a time of uncertainty (which is ALL the time), we must have the courage to suspend our beliefs and conditioning and ask fresh, new questions. Truly inspired answers emerge only from asking honest, probing questions and releasing what we know deep inside. In this process, intercultural dialogue is essential. It has the power to bring creative solutions to our troubled world and healing for humanity.”
Lubosh Cech, Artist

Corrina Chetley-Irwin
Consultant
Alberta

I am totally in awe of what your guys do and your approaches. I particularly appreciated your openness (the collective your) to sharing your materials, resources, experiences and the fact that there were absolutely no egos in the room. It was an amazing experience as a participant but also as an observer of the process.

Kathleen Connelly
Consultant, Groupe Intersol Group
Ontario, Canada

I will use a quote I love (and is on my fridge) to tell people what the Art of Hosting was and is for me….

Spending 4 days learning about the Art of Hosting, and spending those days with the wonderful people who were compelled to be there and be present was in my view, doing exactly what Howard Thurman (US author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader) was talking about when he said:

Don`t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

I believe the Art of Hosting helps people connect with what makes them come alive. It`s what the world needs!

Adria Goodson
Hunt Alternatives Fund
Massachusetts

I am in awe of the universe. What a lovely, lightning bolt kind of week and, in particular, a joy to be in your presence! Thank you for sharing your gifts and holding space for me to share mine more fully.

Joan Huling
Community Liason Coordinator, Hokonui PHO
New Zealand

Personal learning, I realised that I have been living and working in isolation for too long. I no longer want to work this way. The power of the group, with difficulties and all, is mighty.

I experinced the 5 breaths of design in my body, especailly the groan zone. During one conversation I went through the groan zone twice. In the past I would have gotten up from my chair and left but because I recognised that I was in the zone and I knew there was something coming behind it I stayed. That was very powerful for me.

I gained confidence and belief in my wisdom, again with help from the collective.

Professional learning: I will share the models that we practiced. The 5 breaths, Theory U, Chaordic Path, and World Cafe were all new to me. I will share some of them through my personal story and the other by way of example. I will let the people that I work with know that I have new knowledge and I hope that they will access it.

Thanks again for the opportunity and the marvelous experience.

Laurence Lenoir
Consultant, Lenoir Associates
France

I came to this AOH session to improve methods and technics; I realized it’s all about relationships and intention!

I came to meet professional facilitators; I met wonderful and meaningful people, just being present and able to set the right conditions to hold the space!

I came to speak and work in English; I discovered the magic and the interest about bilingual workshops!

All being so natural!!!

Christian Lord
Quebec

From my experience of the Art of Hosting sprouted a cognition of a 4 stage meaning for living in community:
1) Coming together with a loving & willful purpose
2) Upgrading from Being to Becoming: witnessing and owning the onset of collective consciousness
3) Promoting & harnessing the infinite organizing power of the emerging group creativity
4) Harvesting the timeless sequential unfoldment & manifestation of our initial purpose for coming together

Geoff Selig
Concordia University
Quebec

First, I would like to thank every one of you for helping to create such a wonderful and rewarding learning environment. I have come away from this three day workshop inspired by the power of the “art of hosting” and the potential for a group a individuals to come together and create, in a very short time, an inviting and safe environment in which to reflect, to exchange ideas, and to learn. Thank you all very much. I am still “buzzing” from the experience.

The following is a recent communication from SUWA, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. I was involved with them in the seeding of conversation as a way to bring faith communities together in support of protecting wilderness. And then they ran with the conversations. I love seeing this, now a year later because of the action it shows and the community that it reveals. It is a story for me that begins with “from simple beginnings….”

United by belief in the spiritual value of wilderness, people from diverse religious traditions have come together in a call to protect Utah’s wild lands. On April 21st, the day before Earth Day, representatives from ten Utah faith and their supporters released an interfaith statement about the spiritual importance of Utah’s wild lands and the need for action to protect these special places.

After a brief news conference, the group delivered copies of the interfaith statement to the offices of Utah Senators Bennett and Hatch along with a letter requesting a meeting to discuss wilderness issues. The same request was sent to the offices of Utah’s Congressmen.

Development of the interfaith statement has been taking shape over the past year through “Faith and the Land” dialogues held in a variety of religious settings. These forums brought together members of the Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Islamic, Jewish, Latter-day Saint, Methodist, Presbyterian, Quaker, Unitarian Universalist and United Church of Christ faith communities. More than 230 people took part. Participants discovered that, though their religious practices might vary, they stood on common ground in their respect for creation and the natural world.

Leaders of the project see the development of the interfaith statement as a starting point for communities of faith throughout Utah and the nation to begin a conversation about ways to honor nature and protect America’s redrock wilderness. If you are part of a community of faith and would like to participate in the project, email deeda@suwa.org.

Working together we can preserve Utah’s amazing redrock wilderness!

And here are a few other harvests:
Report Created by Terri Martin
SUWA Webpage — Other Reports, News Articles, etc.

Hosting today in Pembroke, Ontario. We are about to head into the third day together with a focus on “getting to work in the journey.” The group is alive. Very well connected. Very oppened to relationship with each other. Their work will look different today than it would have on the 27th — the level of community is much more than seems possible in such a short time.

One story that I loved from yesterday was from Sister Alice. She is a long time administrator and leader of the Marguerite Centre, which is where we are meeting. We invited her to tell us a bit of the story of this place so that we could know more of where we are. What she told in 5 minutes was grounding, insightful, and delightful.

This Marguerite Centre used to be a home for the sisters of the order. This included many older sisters, between 80 and 95 years old. Sister Alice described how they had moved in here expecting to live their full lives here and to die here. The Order knew that they would need to move into a new place across the street in order to give the care that they needed to the sisters, as well as shift the Centre into a place that can host groups like us and produce some revenue. Sister Alice described the need to let go of the old so that the new could be born. She described in an inspiring way these principles of working with the women:

1. Asking the question, “What gives?” And invitation to relationship and to understand in a shared way.
2. Get them involved. It was commical the way she described this. They held circles. Not “committees.” “Those women are old enough to not want any more committees so we called them circles.”
3. End with ritual. When the move was eventually happening, their was invitation for each sister to take an object from the old place and carry forward the symbol to the new place.

These three little steps feel like great guideposts for working with change. I love it when these just show up in the context of telling a story. They are real, simple, and to the core.

Sister Alice reflected a bit further. “I’ve never seen such life. They trusted and became alive because of those circles. They were called to be alive.” She told of talking with some that were resisting. “You may be old but you aren’t too old to think!”

It was a tale of calling forth that comes from the freedom to let go. Was beautiful to hear.

From colleagues Tim Merry, Tatiana Glad and others. These questions are really strong and created breakthrough thinking for all involved.