Human to Human

I also love this video and song from Tom Atlee of The Co-Intelligence Institute. I can imagine this one as another opening for a participatory event. Art has a resonance in which people can land so that they can do their work in the deepest ways — as individuals and groups.

Stand By Me
A moving production of this popular song, weaving contributions by street musicians from around the world, years in the making. It is part of a movie now, and the organizers (who were interviewed on Bill Moyers Journal) use money from the project to start music schools in villages they’ve visited. Stand by me, indeed.

Or this one, sent by hosting colleague Martin Siesta in New York, four beautiful minutes of Rev. Michael Beckwith on serving the emerging paradigm. I love this in particular because it helps to answer both the what and the how of hosting. Hosting what? — the emerging paradigm at all levels of scale. Hosting how? — looking for and offering ourselves to serve.

Other videos / resources that Tom sent recently.

Christmas in the Trenches
A video version of the famous song about British and German soldiers coming together — music, drink, and soccer in the mud — during one Christmas on one of many battered fronts in World War I, complete with pictures of the time and a tale by the songwriter, of meeting some of those men many years later…

DISABILITY? — STRETCHING OUR SENSE OF WHAT WE ARE CAPABLE OF

Imagine living a rich, meaningful life with no arms or legs…

Autistic, but he memorizes Rome from above and then draws it from memory…

He is missing a leg, she an arm, and together they dance love whole

Back flip in a wheel chair? You have to be young to take this on…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7f1Aa-Y1x0 (long version) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc1YdL_w1Hg (short version)

AND OUR REMARKABLE RELATIVES IN THIS REMARKABLE UNIVERSE

Starting here on Earth where dolphins blow bubble rings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMCf7SNUb-Q

And moving into the Heavens, where we can now see our Ancestor Galaxies http://hubblesite.org/gallery/tours/tour-hudf/
— for when we look deeply into the sky, we are looking back in time (light YEARS) — and every star that is over 5 billion years old (light years away) is contemporary with the parents of our sun and Earth, and some elements in us are even older than that, with each hydrogen atom in all the water in and around us having done its universe-building work for more than 13 billion years…
Or we can just enjoy our nearer neighbors at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Since this NASA site shows a different picture each day, I don’t know as I write this which picture you will see. You might like to check out the “Archive” link for other amazing views, including the Christmas Day one I’m seeing as I send this.

I love this little story from Maria Scordiolu of Axladitisa about the relation between intention and outcome. There are deeper levels here. In particular, I like this from below: The way we work with it alters the energy of what we are making.

I can imagine using this story as an opening, as an invitation, for people (families to teams to organizations) in conversational learning and creation.

“We have met a wonderful Austrian couple who have moved to the area around Arxalasti and Anton is a wonderful cabinet maker by trade and also environmental engineer specialising in eco-builidng and solar systems – electricity, water, heating, etc., (yes – how exciting that he should come and live so close to Axladitsa). He was telling me that 10 years ago, he went to New York to research how the way we work with wood, alters the energy of what we are making. So – he created two dining tables from the same piece of wood – one he worked completely by hand – no electric tools. The other he used electric tools. When he was finished, he said they looked almost identical – especially to the untrained eye. He could feel the difference between the two tables – the one that had been worked by hand felt completely different. He then did an exhibition with the two tables and invited people to feel the tables and choose the one handcrafted – and if they got it right – they would get the table for free. Although people could feel a difference – no-one except an acupuncture master, Mr. Chan could pick out the handcrafted table.”

I just completed an utterly delightful phone conversation with Glen Lauder in New Zealand. To be with Glen is to feel an invitation to be completely authentic. A beautiful ease of feminine and masculine. A gorgeous blend of funny, angry, serious. I received many gifts in this call with this friend.

Glen told me a story of working recently in Australia. He was preparing for the work, which included some planning with 10 people. Glen has a coach that challenged him to not show up as a pleaser. Gifted pleaser, but none the less pleaser. Rather, to honor the integrity of spirit.

I so relate to this story. I have a pleaser that feels I must know much, or move a meeting along, or be fast and efficient, or be profound even at times. I recognize in me that as I am doing so, I’m not actually doing the work that I think I need to do. And for that matter, the work that people are asking me to do, which is more rooted in this integrity of spirit. It is the difference between scripting and letting spirit speak it through me, using whatever tools, resources, stories, and relationships I may have.

Together, Glen and I found an alternative description for our work. To find the soul of the work. I’m quite liking how this sounds. Whether working in community, in corporation, in family, in relationship, or in self, how would it be to find the soul of the work? This is such a strong issue for me. I have worked in so many contexts where I felt like I didn’t have the ability to help find the soul, the center. Or I didn’t have the courage. Or the confidence. I know how lousy that feels. How time-filling. How hollow. And how I have felt shame that I haven’t been able to hold myself in it or hold others in it. I also sense that some, maybe many would reject such framing. And some might just come fully awake.

Glen shared a bit more. With this kind of clarity, the question he was asking is how he would find people to work with. I relate to this again. I fear a rejection for not being concrete enough. I can think of little now that is more concrete and more effective than finding and helping people to see the sould of the work. We laughed together. Our conversation was infact a manifestation of the very question we were asking. Immediately in front of us is each other.

Thank you Glen, for an invitation to imagine 2009 in a very inspiring way.

Yesterday Chris Corrigan and I, and previously with Teresa Posakony, were working through a proposal for what to do with the net income remaining from a project. This builds on another conversation on finances, here, held several months ago with other colleagues.

The question that Chris, Teresa, and I were asking was something like: “What is the most inspired way we can think about gifting some of our resources?”

Most of the context of this questions is from open-enrollment Art of Hosting conferences, at which most typically, income is created from participant registration fees only. Typically, there is no backing to assure hosts are paid a set fee. Our gifting has been of four forms:

– ear-marking it for a future event or Art of Hosting, particularly in the same region
– giving it to a particular community, again, particularly in the same region
– scholarship support for people who are in diverse and interesting work that otherwise would not be able to participate
– scholarship for people who are ready to seed / co-create the work in to their local community or region

I like these little insights, each of which can be held as practices / commitments:

– money is for moving energy (Thus, a good question for working with it could be, “Where do we want to move energy too? What might we want to animate? Support? Nurture? Or what energy do we sense needs to be moved?”)
– make decisions of sharing from the same field in which the work was offered. Make it from the same spirit in which we just collaborated / created / worked together. (Thus, a good reminder check, “Is this decision of the same resonance as the field that we just worked in?”)
– let’s talk about it. Just commit to listening together for the wisdom of the group.

All of this said, I love the way that many of us are deliberate in this gifting culture. It’s just a lovely way of working with one another. And it seems to energetically seed wherever it lands with a warm sense of community right from the start.