Human to Human

Yesterday I spoke with one of the participants from the last NGLI (Next Generation Leadership Initiative). Joyful catching up.

My friend was sharing what she loved from that week of time together. She was sharing what she uses. Again, joyful.

• Flipchart sticky notes (invites mobility)
• Candle (invites presence)
• Altar (invites the sacred)
• Check-In that brings people into the room (invites community)

Little things. Yet big things.

Because the big thing of that week was our theme — Relational Leadership. And going together with mind, heart, belly.

Each of these four landed as something important for her. That created connection. That created learning.

Fun to hear. Fun to know her appreciation. Helpful for me to remember that it’s often the little things. That give us path to the big things.

I was recently gifted a few Richard Rohr books (thank you Meg). This one above, The Wisdom Pattern, is one that I read on the weekend.

Delightful!

Has me thinking about a few upcoming groups I’m working with.

Richard Rohr suggests many things in this book that I found moving. Most fundamentally, he invites coming to further relationship with this natural phenomenon of inherent change.

Order is a state. Disorder is natural. Not a failure as one might so readily accept from industrial aged belief systems of the past 125 years. And then reorder too is natural. All organizes. As Meg often teachers, all organizes around a self and identity (self-organization).

Well, oodles more worth exploring.

This one passage is one that stood out to me.

In order to reconstruct, we need to be open to something more than cerebral, rational knowing. We need to move toward a more spacious, contemplative knowing. We need to move beyond the dualistic, seesawing mind that makes quick judgements, beyond the self and its own self-interest, beyond the win / lose and either / or worldviews.

Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern (p 121)

For inspiration on a Monday.

Peonies were important in my growing up years. That was the 60s and 70s. In Edmonton, Alberta. They were important flowers to my Mom, Myrna. And to my Grandma, Fern. In rather scarce times, flowers like this were our abundance. It’s what we had. It’s what we celebrated.

This particular peony above is a gift last year from my friend Meg. I celebrate it too. Now with its many buds about to burst to hand-wide pinks and whites. And planted at our home where Dana and I flower our 60-something love.

There is a blooming instinct in most of us, isn’t there. Whether in the growing that happens as young people, or in the growing that happens in last thirds. It’s a desire to flower. To be appreciated. To offer beauty. It’s a desire to contribute to systems and circumstances with joy. To contribute in a way that affirms life. And celebrates bloom.

Yah. Excited about these peonies. And all this life growing.

I loved so much about the call that I participated in yesterday. With NewStories. With Bob Stilger. With Z. And Ally. And the 25 others that gathered.

We were celebrating Bob, who just turned 75. We were witnessing NewStories in a next chapter. We were listening to an invitation to do deep and meaningful community work.

This gathering included check-in on what we celebrate. For me, I named that I’m celebrating old friends. That includes Bob. Our early Berkana days go back 30 years now. I notice I’m enjoying extra these 30 year friendships and colleagueships. We’ve supported a lot together. And followed some mystery. And found a few next steps.

Bob offered an appreciation yesterday, a belief from the Shinto ways of being — “Everything has life. People. Things. Stones. Foods. Everything. We live in a web of life.”

Yah, that one sings to me. Because it is part of what has connected us over these three decades. A love of learning. Of living. Of leadership that comes from such perspective.

Bob, Z, and Ally shared some of their deepest work — connecting values to principles to actions. To create the deeper ecologies for learning and for living with life.

What a treat. Helps me remember important layers. Stories. Possibilities.