Thanks Giving

In honor of US Thanksgiving.

Among other things, I am thankful for:

  • Outstanding and purposeful work in the world in which my new colleagues become my new friends, and in so doing, we become even better colleagues and friends invoking wild imagination and a bit of mischief.
  • Family past and present that continue to laugh, cry, and learn together through the day to day and the more stretching changes that are part of life.
  • Shadow, my family’s 14 year-old Lab / Retriever mix that now in his declining days, still wags his tail with in excitement to meet each other.
  • Refining and initiation that is the long arc of life and not necessarily easy, and the friends that can see beyond the tactical and psychological into existential allies.
  • The blessing of life, time in this body, in these communities, and on this planet, in this time of radical change.

Thanks Giving.

 

Home Again, Soon

I’ve been away now for 15 days from my comfy little home in Utah. From my kids. From my dog. From the kale that was still growing splendidly in my garden.

I’ll return tomorrow, filled up with experience and teachings from three locations during that 15 days. From Seattle, time with Teresa where we continue to dive (sometimes a bit cautiously) into the depth of what it means to be in partnership and relationship together. From Bowen Island, time with Chris, Caitlin, Amanda, Teresa and 50 really wonderful participants. There is nothing quite like finding a good, open, playful learning together. From Cincinnati, where Quanita and I hosted our third QT gathering, this time for 13 of us. I love the simplicity of premise in QT — humans being curious together in the most simple, yet often impactful ways.

I’m tired. A bit hesitant to say it out loud. But it’s true. Even good things can be tiring. It’s giving full attention to self and other. I’m grateful to be moved by others. Welcomed. Appreciated. And, what I continue to learn is that even in all of that, rest matters. The space of “off.”

So to Utah I come tomorrow. With a rather large todo list of catching up. But also, to the space of playing with Elijah, walking Shadow, and seeing what remains of my kale. To cooking for Thanksgiving. Maybe watching a movie, having myself been re-storied into another layer of companioning. And for some time to write, from a more still and quiet place.

For all of that, I give thanks.