Themed

It’s good to have themes. Overarching statements or patterns. About who we are, and about what we are up to. Or about what we are discovering. About how the world works.

One theme for me lately is “learn a thing by doing a thing.” It’s the commitment and the creativity to get started and then to let that thing inform us about what it really is. It can be true cooking a meal. Or running a program. I’m finding it true in creating Becoming & Belonging offerings.

In that spirit, a further theme of “inner leadership” is arriving for me. As another entry point into all the work. For teams. For individuals. For executives. For mid-level. For entrepreneurs. For artists. For poets.

Inner Leadership is

  • practice
  • listening deeply to one’s own truth
  • aligning action with inner knowing
  • presence
  • purpose

Or more poetically, Inner Leadership is

  • a quiet flame within
  • that guides by stillness
  • courage
  • points towards what is most true and most alive

One more theme, discovered while doing. Not only to we live life, but life lives us.

This is significant. It changes the context for most everything — planning, accomplishing, worrying, fretting. It signals a more life-giving approach. It’s not that we need to create everything from start (and some of the fears that go with that). It’s that we need to surrender to what is already alive and moving. Give ourselves to life living us. In programs. In conversations. And yes, to simple things like making the soup.

Not trying to over assert the theme. I am trying to point to a neglected philosophy, a pre-industrial orientation. Or perhaps a post industrial era that reclaims life-giving creative spirit.

Thx for reading. Perhaps hearing a few sparks in your mind and heart. Best way to jump in to this with me is through my Becoming & Belonging series. I know I’m talking about it a lot. And posting.

Learning by doing. And then stay doing in ways that reanimate life.

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Gifts of Circle - Question Cardsasd
Gifts of Circle is 30 short essays divided into 4 sections: 1) Circle's Bigger Purpose, 2) Circle's Practice, 3) Circle's First Requirements, and 4) Circle's Possibility for Men. From the Introduction: "Circle is what I turn to in the most comprehensive stories I know -- the stories of human beings trying to be kind and aware together, trying to make a difference in varied causes for which we need to go well together. Circle is also what I turn to in the most immediate needs that live right in front of me and in front of most of us -- sharing dreams and difficulties, exploring conflicts and coherences. Circle is what I turn to. Circle is what turns us to each other."

Question Cards is an accompanying tool to Gifts of Circle. Each card (34) offers a quote from the corresponding chapter in the book, followed by sample questions to grow your Circle hosting skills and to create connection, courage, and compassionate action among groups you host in Circle.

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In My Nature
is a collection of 10 poems. From A Note of Beginning: "This collection of poems arises from the many conversations I've been having about nature. Nature as guide. Nature as wild. Nature as organized. I remain a human being that so appreciates a curious nature in people. That so appreciates questions that pick fruit from inner being, that gather insights and intuitions to a basket, and then brings the to table to be enjoyed and shared over the next week."

This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in In My Nature. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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Most Mornings is a collection of 37 poems. I loved writing them. From the introduction: "This collection of poems comes from some of my sense-making that so often happens in the morning, nurtured by overnight sleep. The poems sample practices. They sample learnings. They sample insights and discoveries. They sample dilemmas and concerns."

This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in Most Mornings. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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