“Isness”

Isn’t this such a good chunk of life learning, to develop the presence to be with what is.
To develop the discipline, or kindness to interrupt the many defenses of the mind.
To welcome spaciousness.
And mind and heart that flow with life itself.

Thanks Judith Oki for sending this image and text. Thanks Eckhart Tolle for offering such a helpful thought.

 

Shared Responsibility For Quality — Bells and The Circle Way

Last year I got to teach and host The Circle Way Practicum in Northern New South Wales, Australia. I hosted with Amanda Fenton and Penny Hamilton, both wonderful and skilled people. The participants were fantastic — very committed to learning and connection. I’ve stayed in touch with a few of them in the way that you can’t not do when you’ve been in deep practice together. It’s fun for me to remember the bird sounds of the rain forest and to feel a gratitude for far travels and big journey.

During the practicum, I remember a participant asking, “What is your favorite component of The Circle Way?” The question is a reference to some key structural aspects of circle intended to provide a steering wheel to help correct what goes awry in many contemporary meetings and gatherings. The question was asked in a playful way — like inviting response to what was your favorite vacation ever? My response to such questions is usually a delighted smile, to be asked. And it usually has some, “well, in this moment of reflection, here is one of my favorites….”

If I were responding to this question now, from my learning of the last two months in particular, I’d have to say that my “favorite” component is the guardian, and even further, using bells or a singing bowl as a way of inviting shared responsibility (one of the three principles). In The Circle Way tradition, the role of guardian is to help keep the circle on it’s intended purpose. This is a great thing. The guardian most often sits across from the person hosting the circle. I often say as a caution that the guardian doesn’t police the circle. The guardian is full participant, but gives extra attention to the energetic quality of the circle — is it on track, are we getting tired, are we getting to speedy, is it time for restrooms.

My favorite thing with guardian lately, has been two aspects. First, naming the practice of ringing the bells twice (or another agreed device). The first ring is to pause the action and dialogue that is happening. The second ring is to resume action and dialogue, but before that resumption, to share a sentence about why the bell was rung. Perhaps it was to slow down. Or, to hear what is being spoken. Or ringing the bells just to pause.

The second favorite aspect with guardian is naming that anyone in the circle can ask the guardian to ring the bell. The guardian may be the person holding the bells or has them resting in front of them, but anyone in the circle can ask the guardian to ring them, and then follow the same protocol of pausing, resuming, and sharing what was the reason to ring them.

I have often said that the circle is not about the bells. It’s true that you can circle without bells or a similar signal. I’ve said that what matters is the spirit of being in circle. Both of those orientations remain true for me. However, it’s become much more clear to me that this experience of sharing responsibility for the well-being of the group is transformational. That simple practice moves the circle from “yours to ours” or from “someone’s to all of ours.” It’s coupled with a group agreement to pause from time to time, and to have the full group tend to that agreement of tending to the full group. It’s one of those expressions of leader in every chair.

Learning together, this will always matter. Like it did in Northern New South Wales last year. Sometimes it’s the little things that make such a big difference. Shared responsibility and leadership are tremendous values. Good words. The role of guardian and utilizing the bells to pause is practice, is todo, that brings the words of shared responsibility to vibrant life.

I’m glad to be teaching this again in two months, back to Australia with Penny and Amanda, a bit further north in the Sunshine Coast area.

Come? To ring the bells in learning and connection and cultivation of essential practices of shared leadership.

 

Between the Divine and the Divine — Shawna Lemay

Oh, there are times, when someone get’s it just right!

Thank you Shawna Lemay for your blog, Transactions with Beauty, and for your post, Between the Divine and the Divine. I love her writing. Her tone refreshes. Her photos are divine.

I need and welcome reminders like this that turn me to, “Oh yah, that.” And that wake me up to spacious generosity again. To the rhubarb growing in my garden. To the dog next door that so often offers me a smile and welcomes a scratch to his ears. To the pause in the sunshine to feel it deeply on my face.

All too often, I stress and default to my list for which there just isn’t enough time, or that, let’s face it, there just is too much to.

Excerpted from Shawna’s blog...

There’s not enough time left to become famous. So I’m just going to sit in my backyard this summer and learn to breathe again. I’m going to hang out in that spot between the divine and the divine. 

If I wanted to become famous (whatever that is), I’d have to readjust everything about myself for that to happen. I’d have to go back deep into the childhood forest and stop trying to empty my mind among the birch trees. I’d have to give up learning to speak to the animals. Horses, deer, various birds. 

I’d have to go back in time and tell myself to give up poetry. Maybe I could have saved myself from obscurity as late as when I entered university when I was 23. 

Wheel of Blame

 

I enjoy Dave Pollard’s writing and thinking.

I recognize in myself the evolution of the wheel of blame.

I suppose that one of my key learnings along the way, really in my early 50s, has been not to blame for complexity. Complexity just is and being in relationship with complexity is a beacon call to us living in this age. Complexity in work. Complexity in personal relations. Complexity in family. Complexity in community. It doesn’t mean don’t try to sort things through. It just means don’t blame.