Author: Tenneson Woolf

Good morning (or whatever time of day you are reading this). Now good afternoon for me. Dana had a flat tire which is now mostly sorted.

I returned last night from travel with Dana and some family.

For me that means a mix of lingering in what was very spacious timing, balancing a few stones, and now moving through a rather full inbox of email, and rather lengthy balance of todos.

I’ve always been a person that has wished to integrate these lives. Carry the vacation forward. Love the work for it’s beauty and kindness.

Well, somewhere in that David Whyte writes in one of his posts — “Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life.”

There it is. A centering thought to hold it all. Participation with life. The holiday. The back to work. The unplanned. The thick schedule, remembering this’s and that’s to give attention too.

Participating. It’s really one of the primary invitations.

Yesterday I had rich conversation with my friend Jeremy. We are two men in our 60s. Which is to say, we have many stories and many learnings between us. It’s quite sweet and needed to have such open and honest and reflective time together. To dwell. To linger.

Mark Nepo came to mind. Jeremy and I share a love of his book, The Exquisite Risk, published in 2006. I pulled out my copy. Skimmed for ear-marked pages and text scribbles — I am that guy, that writes in my books. I found this passage about the “sea of everything.”

“Being a mystic and a poet, I must confess my own bias.
I believe in the sea of everything over the sea of nothing.
I believe in connectedness and relatedness over isolation.
In essence, a mystic can be described, simply,
as anyone that believes that there is something larger than themselves.”

How beautiful, right.

And on we went in our conversation. In connection. In wander. In wonder. In music. In deliberate and thoughtful journey.

In the sea of everything.

Thx Jeremy.

I read poems because I want to find a simplicity of expression that talks to my soul and to what my soul does in a day. I want to find something alive in the words that either calls out, or creates, a simplicity in me, and in how I approach the next moments.

Thx John O’Donohue. I find this blessing, For Celebration, orbits me. Guiding rather complex and rich things, yet with simplicity.

For Celebration
John O’Donohue

Now is the time to free the heart,
Let all intentions and worries stop,
Free the joy inside the self,
Awaken to the wonder of your life.

Open your eyes and see the friends,
Whose hearts recognize your face as kin,
Those whose kindness watchful and near,
Encouraging you to live everything here.

See the gifts the years have given,
Things your effort could never earn,
The health to enjoy who you want to be
And the mind to mirror mystery.

Pick a stanza. Or a phrase. Or a word. Plenty here to guide through plenty of circumstance.

It’s Toke’s voice that I most often hear when I remember this phrase, “What we practice, we become.” When I feel the joy of that kind of learning and that kind of doing and that kind of spirit when people are gathered.

Toke, the mate that welcomed me into The Art of Hosting many years ago. Who planted the seed in the back of a shared cab, returning from a dinner — “Come to this Art of Hosting (Hazelwood House) in England.” And a few years later, invited me to Flow Game Training in Ohio.

Hosting and Flow, these are becomings that I’m most grateful for. That have most grown who I am and how I encourage and enjoy others.

Wander School is one of the places that I practice. That’s part of a bigger framing, Becoming & Belonging Series (B & B). They’ve been in my heart for many years. I created programs for these gatherings in February. I’m convening them monthly. With small groups.

To become. And to celebrate right now.

Practice. Curiosity. Story. Insight. Intuition. And all of the other things that are helpful in a reflective ability. Big things, but in a simple format.

Learning. And loving. And encountering life with more, well, life. This is a practice that calls to my heart now. I’d love to welcome you.