Category: Edited

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Tool of the Tender Heart

This morning I woke with a dream. It was a dream about my 13 year-old boy, training with a very sharp kind of martial arts sword. He was joyful. I was with him. We were both aware of the skill needed to use such a sword. In the dream, my son was helped by a former karate teacher, a man that was utterly skillful and committed to practice. A man who taught a lot more than karate.

I have been told that I have a tender heart. By some who adore me. By some who welcome the realness of tender, perhaps with awareness of the many ways that many of us have been taught to hold that in. At times I haven’t known what to do with that, or that I should do anything. I’ve shed tears. I’ve recognized the part of me that feels embarrassed to be tender. I’ve recognized the part of me that wants to be more tough, and more accepted in that.

This morning, thanks to this dream and a bit of attention to it, and thanks to my relationship with my beautiful son, I was able to feel these words about the importance of tenderheartedness. What a gift to see it in my boy, so as to see it a bit in myself too.

Tool of Tender Heart

What if the beautiful tender heart
were the most important tool
we could skillfully use?

What would it mean then
to cultivate that heart?

And what if exuberance
were the natural state?
What if welcoming it, that exuberance,
were a discipline?

We have many people to train with;
ourselves, family, old friends, strangers.

We have many that we can meet
in relationships of graciousness
to learn practices.

Practices for the much needed
beautiful tender heart
to help
ourselves
and to be of service
in these times.

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Tweets of the Week

  • Last day here before returning to Utah. Will reach 99 degrees F today. http://yfrog.com/h835619440j
  • #WOWO Frieze / Wheatley: “We can walk out alone, but we can only walk on in friendship.”
  • #WOWO: Our industrial age is one of imperfect and unequal relationships that privilege production and profit over learning and friendship.
  • Inspiring read from my Berkana family, Deborah Frieze and Margaret Wheatley. Great cause. Act today. http://bitly.com/h1i4s2
  • http://yfrog.com/h0q5xsjj My son Elijah, six as of two days ago, hamming it up a bit at Laguna Beach.
  • RT @dfrieze: Two more days until the Walk Out Walk On bestseller campaign. Mark your calendars for April 13th: http://bitly.com/i4wAvB
  • Driving through Riverside, California on the way to Newport Beach. With parents and my kids for four days. Relishing all the grapefruit!
  • “I will not tame you. I will not be tamed.” Sarah Whiteley learning at Axlatditsa: http://bit.ly/f3xzrg
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Dan Brown — The Lost Symbol

Some fantastic reading on this one. Lots of great story. Lots of mystery. Lots of intrigue. And perfect to finish by a pool in California on a Spring Break trip with my kids.

I particularly love these points along the way and in the last ten pages. They feed the kind of learning that I’m really giving attention too. And they remind me of some of the friends I met last year hosting at the Institute of Noetic Sciences conference.

  • Lynne McTaggart on Noetics: “Living consciousness somehow is the influence that turns the possibility of something into something real.”
  • Lynne McTaggart again (Dan Brown mixed in): “The most essential ingredient in creating our universe is the consciousness that observes it.”
  • “The ancient texts are obsessed with the power of the human mind. The Vedas describe the flow of mind energy. The Pistis Sophia describes universal consciousness. The Zohar explores the nature of mind spirit. The Shamanic texts predict Einstein’s remote influence in terms of healing at a difference. It’s all there.”
  • “…about the brain scans taken of yogis while they meditate…the human brain, in advanced states of focus, will physically create a waxlike substance from the pineal gland. This brain secretion is unlike anything else in the body. It has an incredible healing effect, can literally regenerate cells, and may be one of the reasons yogis live so long.

Here’s the kicker for me that rings true, whether in fiction or other forms.

  • “The ancients already knew many of the scientific truths we’re now rediscovering. Within a matter of years, modern man will be forced to accept what is now unthinkable: our minds can generate energy capable of transforming physical matter. Particles react to our thoughts…which means our thoughts have the power to change the world.”

What does that look like in working with groups? That is the edge that I feel compelled to explore.

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Tweets of the Week

  • Breakfast on the tree (grapefruit) for the next few days in Palm Springs, California. http://yfrog.com/hsq0alhj
  • RT @PeggyHolman: Ppl who assume that they cn find the information they need when they need it R wired 2 organize their time differently.
  • Mark your calendar for April 13 — treat yourself to Meg and Deborah’s inspiring new book “Walk Out Walk On”: http://bitly.com/i4wAvB
  • If Appreciative Inquiry is “a way to help groups,” Quantum Leadership is “a way to be a wizard with helping groups.”
  • Quantum Leadership is everything from intriguing science fiction to paradigm shifting consciousness in large scale change and dialogue.
  • In times of complexity, appreciative approaches are gateways into knowing what to give attention to and where to start.
  • For those who follow Meg Wheatley, she has an inspiring new book, Walk Out Walk On: http://bitly.com/i4wAvB.
  • Check out this new book, Walk Out Walk On, by my Berkana friend Deborah Frieze. Inspiring stories. Great cause. http://bitly.com/i4wAvB
  • Appreciating a call today with Harville Hendrix on connecting self-organization and creating a movement of networks on healthy couples.
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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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asd
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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asd
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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