Category: Edited

Some harvest below from friend and host of our recent Practitioners Circle, Carla Moquin. Carla’s story is inspiring to me. As is her commitment. As I have met and spoken with her, I’m encouraged by her work to change the cultural narrative about connection and wellness, through the form of early parenting and collaboration as community.

Her website and writings can be accessed here. Some of her gratitudes and appreciations, in her words, are below. From an evening of circle.

1.  Huge discoveries can come from very small groups, when you have a complementary group of motivated and interested people.
2.  Never assume a discussion is necessarily going in a particular direction; instead, be open to the many different ways it can go at any point in time and don’t attempt to artificially control it.
3.  Sometimes understanding what is hindering you is more useful than knowing for certain which way to go from here.
4.  An idea that you dismissed due to impracticability years ago may turn out to be exactly what you need right now; never permanently eliminate reasonable options from consideration.
5.  Obtaining the perspective of other motivated individuals can radically transform your own view; be open to this so that you can obtain the help you need.

• From Nancy White, a graphic illustrator friend: “Be obvious. Accept offers. Fail cheerfully.” Love this.
• Vern Woolf on the wave shape of consciousness: “It is not the eye that sees. It only gives form to light.”
• Dig this. More on Tim DeChristopher’s upcoming trial. Civil disobedience and democracy in Utah to protect wild lands. http://bit.ly/gQdxwA
• From IONS on “worldview literacy.” Reflections from younger people on beliefs, worldviews, more (thanks Jon Gilburg). http://bit.ly/flP7en
• Great CBC documentary from Canada: The Anatomy of a Revolution, Part 1 (14 min) http://bit.ly/ftRfX4 and Part 2 (7 min) http://bit.ly/eAKtoJ
• Adventure begins. Driving 8 hours to Arizona for a 9-day intensive on holodynamics, energy, quantum reality. #holo
• Enjoying the expansiveness of fields of sage that give way to hills of cedar. Near Panguitch, Utah.
• David Hawkins on calibration: there are many things the mind can’t know. Yet we’ve placed almost all of our bet on mind-knowing.
• The perceived value of empiricism comes from a world view that is itself subjective

What could real also be?

I have carried this question with me the last four years. Vocally that is. Yet, I think it has lived with me, mostly unknown to me, for the last 30 years.

Four years ago at a weekend dialogue on evolution in groups, with 20 practitioners we began the event by having each of us name an important question or quest for our time together. I hadn’t planned on asking the question I did. I was looking for the simple.

Poof. What could real also be?

From years of germination, life beneath the ground, new life was bursting forth, reaching for the light of day. What could real also be? Yes, that was it.

It was the question I felt a bit scared to ask. A bit embarrassed to ask. Yet, the question that I was well supported to explore. And the one that felt at the core of so many other questions I wanted to explore.

These days I am further committed to this question. It feels like a new chapter is opening. I am finding very good company as I further explore what real could also be. I am learning much.

One of those points of company I find in the writings of Vern Woolf, my father’s brother. From one of his books, The Dance of Life, I read this morning:

“In the dimension from which matter is holographic projection, consciousness has shape and choice is universal. Reality is dynamic, fluid, and responsive. In this dimension of reality, choice is far more subtle and important than meets the normal eye. With the twist of a thought, our reference can shift; holodynes [information systems found in individual and cultural beliefs] take over; sensory screens change; and quicker than thought, our menu of options transforms. A single holodyne can shift our entire field of consciousness. Our field of consciousness is os dynamic it can explode upon us like fireworks, or it can lay dormant in a state of hibernation for years, or generations, as though life itself as stopped.”

What could real also be? I continue to sense it is a whole lot more than most of us learn. A journey I’m committed to.

A bit more here into the reading that I’m continuing to do in 2011. Allowing myself, inviting myself to read novels. There is a kind of freedom that I’m enjoying in this. And an immense sense of flow. Most of the books I have read in the last several years have been about leadership, organizational design, some on spirituality and psychology. Some on philosophy. All of these have been great. Yet, I recognize that for my own health (and desire for learning and freedom), I’m needing to look away for a bit so that I can even see those things. A bit like the physical phenomenon of looking at a dim star in the night sky, not being able to see it. By looking away it creates a visibility in the periphery of the star.

The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros) — “You can never have too much sky. You can fall asleep and wake up drunk on sky, and sky can keep you safe when you are sad.” I read this one because my daughter was reading it. Lovely. About voice (“…learn to become the human being you are not ashamed of…”). About activism (“…anger, when used to act non-violently, has power…”). About home (“…home is about creating one’s desired environment…”). I loved even more what my daughter wrote about it for her class assignment. About the “storm of hindrances” that can be part of life. About integrating past to present. The beginnings of her learnings about integrating masculine and feminine and partnering. So many doorways into the learning that is becoming her life and the journey of father / daughter.