Old Blogger • Tenneson Woolf

January 19, 2008

I See Us Standing In a Circle

Another beautiful offering from Tim Merry, inspired by a Berkana board meeting…

I see us standing
In a circle
Hands on each others shoulders
A sacred fire in our centre
Shadows on our backs
The light on our fronts
Our hearts made visible on our chests
Light spreading
Our shadows embedded
Never still
Yet we are still
Together
In a circle
Hands on each others shoulders
A sacred fire in our centre
Shadows on our backs
The light on our fronts
Our hearts made visible on our chests
Light spreading
Our shadows embedded
Never still
Yet we are still
Together
Returning to the mother of us all
Home

January 19, 2008

Kirkridge AoH Phone Council

There is a lot that is captured in this little poem from a call that I could not participate in. The power of relationship. The power of community.

What lives on in us from Kirkridge?
~ A Virtual Harvest of 20 ~

Feeling welcomed
Loved
And accepted into a community
Where principles don’t need to be negotiated

The power and presence of circle
The importance of rituals

But without a key note speaker
Where will the wisdom come from?

It’s a surprise!

Maybe it’ll come from the rise of the 40 year olds… (no matter how old they are)

Maybe it’ll come from us, who are learning to integrate new skills and
Generate between generations

Maybe it’ll come from us, who are finding our voices and
Learning to ask more authentic questions, like…

How do I live divided no more?
How do I let curiosity soar?

It starts with the spirit of inquiry and sense of discovery…

We remember
Dancing knots and
Falling snow
The sweetness of closing circles around
A fire a-glow

And that gives us the
Courage and
Strength we need
To create a quiet space to listen to our soul
To practice hosting every day
With an open heart

We tug on the thread from Kirkridge and pull it through
To new beginnings

And although it’s frightening
We know we are a part of something bigger
Something exciting
Something that frees us

So we start close in
We feel connected to each other
And filled with gratitude

We know it’s not impossible yet

The Walking People walk with Us

January 18, 2008

Harvesting

In Ottawa, I hosted an OS on “Harvesting – taking it out of the room” with CUPE. Really good hit for me with some great learning. And people were digging and joining in the artifacts.

Here’s a link to the harvest: http://web.mac.com/neagan/Site/CUPE_January.html#85. And all the other photos that Nancy posted there.

This was a session on taking it out, but included threads on “what happened in the last three days?” A bit of what stands out to me…

– a good artifact for someone who was not at the event is one that makes them curious enough to ask you to tell them more about it
– common ground is a harvest even without words (yup, they were feeling the field)
– be thoughtful about headlines (this is really a practice, eh)
– magic (a comment on what happened from one on the design team that was really skeptical)

And this funny one that was a strong awareness of how concretely we worked with speed – redesigned workshops in 75 minutes, etc. “You guys are like Quaker Oatmeal – instant.” It was so cool.

All born from the field, wisdom that becomes available because of open heart, engaged conversation, and enabled action, I feel.

January 18, 2008

Council on Flow of Finances

To wrap up a recent project, a 2008 planning meeting for CUPE’s union developers, I met with colleagues and cohosts Nancy and Angela. We met in phone council — checking in, naming a question, listening, harvesting, choosing wise action, checking out. Though the specifics of this conversation mattered less, the three of us work in beautiful partnership, I learned a lot about how to shape and feel this issue.

The questions we asked of each other:

What are your needs?
What flow can we create with this money?
What is best right-relations sharing of this pot?
What gifting might we decide to offer to others to support this pattern?

I love the agreement we came to with such clarity, beauty, and swiftness.

Split the pot equally.
Give some right-relations amount extra to the project lead.
Always ask for what you need and offer what you can.

And these very cool learnings / principles…

Whereas the old model for these decisions is more transactional, the new model is energetic. It is not about who did what work. It is about how we collectively invite, create, hold a field to work in before, during, and after the event.
As with design, work on logistics with open heart, enaged conversation, and clarity of action — beautiful.
Agree to this as a conversation each time, not a formula, to listen with attention and act with love.

Welcome the “when” of working and creating together again.