Category: Old Blogger

Ben Mates and Craig Caviezel of the Hemingway Foundation hosted a conversation today that I was happy to participate in. They gathered together eight people to continue a dialogue on community resillience. What is resillience? What is a systemic view that helps move the Salt Lake Valley into a healthy and thriving community? It was a group of lovely open thinkers that impressed me for many reasons, including the overall spirit of “what if” questions that were being asked.

I love the clarity that was spoken by Ed Firmage, one of the participants: “So much of our challenge is imagining.” And this clarity from Craig, “You can’t have resillent community without participation.”

Imagine what might change if we were to start with these to statements alone, and then welcome in imagination and processes to awaken imagination and participation.

Looking forward to meeting with this group again in early January to imagine further. I particularly like Ben and Craig’s commitment to working at a level of energy and metaphysics. It shows not only in their language but in their being. This for me is the work of our times that feels so compelling. “Practical metaphysics.” I don’t think I want to end there but it is a good place to start.

Today I was able to talk with Jeannel King in San Diego, CA. Jeannel is a friend I met through the Art of Hosting at Wooded Glen in Indiana earlier this fall. She is completing her masters thesis for a degree from Regis University in Denver, CO. Jeannel invited me to provide feedback on her thesis. The real inviation was to be in a learning relationship together. This is what I experienced.

One of the threads from our conversation was about simplicity. How do you speak of the Art of Hosting in a simple way (not easy task to write about this in an academic form) that preserves the energy of the experience and doesn’t just end with “you had to be there.” Jeannel’s clarity was about hosting self, so as to be a resource for others. I heard this as a tuning, an ability to feel into what is happening in ourselves, the group, the space, the field. I liked the question we arrived at — what is the self of the group? What does hosting that look like? Feel like?

I also shared with Jeannel this simple model that good friend Chris Corrigan spoke as a change model. This is the most simple I’ve heard that speaks oodles. Open hearts. Engage conversations. Enable movements. Open hearts. To look through this model at the “things” of an Art of Hosting is helpful for me. Open hearts — participation, cocreation, rest, dreams, meals, play, listening, deep listening, connection to nature…. Engage conversations — methods, silence, structured, unstructured, self, partner, small group, large group…. Enable movement — harvest, convergence, simple clarity, tangible energy.

What if our work was to open hearts?
How would that change our plans?
What would that make available that typically is not?
What could our work also be?

Wooshclang — beautiful juggling piece by a Thomas Arthur, a deep soul. There is much to learn in the practice of juggling. Concentration. Play. Soft focus. Creativity. Teamwork. Even for beginners.

Ria, Donna, Tom Hurley and I have had recently had a wonderful conversation and listening into the center of the hosting the stewardship around the question that was born in the open space session at the AoH on Aoh in Belgium in June.

How can we best host the emergence of the next level of AoH steward and fellowship?

What does it really mean to steward and host forth stewardship ?

See our harvest here and the listening piece – a Scottish ancient Bowl of Welcome below