“Circle makes the world round again.” That’s what my friend (and mentor and guide and sister and…) Ann Linnea often reminds. I’m glad. Circle has been rounding me now for the better part of 25 years. Probably before that too.
Circle is for the heart. It’s also for the hands. It’s for added authenticity. Wisdom too. Joy too. Belonging too. It’s essential format for showing up. I use / do Circle most everywhere. Sometimes quite quietly, but there it is, round again. Sometimes with more intervening and obvious format.
That’s a mug from my friend Tom. My coffee today. With a bit of honey. Makes me think of Tom. He’s the kind of guy at Soultime that most often carries a cup. A strappin’ late 40s lad. He’s a guy that oozes welcome. And invitation to sit on the couch to share a cup. Or stand on the porch and quietly stare in the same direction together.
Gifts from friends settle me. How. Umm, they settle my heart. They lift and sip a sense of belonging that is buoyed by friendship. That makes me want to contribute my skills in the day. That makes we want to learn. And laugh.
Words well-written also settle me. You know, the kind that show up in your in-box that you often don’t have time for. For me, the kind that go into a catch-all folder to remember for a future day. Like these words, the poet David Whyte describing “the extraordinary benefits of profound attention.”
“Everything is an invitation to something larger and more generous. Everything in today’s world can also be a distraction, breaking us and our lives into fragmented pieces, dissipating our powers and rendering us fretful and anxious: the difference between those two lives lies in our ability to pay profound attention in silence to everything that approaches and surrounds us. Deep and prolonged attention grants rest and recuperation, turns seemingly besieging forces into opportunities and transforms far-off hopes into immediate possibilities. Above all, prolonged attention makes us friends with the world again and with those who inhabit it.”
Good, right.
It grounds me to hear other people that I have love and respect for offering words that lift the heart and that lift the big story that guides a thoughtful human experience.
Settled. Settling.
It’s what is happening at Becoming & Belonging. My series that patterns a gentle paying attention together. And some friendship. And some welcome. And some words and stories shared. And some attention to what brings and creates life.
Silence is a practice too. Particularly when the noise grows.
I find, again and again, that the noise comes from within me.
It’s true that the noise is out there.
But it’s my relationship with that noise that determines whether it lingers or leaves.
Gunilla Norris has offered some passages on silence that I’ve appreciated many times. I dug this one up from a previous post. She says,…
If we can simply learn to follow our breath in a steady way — attending to the inhalation and the exhalation until we feel that we are no longer breathing, but are being breathed — we have grown in practice.
The point of practice is not to perform, but to participate — not to achieve specific experiences, but to develop a new relationship with experience itself.
It’s big work to become breathed. For many of us. Yet, so fruitful.
asd 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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In My Nature
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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Most Mornings + Note Cards
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.
