Category: General Learning

Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

That’s Mary Oliver’s words — “Instructions for Living a Life.” Mary Oliver, the Ohio-born poet whose words are so often guide for me. She died in 2019. Here words, of course live on. And live on guiding many.

I love the simplicity. It’s instructions for living a life. It’s also a good game plan for what to do today. It’s also good guidance for the meeting. Or for that book that I need to read. Or for that garage that needs to be tidied. Or for the leadership team event next month.

Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

Got to kayak yesterday. First of the season. With Dana and a couple of other loved ones. We were on Oquirrh Lake. It’s urban. The bird life is astonishing. The bird sound too. Coots that go with Yellow-Headed Blackbirds, and Barn Swallows, and Mallards, and Geese, and Sparrows.

Above is a Coot from the paddle. Near her nest. We saw all kinds of little Coots, from barely days old to a couple of weeks old.

Mamas were protective, keeping little ones close. Mama’s were teaching, diving to the bottom to pull up a bit of greenery and then feed to baby Coots.

Can’t help but feel delight. I love being still on the water in a kayak. I love doing it with people I care about. Some astonishment together.

Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

Thanks Jim Quigley. He’s a poet in British Columbia. Thanks Roq Gareau for gifting me a copy of Jim’s poems.

Finding Mystery

You can spend a whole life
Chasing the dramatic,
Chasing enlightenment

And meanwhile right in front of you
Mystery is constantly showing itself

Stay here
All the magic is occurring
right here,
right now

And it’s occurring all the time.

Right here. Right now. It’s a theme I like to live. Beyond the dramatic and the chasing. That too. Mystery, magic. Yup.

It’s June. For many, the summer get’s full. We lose track of the post-summer things that need some organizing now.

Sign on now for this Circle Intensive.

“Breath and Belonging: A Circle Way Intensive lifts skill, practice, and imagination in the methodology that is Circle, and, in what lives beneath methodology — breath, belonging, return to center, and return to each other as a way of being.”

I’ll be hosting with Rangineh Azimzadeh Tehrani. We’ll be at a Wasatch Retreat Center in Salt Lake City, October 23-26, 2024.

Rangineh — “I am the daughter of Mohammad and Anna Azimzadeh Tehrani. My earliest years were rooted in Tehran where I lived with my parents and brother during the Iran/Iraq war, an experience that ultimately set the foundation for my commitment to peace and conflict transformation work. I have 15+ years of experience facilitating deeply human spaces that center connection and community, and have worked with cross-sector organizations (domestically and internationally) ranging from community-based organizations to local governments. I live into my core values of empathy and self-awareness through my work with The Circle Way.”

Thanks for shares as inspired. For showing up to learn. For reconnecting with what Circle can do.