Category: General Learning

This photo is one of my favorites last week from Malcolm Island. Dana and I walked in the quiet of the forest. Amongst tall Cedars. And Douglas Firs. And amongst abundant green. The shapes from among the trees have a way of coming to life with just a little attention. It’s my love of the unseen, of the mystery.

Yesterday, a younger person (in her early 20s) asked me, “Do you consider yourself a religious person? Do you consider yourself a spiritual person?”

I like it that she was asking the question. It was genuine. There’s a hunger for meaning that I see in many young people. Wanting to make sense by hearing underneath the noise.

My response was quite clear and direct. “I don’t think of myself as much of a religious person. I do thing of myself as quite a spiritual person.”

I love it that she followed up. “What do you mean by that?” Again, the hunger for meaning. Genuine.

I shared what has been true for me. A simplicity that has guided me. “I believe there is more unseen than there is seen. I believe we live in an inherent mystery. Those beliefs lead me to be quite curious. I like living with curiosity. It feels kind and helpful.”

All of the landed quite well in her. Seemed a bit relieving to be told some simple truth. Not fancy, and without need to evangelize.

Most of us are searching, right? For what makes sense. For what has integrity. For some grounding in how we contribute. To what is seen and to what is unseen. For how we welcome being moved by what is seen and what is unseen.

My friend Glen has become a trusted and often depended-upon colleague. For he and I it was first a casual meeting (2009) that quite quickly became a regular colleagueship, that has been supported by a deep and lasting friendship. Glen and I have regular calls these days. To learn. To listen. To dream. To discover.

In a recent conversation, I was asking Glen about the kind of leadership he is trying to create. Glen himself is the most senior HR position within his organization that now employs 400 ish people and lots of layers of middle management. It’s a conversation that helps Glen and I create and host a leadership cohort program.

“What we need is leaders who can think differently,” Glen said. He was speaking reflectively. With wonder. “We need a group of leaders that can imagine. We need to think what we don’t know how to think.”

Glen was speaking to a rapidly changing industry of which his organization is a part. “We need to feel what we don’t know how to feel. We need to dream what we don’t know how to dream.”

Well said. Thx Glen.

When I return from adventure, and when I’m integrating experience, I often start with images. They offer path to words to speak and some not to speak.

I love these images from the last five days on Sointula, celebrating friends in wedding ceremony.

The forest teaches. It reminds me of connection. It reminds me to pay attention to how and where I step. It impresses with its age. And with its generosity of life growing and greening.

The figures in the forest also teach. Of art. Of mystery. Of pointers and guides. Of projection. Of longing. Of wonder.

The shoreline with distant vista teaches. Of edges. Of what lives far away. Of distant dream that compels. Of things seen and unseen.

What a gift to adventure. To learn and to integrate. To form and remember community. And self in community.

There is something about being clear,
with self and with others,
what a human (sometimes a cat)
can and can’t do.

Of this, I love being a student.

There is something about offerings
that come from love of circumstance and people —
from that clarity
that makes for a really good day.