Journal reflections, 6:30 this morning…
I really just want to play in this life
to feel an aliveness with life’s invitations.
I really just want to understand and feel more
of how this inner world projects outer reality,
for each of us and for all of us.
I don’t want to rush.
I don’t want to take any of it too seriously,
for that seems to impede the natural flow.
I want to lean in to life with hope that in so doing,
I’m part of a flourishing pattern.
I’m so enjoying flourishing pattern this week, the feeling that Life is living me in the way that sometimes words write me rather than me writing them. Some of this has been co-hosting The Circle Way Online with Amanda Fenton. Some of this has been traveling to Southern Utah earlier in the week to be intrigued by the quirky shapes of Goblin Valley State Park, and awed by the majestic red rock of Capitol Reef National Park. Some of this has been fellowship with a friend and colleague from New Zealand, Glen Lauder, staying with me. Glen is an integral part of my three trips to New Zealand over the last 10 years. We’ve created much learning together. He’s staying a week.
This week in particular with Glen, I’ve enjoyed our evening conversations in my back yard as the sun tucks behind Lake Mountains on the west of Utah Valley, and as the evening cools. One thread that Glen and I picked up together was about the kinds of questions we are asking of ourselves and groups. In one way, I was preparing what I would share and teach about powerful questions for the class with Amanda. In another way, it’s just the exact kind of wander that I love with Glen.
Two questions that he spoke really stood out to me as we thought about working with groups:
- What is the unique lens that you feel you bring to what we are about?
- Are there particular experiences that you think helped to form that lens?
All of these reflections supports a premise — when we can come to see more of where our seeing comes from, we can begin to see more of where are leading comes from.
That’s gold, right.
I love the invitation in questions like these to notice the subjective that so informs the objective that most of us are required to reside in. As I shared with the online class this week, I’m on a bit of a mission to reclaim the value of the subjective. As society, we seem so seduced by the data-driven objective that it even populates rather carelessly our social settings. We so often ask, “Was the movie good?” rather than “What was that movie like for you?” The former, unintentionally seems to seek quantification. Whereas, the latter, seeks the qualitative, and the multi-layered realities of the subjective.
I’m grateful for this learning. And friendship. And colleagueship. And surprise. And flourishing pattern.
