Human to Human

I am drawn to the importance of place. With several colleagues I have been in many juicy discussions, and rituals to help feel more present and in rhythm with the land on which we meet and live. From ancient stories carried through thousands of years, like the one below, to a simple attention to what my local surroundings smell and sound like, to a sensing of a place’s energetic history. To be present and available with each other, I am finding this attention to place deeply enriching. To invite place as participant — this opens me and others to much more than would otherwise be so.

With thanks to Lauri Prest, a friend and colleague in Ontario, as well as her colleague, Michael Jones. Together, they recently hosted a cafe for the Canadian Index for Well Being. The day was spent in conversation with 100 others sharing stories about what we care about in our communities and how it affects our health and hearts. It began with a native story teller.

As you mentioned – Sherry was our opening native speaker and story teller. I wanted to share a few words about how the sense of place is held among Sherry’s people – in their story all place is meeting – it is carried in the mythology of Minjikaming, the home of the Chippewa First Nations and the land where the conference was held and Sherry calls home.

Minjikaming means “ keepers of the fish fence” The fence is located in the Narrows a small channel that links two large lakes just a mile or two down the shore from our conference site. For 5000 years the tribes came from long distances every winter to live on the fish that were caught in the fish weirs there . It is where they met the first European settlers many of whom were suffering from physical emotional and spiritual impoverishment and helped restore them to health – over centuries the story of meeting was carried not only as a bridge to unite the diversity of tribes and cultures – this story was also carried in the gentleness of the soil, the wind, the water, the light and the sky.

Their land is also a meeting place – an ‘ecotone’ that marks the edge of the limestone plain and warm shallow lakes to the south with the hard granite cold trout lakes of the precambrian shield to the north. Sherry’s people learned to be masters of two worlds- to learn to hunt and fish and know intimately the complex ecology of each with its distinct fish, fauna, vegetation, and animal life.

– So when Sherry introduced her story with the words “Welcome ! you are now on indian land and need to do things in indian ways ” – it is this 5000 year story of meeting together that holds the ground of being of which she speaks. As you were invited to step outside for a time – to find a space that attracted you and let it speak to you – much as Sherry let her ancestors speak to her through the gravestone – it may have been this ancient story of meeting that spoke to you as well… carried in the fresh warm breezes and waters of Lake Couchiching that November afternoon. (Couchiching itself in Minjikaming is The Lake of Many Winds)

For the communities that make up North Simcoe Muskoka the regional launch of the National Index for Community for Well Being it is also an invitation to let the Minjikaming timeless story of the ‘meetings among the many’ serve as our new ground of being as well.

Christina Baldwin wrote a book called StoryCatcher. It is a delightful read reflecting so much of the depth of her life. It is a delightful invitation to notice the power — learning, relationships, pathway to action — that can show up in listening to and mining our stories.

Three days ago I met with fellow board members from the Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community. Eight of us gathered. We told stories. At one level it was an invitation to checkin — say a bit of what is alive for you. This board is not a traditional board. It is more of an incubator kind of group. We share our work. We develop our friendships. We ask for help from each other. Our checkin was half of the meeting.

It was in our storytelling that I found a deep, rich harvest, again. What could so easily be dismissed as “long checkin” was for me heart of the work. I listened. I mapped. And from that listening, tagged some of the core themes. For us working with engagement in community, there was much learning there. Much about our current noticings and practices of building thriving community. A bit of this is below.

Values
– there was Jim from the Integrated Health Network sharing his work with soldiers returning from duty, integrating with their families. He spoke of the power of healing that is internal, helping to mirror this to the soldiers. He also spoke with a few tears welling of how the marines are so hungry for this kind of help.
– there was Ben from the Hemingway Foundation telling a story of this challenged economy and how it is shifting employment for many people. “We are the authors of our lives.” And he continued to speak of his desire to work in the natural cycles of life, as happens in nature.
– there was Jane building on Ben, sharing her commitment to living in balance on the earth. She shared some of her awakening and strong sense that many are awakening and remembering.

Invitation
– Jim again speaking of his reaching out to soldiers. He speaks it with such heart. Reaching out is a simple principle.
– there was Martha, a long-time educator and leader of the Three Rs program describing how there is less divisiveness in the state now. The simple invitation to have coffee together between people of different religious affiliations.
– similarly, there was Randy of the Foundation for Intereligious Diplomacy sharing research he read on the impact of having dinner together. The invitation to just focus with each other for a bit of time in the day to support well-being.
– there was John of the CEC sharing some of his excitement in a Call to Civic Discourse in Utah, sharing the core practice of good citizenship — talking to each other.

Practice
– I am very much paying attention to simple steps of daily practice. Not grand designs. Just simple daily practices and calling myself and others to such attention.

Projects
– John spoke further of demonstration projects for 2009, working with the legislature and community groups

Vision
– there was Sonya, a cofounder of a local charter school reflecting on her enrollment. I could see and feel as she spoke the love that she feels for the kids and families that are part of her school. She asked, “what will be like in our next 10 years?”
– and Randy speaking further about relationships between ethics, intelligence, and distance.

Choice
– Jane speaking further on the choice of how to seed community, exploring arts programs.

Resourcesfullness
– Sonya reflecting further on her school. “We do the best we could with the money we have.”
– John’s invitation to media groups and state legislaters in civic discourse

Values, Invitation, Practice, Projects, Vision, Choice, Resourcefullness — for me, all rich principles of healthy community, noticed in telling stories, embedded in heartful honesty. Not brainstorming. Just showing up, telling stories, mining.

A couple of weeks ago I watched my colleague and friend John Kesler honored for a lifetime of commitment to community engagement. He was awarded the Civic, Character and Service Award at the 5^th annual Dialogue on Democracy event in Salt Lake City. This was a grand event sponsored by the Utah Coalition for Civic, Character, and Service Learning, and attended by over 500 people including many state political and educational leaders. John’s list of groups, committees, and organizations that he supports, and in many cases, chairs, is lengthy. It makes me wonder again if he ever sleeps.

I love John’s fierce commitment to engagement. I’ve seen it many times in our shared work through the Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community. Seeing him honored, and seeing many friends at this event who are also committed to dialogue and engagement, had me reflecting on a few anchors in John’s fierceness — anchors that are teachers for me. .

One of those anchors is translocal learning communities, communities of place that act locally while connecting regionally and learning globally. The SLCEC is a budding example. Our local action includes “Creating a Culture of Connection” in which we are supporting dialogues on creating welcome. This work includes local school districts, neighborhood community councils, university students, and community immigrants. I don’t know to what level this initiative will become a translocal learning community, but I love the starting points that we are at and how this is inspiring many.

Another anchor is the cross-fertilizing among people of similar interest and imagination. One example of this through our center is a recent Sustainability Summit. At this half-day event, 85 people from various organizations in the Salt Lake valley gathered to explore possibilities that make a difference – from greening business to expanded local gardens. Our format very much invited participants to share their work and to imagine collaborations that might help – simple cross-fertilizing of ideas.

I appreciate John for his steady focus on the community – the tending to the whole – while at the same time supporting the action of the individual. It is a leadership that is so needed, and one of the qualities that many see in John. I am grateful to learn with him about keeping my eyes and heart open to the global, while at the same time, keeping my feet firmly committed in the local.

John spoke it well and with deep passion as he announced a statewide call for improved civic discourse in Utah. “Now is the time. It is the time for discourse. It is the time for inclusivity. It is the time to stand up.”