Human to Human

Another Shades of Life Conversation recorded here.

Exploring the importance of story. And how story can create belonging.

Thx Jerry, Kathy, and guest Janet.

Enjoy.

It’s a weekend of return. From work and friendship and family in Edmonton, the city in which I lived the first 20 years of my life, to Utah, the sweetheart and home that now opens my heart oh so fully.

Yes.

There’s a William Stafford poem that my friend Jeremy reminds me of. It’s called “Yes.” I like the way that it points to today, to what is here, oh so fully.

Yes

It could happen any time, tornado
earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.

Or sunshine, love, salvation.
It could, you know. That’s why we wake
and look out — no gurantees
in this life.

But some bonuses, like morning,
like right now, like noon,
like evening.

Yes.

Yes to what is simple. Yes to what reminds, or creates, home. Yes to people, here now, figuring it out, sometimes in sunshine, sometimes in thick and overwhelming mud.

Yes.

Next door to the Edmonton Valley Zoo “Grasslands” room that we are meeting in this week with MacEwan education leaders is a kindergarten class. It’s been fun to feel kid energy — putting boots on in the hall, playing tag at recess, seeing their thanksgiving drawings on the wall.

I appreciate their advice for “how to help our bodies if we are having big feelings.” So that we can get to work together.

1. Read a book.
2. Take a drink.
3. Draw a picture.
4. Take some deep breaths.
5. Eat a snack.
6. Play with a toy.

Appreciated.

“Ask for what you need; offer what you can.”

It’s one of the oldest principles I know, first learned from Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea in the late 1990s. It was offered then in the context of creating healthy and affirming circles.

Well, jeepers. I keep learning new layers of this, including this week working with University Leadership.

“What I need” has layers. There’s an intuitive layer. There’s a gut knowing. There’s a mind knowing. “What I need” is sometimes something I don’t know. Or am a bit afraid to know, but come to discover in the company of peers, colleagues, and loved ones.

“Offer what I can” also has layers. The simple and the complex. The quiet and the loud. But I want to stay simple. Does it bring life for others or for me? Does it contribute life to peoples in shared endeavor? Does it feel right in the moment — mine so often is belly insights.

It’s such basic guidance. Yet, I’ve been learning layers of it now for 25 years. And yesterday, in Leading at MacEwan, I loved the way it looked on the wall next to this bouquet of flowers.

🙂