My friend Quanita Roberson has an annual commitment. She asks people to share their “presentation of learning.” It’s anywhere from 10-30 minutes of reflecting on what has been important over the last year. No right answers. No wrong. Just what was important. Quanita does some in person — people gathered in her home to share over an evening together. She does some of it virtually — recording a shared screen through Zoom.
This weekend Quanita and I met for a reflecting back on 2016. She was asking me for mine. She’ll be posting that soon on her site. However, in the mean time, I had a peek at the “presentation” I shared with her two years ago. It’s a 25 minute video that includes these themes:
- Popping to a new resonance together / the composite being that is a group, whether two, twenty, or more.
- Saying no to good things / relationship to time and the courage it takes to discern and say, no.
- In anything is the everything / connection of energy and opportunity. I learn this particularly with my friend Roq Gareau.
- Nothing less that who you really are / radical honesty. Quanita is one who calls this out.
- Things you can’t not do / lessons learned from my dog Shadow.
- Hunger for essence and simplicity / be honest, be clear, be real.
I don’t like the camera angle that has me looking down and away at my notes, but it was my own doing. I’ve always been one who learns and integrates best with a visual reference and a few notes, from which I then just try to speak extemporaneously. The content stirred me up again today — realizing some of where I am two years later.
I’m grateful for friends like Quanita who insist on learning.
