Learning The Circle Way — Three Ways September – December

Circle remains for me the most central aspect of how I work with people. It’s the most simple, yet powerful structure I know, to enhance turning to one another. To be smart. To be thoughtful. To be kind. To be innovative.

Circle also remains for me the most implicit agreement of how I like to live with people. Again, most simple and powerful. Again, to add to the richness of connection, turned to one another. Again, to be smart, thoughtful, kind, innovative. And to be, well, momentarily webbed in more blatant wholeness.

Circle remains for me a methodology that initiates and improves quality of connection. Yes. Learn well. And, circle is a methodology that becomes way of being that organizes and integrates more of the depth of who we are and how we are together as people in varied endeavors and settings.

Now, in a society that can so often default to sound bytes and pithy statements, I don’t want to land in the territory of an unintended marketing pitch about circle. And, I also don’t want to be shy about sharing stuff that enriches in uber needed ways.

Upcoming — in September, November, and December — are three formats that I’m involved in to help teach circle, and to help grow circle practitioners. My invitation is to the part of each of us that hunches are way into improving what we know as method, and to deepening what we practice as being.

In chronological order:

  1. The Circle Way Online — A Class to Nuance Understanding and Use of The Circle Way Components Wheel. This one is coming soon. We start September 17th. It runs weekly (skipping September 24th), four times through to October 15th. This is with myself and colleague / friend Amanda Fenton. We’ve completed this class six times now. We have a morning and afternoon class (Mountain Time). Registration is limited to 14 people per class. A few spots remain.
  2. Courageous Meeting — The Circle Way. This one runs November 19-20th. It’s face-to-face at a retreat center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Myself and colleague / friend Quanita Roberson host this one. Quanita and I are committed to depth of practice in varied complex environments. We are explicitly committed to the change and growth that is rooted in inner awareness and awakeness that then translates to practice with people / groups. Courage, with self and other, grows with a bit of structure that is circle. So does honest speaking. So does attentive listening. We anticipate a group of 25-30 participants.
  3. The Circle Way Advanced Practicum. This one is also face to face, running December 5-9, 2019. This one is also at a retreat center, Aldermarsh, located on Whidbey Island, Washington (north and west of Seattle). This is again with Amanda Fenton. People who come to this one have broad and deliberate practice of circle, sometimes from The Circle Way tradition, and sometimes from other circle traditions. Advanced practice is very much about co-learning our way forward as a group into advanced heart, mind, and belly. Yes, there is mystery. Yes, there is applied learning. Yes, there good challenges faced together. We anticipate a group of 14-16 participants.

Pick your favorite why. Mine include “just because” in a way that sounds softer than it is. Just because, for me, often means, “because a sense of deeper intuitive knowing tells me so.” Yes, please lean into that.

Another favorite why for me includes, “because the world is wonky.” That’s rather broad. And I’m glad not the only description of what is real. But also, humans, teams, groups, families, communities — there’s struggle everywhere to reinsert meaningfulness together. And some relational capacity for honesty and brilliance.

Learning The Circle Way — Three Ways. Yes, act now. I / we welcome you in this from your “why,” whether in “just because” or irrepressible longing in the places and spaces you seek community and great work.

 

 

No Sooner — Michael Leunig

I love this poem, below, shared today at the closing of The Circle Way Practicum. The author, Michael Leunig is an Australian writer, poet, cartoonist and philosopher. I became much more aware of his work when in Australia just over a year ago — the place that I was staying was  stewarded by a Leunig aficionados. I love the way that this poem speaks to the temporariness of experience, that embraces such fullness of human experience in these many paths we humans encounter together.

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No Sooner

No sooner do you arrive than it’s time to leave.
How beautiful it is, how glorious, yet it’s nearly time to go. So you take it in, you take it in.
And you take a few small souvenirs, some leaves: lavender, rosemary, eucalyptus.
A few small pebbles, a few small secrets, a look you received, nine little notes of music,
and then it’s time to go.
You move towards the open door and the silent night beyond.
The few bright stars, a deep breath, and it really is time to go.
No sooner does it all begin to make sense, does it start to come true,
does it all open up, do you begin to see, does it enter into your heart…no sooner do you arrive than it’s time to leave. Yes, it’s the truth.
And then you will have passed through it, and with mysterious consequence it will have passed through you.

Like Home

Hello Marsh House. Located at Aldermarsh Retreat Center. Just off Maxwelton Road. On South Whidbey Island. It’s good to see you again, and spend a week with you.

It’s no secret that place matters when convening in conversations that matter. I’m in one version of that convening. And in one version of “place matters.” This week it is The Circle Way Practicum. There are 14 of us gathered. I’m cohosting with Amanda Fenton and guest co-host, Chantilly Mers Pickett. It’s time for the 14 of us to lean into learning about circle as method, as practice, and as way of being. I’m glad for that. Something feels like home.

It’s now been…, hmmm…, probably near 20 times that I’ve hosted and participated at events in Marsh House. And in this context of The Circle Way, this has been home teaching space for Ann Linnea and Christina Baldwin for over 20 years now. There are whispers from the floor, from the open sky light, from the seats where many bodies have huddled together to share story, questions, tears, and cheers.

There is a certain anticipation that I feel in beginning at Aldermarsh. This feeling of home, and that perhaps, when it comes down the to very simple of it all, that we are accompanying each other home. Home within. Home among.

Here we go.

 

The Circle Way Essence Cards — Now Available for Purchase

For purchases, please email me, tenneson@tennesonwoolf.com.

I’m generally the kind of human that appreciates simplicity. Not narrow and with blind eyes (hopefully not, though, garsh, I know I  have that in me too). But rather, an appreciation that reaches for an essence or for deep guiding principles.

Over the last couple of months, Quanita Roberson and I have been working on this set of Essence Cards, shown above. I love the subtitle, “Simple Notes to Guide Skillful Practice.” Because in the end, whether as method or as way of being, circle is a primary container to help many of us turn to one another to be in communality. About what we love and about what perplexes and strains us in these times. What Quanita and I have done is taken simple structure, rooted in The Circle Way Pocket Guide (used with permission) and provided some of our learned simplicity about circle structure and practice. We are beginning to use them with clients and groups.

The cards were fun to make. They are now available for purchase by reaching me. There’s 26 cards in each set (see below), 6″ x 8″ in size. Full color. They come in a little cotton bag. $20 USD + Postage. A percentage of each purchase will be donated back to The Circle Way, and to another non-profit or group of people engaged in circle based change and reform.

For Canadian orders beyond North America, also contact me for special arrangements (tenneson@tennesonwoolf.com).

These cards have short descriptions, a few diagrams, and highlighted essences related to practice. We offer them with hope that they will guide and inspire helpful practice. In organizations. On teams. In community. In family. Purchase if you like. Or talk to us about use. Thx for referring others to them. To be in skillful simplicity together.

Cards:

Introduction
Contents
Welcome & Context

The Common Elements
The Circle Way Then and Now

Preparation & Invitation
Hosting The Circle

The Components Wheel
Three Practices
Three Principles
Check-In
Check-Out
Start Point & End Point

Leadership Roles (That Rotate)
Decision-Making in Circle
Creative Responses to Difficulties
Meeting Planner Using Circle
On Powerful Questions
Examples of Questions

Differences for Business
Differences for Beginners
Differences for Seasoned Circlers
Circling Online, The Technical Side
Circling Online, The Presence Side

About Tenneson Woolf
About Quanita Roberson
Additional Resources, The Circle Way
Invitation, Your Turn