Tag: #thecircleway

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Gone Grillin’

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This was a delightful meal, Saturday evening, with a visiting friend at my home in Lindon, Utah. Sliced, small, golden potatoes and onions in the foil, salted, peppered, and lightly buttered. Pork chops seasoned with Montreal Steak Spice and BBQ sauce. Sliced peppers and zucchini (from my garden, picked the same day) marinated and brushed with Italian dressing. I love grilling vegetables like this. I love the freshness with the charred edges. I love the bounty in the meal and in the friendship

Though I’m not grilling each day this week, I’m taking a week off of blogging as I turn my attention to The Circle Way Practicum on Whidbey Island, Washington. I’ll be co-teaching with Amanda Fenton and convening with a really fantastic group of 24 people  in a location that is as delicious and fulfilling as the grilled meal above. I love the teachings in The Circle Way, that help us reclaim a deliberate container to be wise and thoughtful together. I love the community that forms as we dare to encounter and witness each other in story, imagination, and lended courage to go further with our respective bodies of work and interest.

Here’s to all of us in thoughtful learning and journey and friendship.

 

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My First Circle — A Story by Karen Doyle Backwater

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The Circle Way Newsletter is monthly. It’s loaded with good. Story. Tips. Invitation. Connection to community. Just sign on to get it — for perusing, or to accompany a good cup of tea, or to guide your practice of convening.

This month (August) features a story by Karen Doyle Buckwalter. Karen was a participant in one of the online classes that Amanda Fenton and I hosted earlier this year. Karen is thoughtful. She’s committed to questions that shape her applied use of circle. She’s committed to supporting circles, to using circles, because, well, it just makes a big difference.

Karen’s “First Circle” was focused on the importance of self-care (in rather complex and demanding times). I love Karen’s inclusion of this line from Brianna West —

“True self-care is not salt baths and chocolate cake,
it is making the choice to build a life you don’t need to regularly escape from.”

In the way that I know of Karen, I imagine she has a lot that she could offer by way of guidance to people. She could offer some pretty good and helpful answers — she is a social worker and psychotherapist by profession. But Karen’s point in hosting the circles, three of them, was to convene the space in which participants, including herself, could be wise and thoughtful together. The Circle Way is after all, a container for such exchange to happen. It’s an organizer that helps us lean in with honesty and wisdom to find what is among us, all of us, rather than just isolated and individual forays.

I love Karen’s overarching questions for her three Saturday sessions.

  1. “What are three things you are grateful for? What do you need in your life right now to thrive?”
  2. “What part of you is calling out for healing right now? What brings you joy?”
  3. “What was most meaningful for you about our Circle and what will you take with you?”

It’s simple design. It’s powerful interaction. Thanks Karen. Read her full article in The Circle Way Newsletter.

Circle is the root of most of the convening work I do. I’ve often said, if you want to get better at all of the participative methodologies, go deeper in circle. This sentiment and practice continues to grow in me.

Join, yes, please, in the offerings. Or stay connected globally with others, growing in applied use of circle. For self care. And for a pile of other things that matter.

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Three Questions

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It’s important to pay attention to transitions. Movements from one place to another. From one rhythm to another. From the immediate view to the long view, and vice versa. It’s important to offer ourselves and others the kindness of transitional spaces. I’m glad to have this picture above from near Pinbarren, Queensland, snapped on a delightful, recent walk that reminds me of transitions.

As a closing movement for The Circle Way Practicum, it’s important to pay attention to the transition from retreat and learning space to the routines and demands that many of us return to. It’s quite a change of pace. Like going from an unpaved gravel road meant for ambling along, to six lanes of high speed zooming traffic.

At the practicum, Amanda Fenton offered a journaling exercise with eight questions, one of which was, What questions would you most like to be asked about your experience by those you return to?

Here’s the questions I wrote to help guide my own transition.

  1. How were you changed by being there?
  2. What grew in your heart?
  3. How is that connected to who you are and who you are becoming?

These questions are different and have some nuance. They imply a level of change not just for the mind, but for the heart also. They point to a level of identity and self referencing. These questions aren’t about the itinerary. They aren’t about a summary report. They aren’t meant to be answered with a 30 second timer. These questions are about noticing something deeper.

I know that I won’t necessarily get asked these questions. People will be curious of course. I’ll share pictures. I tell of places. I’ll think of exercises that I’ll use again. And, with some, I might just steer the questions — When asked, “How was your trip?” I might just answer with, “Great. And, if you are asking how I was changed by being there…” And then a followup, to create more exchange, “How have your been changed in your life the last few weeks?”

Three questions. To guide and welcome some of the real stuff with each other. Perfect answers not required. Complete answers not required. Just thoughtful noticing and witnessing.

 

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Contribute, Learn, Gain

Last week, through The Circle Way Practicum Australia, this intention statement (in orange) came to me through an exercise for all participants. The exercise involves reflection. And presence. And dialogue. And circle. And then writing, one statement.

I love the way that a deeper and nuanced awareness shows up as we humans turn to one another.

This year: “I intend to contribute, learn, and gain the vibration of community, the energetic memory, sustained and amplified by the practice and presence of circle.”

Last year: “My deeper yes is to practice and encourage consciousness, attention, simplicity, and kindness through and with The Circle Way for the betterment of human endeavor.”

I love the way that circle reminds me of what I am up to. From the heart. In the heart.

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