Third Sector and the current economy

While governments are busy bailing out failing banks and corporations, another significant driver of our economy and our society is struggling largely in silence.  The so-called Third Sector, also known as Non-Profits or Charities.

An excerpt from the Government Non-Profit Initiative describes the scope and impact of the sector on the BC economy:

The non profit sector contributes an enormous amount to public life in British Columbia. The sector has a substantial economic presence, contributing 6.9 per cent of the province’s GDP and employing 7 per cent of the provincial workforce. The non profit sector employs more than 147,000 people (23 per cent of whom work in hospitals, colleges and universities) – a workforce larger than the total employment in the forestry, fishing, mining and oil and gas industries combined.

The non profit sector reports around $3 billion a year in revenue from provincial government sources, accounting for one-third of the sector’s total revenues. The sector contributes an additional $6 billion into the provincial economy, more than agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting and on par with mining, oil and gas. Not included in this equation is the monetary value of over 114 million hours in volunteer time mobilized by the sector – the equivalent of 69,000 full time employees.

So, with Canadian media beginning to take some notice, it's time for the rest of us to start speaking up.  Canadian charities support our social safety net and are responsible for providing a lot of the services we have come to expect as an integral part of Canadian society.  If we want to continue to enjoy the benefits of engaged and healthy communities, we need to step forward and support our local charities.  As a fundraiser and organizational consultant, i am inviting leaders in my community to an Open Space-based meeting to plan what we can do to support our local charities in surviving the next three years.  I will be suggesting we provide resources and training workshops (for free or cost only) to our local charities to help them prepare for what lies ahead.  

So if you have a local (or national) charity that you love, sing their praises, let your local representatives know of your concern, encourage all of your networks to continue to give, and point the charity to this resource as a good place to start for ideas on how to survive. 

Web 3.0

Just can't stop now i'm started :).

I've been volunteering with a new social change initiative called Sound Connections.  Their website will be up shortly.  We've started with live meetings: Open Space Tech in a Whole Person Process wrapper.  The idea is to create a platform to connect social entrepreneurs with each other and with those who have the skills and passion to support them.  

What i've noticed:  a new trend that i call web 3.0.  We connect online to others who share our passions via web 2.0 social networking tools, then these connections become real-world as we meet in person, or create real-world projects that affect the lives of others.  I love this pattern.  It feels like the maturation of the promise of the internet.  What could have become isolating is becoming a powerful tool for real world transformation and relationship.

It's about time

It's about time i started blogging again on a regular basis don't you think?

Not possible to catch up.  So just going to jump right in.  Lots of new stuff in the cooker.  James Lemmer and I are in the final stages of launching our new company: The Collaborative Experience.   We have developed highly experiential workshops that include shadow process, genuine contact program, open space technology, integral theory, spiral dynamics, complexity theory and aikido to support teams and leaders working in collaboration locally and globally.  

New website up soon.  Watch all social media for the launch.

Celebrating an achievement

On Sunday, August 31, 2008 i was honoured to receive my yellow belt in Aikido.  I have been studying Takemusu Aikido with Victor Arcega Sensei for about 18 months.  This has been a long and challenging journey and through it my commitment to this beautiful and transformative art has deepened to become the centering pillar of my life.  Receiving my belt was a complete surprise--in our dojo, Sensei awards belts at his discretion when he feels that the student is ready to embrace the next level of responsibility.  (And for yellow belt, it also means i don't need to look at my feet anymore! Which means i can now wear a hakama.  Woohoo!)  

I began this journey hoping to learn some things that would enhance my facilitation skills and support me in my quest to more fully embody my Open Space practice.  I have found so much more.  I can't really express how much this honour means to me.  There were many times when i questioned my ability to manage the demands of the mat.  I sometimes felt a bit cheeky about starting a martial art as a 40+ mother of young children with no background in any sport let alone a martial art.  And here i was, bad knees, bad back--bad joints in general--out of shape, over-weight and scared as heck walking on the mat to try and learn what is widely regarded as the most demanding of all the martial arts. So let this serve as an encouragement to all of you who think you are too old or out-of-shape to live a dream.  Find a group who will support you and go for it. Determination and guts will take you farther than you can imagine from where you sit now.  

Which brings me to some appreciations:  to my husband George and my parents for supporting me in the most practical way by their willingness to care for my children so i could attend class--even when they didn't understand the appeal (okay, okay, addiction); to my Sensei, Victor Arcega--for sharing his time and energy and irreplaceable knowledge and for creating a dojo where joy and love are what we practice most;  to Senpai Floyd Blades for his teaching and sharing of his enthusiasm for this path; to Senpai Christle Blades for being a source of joy, inspiration, encouragement and just plain fun; to my classmates at the Vimy Dojo--Rob, Al, Robert, Miles, Christine, Van and David--and the Gabriola Dojo--Patrick, Judith, Leah, David, Jim, Alex, Jack, Viva, Kim, Daniel--a deep bow to you all for what has passed between us and for coming out to play!; and to Toke Moller for introducing me to the vibrations of Aikido. 

And to finish off, the quote from O-Sensei that has upheld me most throughout this first stage of my training:

The Art of Peace begins with you.  Work on yourself and your appointed task in the Art of Peace.  Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow.  You are here for no other purpose than to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment.  Foster peace in your own life and then apply the Art of Peace to all that you encounter.

domo arigato

The Coral vMeme emerges?

Since taking training in Spiral Dynamics with Don Beck a year ago, i have been on the lookout for the first signs of the emergence of the Coral vMeme. I have noticed that there is a parallel between the other first and second tier vMemes. The first tier Beige vMeme is a survival consciousness. Studies of the few extant beige cultures left on the planet have revealed (according to Don Beck, i haven't found a reference for this yet) as many as sixteen senses functioning, including things like remote viewing. We are seeing a re-emergence of these senses in the yellow second tier vMeme. As yellow evolves and expands, in my growing opinion to our bodies innate response to a sense of threat, not so much to the individual as to the species and biosphere. Turquoise echoes Purple. So i am proposing that Coral will echo Red.

If Red is the vMeme of Warriorship, Coral is the vMeme of Guardianship. I am proposing that this vMeme is emerging as a second tier response to the threat posed to life conditions by increasingly Red activity across the planet. I am seeing these traits emerge in advanced practitioners of Takemusu Aikido. My initial explorations are below. Are you seeing these traits anywhere in your experience? Is there any resonance for you?

Coral Vmeme Proposal

The Guardian Self

Sees self as connected to Universal energy, love for all beings, entrusted to guard life in all its forms. Conflict is seen as a path to harmony. Seeks confluence with energy of others and energy of environment. Sees relationships (power & interpersonal) as inter-related ecology of relationship with other radiant, charged, vibrating beings. Does not seek power over others. Does not seek power with others. Seeks only to express the intent of the energy of the Universe as expressed in personal acts of presence, art, movement, love--guardianship. Life and death are approached with an attitude of non-attachment and joy. The core motivation is Service: to the Universe, to others, to life. Body and mind function as an integrated system. Multiple intelligences and expanded senses are fully developed. Learning and work are both expressed as play. Intention forms the core of all action. Anarchistic.

How well do you really know yourself?

Well, it got you reading didn't it? A colleague pointed me to Harvard University's Implicit Association Test. This nifty little test uses a random sequence of paired pictures and words to uncover hidden biases in our responses to a variety of cultural groups: African American or White, Old or Young, Straight or Gay, Fat or Thin, Multicultural or Unicultural, and lots of others. It takes about 10 minutes to complete each task. You will be warned that you may not like the results.

I am volunteering facilitation support to the Nanaimo committee planning our Dialogue on Multiculturalism sponsored by the Province and SFU Centre for Dialogue. I was naturally curious about what this tool might show and how useful it seemed for training and other awareness raising activities. It is very simple and quick to use. I would like to hear from others who have tried it to see what you think of its accuracy.

How did I do? Well as usually happens, I'm in the 2% minority. I apparently have a moderate preference for marginalized groups. This doesn't surprise me all that much. I have done a lot of unlearning racism work and for the past three years have been actively delving deep to root out unconscious colonized places in my heart and mind. And as a stealth radical and someone who is not very comfortable with mainstream culture, it's not really surprising that I might feel more warmly towards marginalized folks.

So give it a try and let me know what you think.
Cheers all!

Love is the fabric of the Universe.

Antidote

joy's bright blade

aroused to incandescence
in the fires of pain

hammered to trueness
by betrayal and forgiveness

quenched in the waters
of love and compassion

only weapon
of the guardian soul

true instrument of heaven

Beyond Intentional Community--Conscious Community

A number of friends and colleagues have noted that the phrase Intentional Community is both inadequate to our understanding and possibly irredeemably tainted by the track record of many intentional communities. I have been thinking a lot about what phrase (signifier) might capture the deeper meaning and reality (signified) of the concepts we are tossing about. Today finally, the term Conscious Community came to me.

One of the sticking points i had with intentional community was a sense that at its very core, it was all about control. If you just get the right people, the right place, the right leadership, the right processes, the right economy, and so on, you can have the nirvana-esque community experience of your dreams. Those folks who failed, well, they just made mistakes in judgement--poor planning--bad personality mix...you've heard it. I propose that the reason most intentional communities fail, is that the meaning of intentional, implies at its deepest (unconscious) level the belief in control. And anybody who has taken a look at living ecologies of relationship can see that they are complex systems whose order emerges organically out of chaotic conditions always present at some level. It is the confusion of harmony with changeless bliss. Harmony is NOT static. It is the dynamic tension within healthy ecologies of relationship.

So instead i have proposed Conscious Community. Conscious implies that we are taking full responsibility for what we care about. We commit to be as aware as possible of the impact of our actions and we take personal responsibility for their consequences, even the unintended. Taking full personal responsibility does not mean we take blame or over-extend ourselves to accept responsibility for others reactions to our actions. It does mean that whatever consequences arise from our actions, we stand in mature relationship to ourselves, the other, and the Divine. The concept of Conscious Community includes the deep belief that we cannot control our living ecology of relationship--we can only ever co-create it emergent from mystery into the open space we hold and host together.

A Conscious Community is one in which members commit to bring consciousness to their lives and relationships. Its nature is exploratory and welcoming of deep diversity. Conflict is expected as an essential part of a healthy ecology of relationship and is greeted with an orientation of joy as an opportunity for personal and community growth and evolution. It is not a fail-safe environment; it is a safe-fail environment. It recognizes that all human beings have frailties, make mistakes, hurt those they love, have ugly sides, need solitude and privacy. It commits to provide its members with unconditional positive regard and love, regardless of their imperfections. It holds members accountable for their choices and the consequences of those choices. It is characterized by flow, states of grace, courage, discernment. A Conscious Community still has bad hair days--chaotic and challenging times. It also has the resiliency to thrive through them.

Does this resonate for you? Could you live in a community of belonging like this? Are you courageous enough to accept responsibility for what you care about? If yes, open your eyes and look around; see who is in the water with you and begin.

All for now.
Blessings and love to you all.

Opening Space for Organizational Systems Renewal

Just got back from opening space for moving to action as the afternoon portion of the annual conference of the Organizational Systems Renewal program alumni at Seattle University. It was a total delight to share the facilitation of the day with Kathy Cramer of the Cramer Institute. Her most recent book “Change how you see everything” is an accessible and graphically lovely plea for appreciative thinking and living. She refers to it as asset-based thinking, which she has found is a more readily understood and stickier term than appreciative thinking.

We had a big circle with about 100 people ranging from current MBA students, alumni, faculty, and visiting professionals. We had one good hour-and-half session. With little time and lots to do, we went with flip-charting highlights and next steps up on a gallery. We took digital pictures of that to use to create the proceedings. We had a wonderful lightning report in from our 14 topic groups, with everyone speaking very directly.

As OD professionals who had spent two years learning various whole systems change approaches, they had asked to see the very pure form. Many had experienced some derivative of OS, but few had seen a really clean opening of space. So I obliged with the cleanest, purest version I know how. The opening took the usual 20 mins and they leapt up ready to go, creating their topic groups in amazingly short time. Kathy had warmed everyone up wonderfully, so they were ready with what they wanted to work on.

It was interesting to open space in the middle of the event. I wandered off around 10:30 to continue my personal prep. Had an hour of meditation followed by finishing prepping the space during the lunch break (making signs, etc) then working on the invitational section of my opening to ensure it was focused properly and reflected the work they had done in the morning session.

The only down side, and it was slight, but I noticed it, was that we had to have the participants rearrange their chairs themselves, on the fly, into a circle. There was one area that wasn’t quite visible from the whole circle and it was a lot harder to keep their energy in the container and draw them fully into the field. I did a lot of deliberate connection walking to compensate for the odd drift in the energy at that arc of the circle.

It was a very satisfying day. Had faith in who was there, watched the folks get down to work, the magic happen, deep connections made. Met lots of people doing deep change work out in the world and many others trying to open a bit of space in large companies (including Microsoft! Hi Iris and Mary Alice!).

Complexity for Regular Folks, Part 2

Well, i had this post half written, lost my connection to the internet and lost the whole thing. So, this is the second necessarily shorter version... And i am not an expert in any way, so if you have additions or corrections to this, please send 'em along.

Atractors and scalar invariance.

Attractors are the simple rules that determine the direction of a system, its stability, its general trend. There are three groups of attractors: single point, periodic, and strange.

Single point attractors pull the energy of a system to one point or goal. A magnet is one good example of a single point attractor. If you sprinkle iron filings or some pins on a peice of paper and then put a magnet underneath it, the filings and the pins will be drawn towards a single point--the magnet. Another example, from palaeontology (for my kids): Many of us have seen films of palaeontologists working to remove massive chunks of stone--everyone on the dig site is drawn towards the work, lends shoulders and hands to move the boulder. All of their energy is directed towards a single goal--removing the rock. Systems governed by single point attractors tend to produce heroic model management.

Periodic attractors oscillate between two points. We have many experiences of periodic attractors, seasonality in employment, rush hour, and the most common--breathing.
We can cope with and benefit from systems governed by periodic attractors. We can get clarity from goals based on our knowledge of the oscillation. And we can recruit and train heroic model leaders with skills in anticipating and navigating the fluctuations.

Strange attractors were first described in the 1960's by Edward Lorenz (Lorenz attractor and graph) as he puzzled out the mysteries of the weather. While local weather patterns seemed completely unpredictable, when Lorenz modelled more global weather data on a computer, an interesting regularity appeared. The equations consistenty produced graphs in the shape of butterfly wings. At a larger scale, there were obviously rules at play that produced a predictable pattern. What those rules were, however, was difficult to tell, hence the name strange.

Complex systems are shaped by strange attractors that can be governed by a few simple rules. For example the movement of flocking birds is governed by three simple rules: stay equidistant from your neighbour and other objects, maintain the same speed as your neighbour, head toward the centre of the group. These simple rules allow a flock of birds (or fish or bees) to be 50 times more sensitive to changes in their environment than any one individual. (So complex systems are not well suited to the heroic leadership model. They are governed by interdependence, and so need a more interdependent style of leadership.)

So, to recap, strange attractors affect the flow of energy in complex systems. Strange attractors are comprised of a number of simple rules that interact with one another to produce the visible results we can observe. Discerning what these rules are is supported by certain attitudes and behaviours that Westley et al delineate--and that i will chat about in another post (hopefully also drawing some links to Spiral Dynamics).

So what is scalar invariance? Scalar means scale, or size. Invariance means not variable, unchanging. So put together, scalar invariance means that complex systems tend to act the same whether you are looking at only a few individuals (the micro level) or a mass (the macro level). You can extrapolate the simple rules governing the attractors of large systems by looking at the parts of those systems. In very simple terms, you can see the whole in the parts. As Blake would say, "the world in a grain of sand."

Both of these characteristics of complex systems are important to those wanting to effect social change. Identifying the strange attractors, and then looking under the surface to find the rules governing the attractors will have more leverage than attacking the surface characteristics. And scalar invariance means that local knowledge and expertise can effect change with global impact. And that small-scale efforts and experiments

Which leads us to one last concept from chaos science: complex systems are highly dependent on initial conditions. I am linking this to concepts from Aikido. In Aikido we have a very simple math. All systems have an energy of 10. If someone is attacking you with a force of 7, you only need to respond with a force of 3 to complete the system. In dealing with complex systems, the attractors hold a lot of the energy of the system, so a small input of energy at the right place and time can have significant results on the outcome.

There is good news here for those of us looking for ways to influence change. No guarantees, but lots of possibilities.

There is a lovely little animated game using attractors that you can play over at thecleverest.
Strange Attractor equations and graphs.
Formal definition of attractor.
Interesting discussion with illustrations of the four attractors of chaos science with speculative parallels to consciousness.
Some very cool 3-D images of attractors and other fractals.
Good next step for those wanting more information on attractors and complexity theory: Attractors Everywhere.

Next: a few more additions to our growing list of skills and attitudes for thriving in complexity.

On hosting meaningful conversations

I am busy preparing a training manual on public speaking and public conversations for non-profit staff and volunteers. So, i have been musing a bit this morning on why i love facilitation when it is about hosting meaningful conversations.

What arose for me today was depth. I love asking the questions and holding the space for the questions that lead to depth. That let us get beyond the surface to the complexity that always is present. And i love it when that complexity gets unpacked, unfolded out in all its brilliance and unknowability. I love it when we get to a level of complexity where we must act out of the essence of who we are and not merely from what we know.

Complexity Theory for regular folks- pt 1

The subtitle for this post should probably be: And why should i care anyway??

Authors Brenda Zimmerman, Frances Westley and Michael Quinn Patton give a compelling and highly readable answer in their new book, "Getting to Maybe" (Random House Canada, 2006). The other really cool thing about this book is that two of its authors are Canadian. Woohoo!

The short answer to why care about complexity: because it's how the world works and perhaps more importantly to many of us--it's how little old us can change the world--from where we are--NOW.

I have been working away in my brain on a blog post about working on the edge. And the edge i have been working on is all about complexity. It is the rub i find everyday in my conversations with leaders of organizations, with other consultants and with my friends and neighbours. Most of us have been taught skills and conditioning to help us thrive in a complicated world. Those skills are all about organizing, managing, and controlling. We are increasingly frustrated when these skills don't produce the results we are looking for.

In my work and in my life i am constantly communicating that the world has changed. We now live in the midst of complexity. And that calls for a very different skill set. A skill set that is often at odds with the way we have worked and lived in the past.

Over the next little while i want to share with you some of the skills, competencies, and mindsets (and reactions to them) that i am seeing emerge. I will also share the insights i am gathering from reading , "Getting to Maybe". And i will try to make the science behind complexity theory accessible to those of you for whom the words strange attractor, iteration, fractal, and scalar are seldom found in your recreational reading.

To begin, the number one reaction i see when folks start to explore working in ways that meet the demands of complexity is fear. This fear can manifest as resistance, hostility, anger, disbelief, mistrust. I believe that the fear has two main sources: certainty and grief.

What do I mean by certainty? When we make decisions, we like to feel that we have based them on an adequate amount of data that we can trust. When working with complexity, we often have to make decisions before we have that perfect data--in order to benefit from emerging trends and patterns. This can feel very uncomfortable--like leaping from a ledge without knowing what is below you. Even if the jump is a relatively short one, we all want to know that we are going to be okay--and that is something we can't know until we've landed. Some skills to cultivate: comfort with risk, ability to function with paradox, flow, letting go, intuition, pattern seeking, trust.

What do i mean by grief? In the past few months i have had the chance to learn a lot about grief--especially about grief as it is experienced by children. And of course, we are all children. What i have learned is that change, ALL and ANY change evokes the grief response. Think about that. In all change there is a loss--even if there is also a gain. Now consider the pace of change in the past 30 years. Birgitt Williams says, "there is always grief in the room". What does grief look like? Resistance, denial, anger, depression. When folks begin to understand that clarity is no longer possible (replaced by more relative qualities like discernment) and that paradox, risk, and flow are the new names of the game-most of us are looking at a truckload of loss. Some skills to cultivate: compassion, openness, letting go, resting down, faith in others and self.

So what are the new skills, attitudes and competencies for living in a complex world? For starters, as Westley et al state, "Getting to maybe has almost nothing to do with certainty and everything to do with serendipity, conviction, risk taking, and faith." Not very popular words in the offices of the world.

I hope together we can explore more of these new ways of thinking, living, working--being--over the coming weeks and perhaps generate a great resource for us all.

In the next post i will take a look at some of the jargon of complexity. Strange attractors, and scalar invariance. And why would you care? Because attractors are the tipping points of the system and scalar invariance helps you spot patterns at the micro level that can promote change at the macro level. Can't wait, can you ;)

Open Space memorial

20061111_Funeral Flowers_9_7, originally uploaded by the view from in here.

While it feels strange to discuss my grandfather's Life Celebration in terms of facilitation practice, i want to capture and share the learning. I feel grateful to the minister of the Anglican Church where the celebration was held as he was knowledgeable about and supportive of Open Space. I am humbled by my grandmother's trust in me. She really has no idea what i do, and no understanding of what OS is, but still she was open to letting me share what i had to give. And for that i will be forever grateful.

I did not use pure OS--as you might imagine. My intention was to both honour my grandfather's life and to provide a meaningful ceremony for all present. In the end, i used a confluence of OS, circle, and Whole Person Process.

We set up in the afternoon, two days before. We were expecting about 60 people, so we set up in concentric circles of about 30 chairs each, with four aisles aligned to the altar and the main entry door of the church sanctuary. We placed three small coffee tables (okay one coffe table and two wonderfully colourful tables from the Sunday School) in the centre of the circle. It took a while to get them positioned properly, but in the end, they supported the energy flow by inviting people into the circle and creating a clockwise flow. We covered the tables with white and green church linen. On the central table, we placed an oval mirror and on this a floral centre piece with a candle. The inspiration for this was from circle practice where the fire in the centre draws people back to spirit when the conversation gets difficult. On the other two tables we placed photos of my grandfather from different times in his life; they were placed upside down. The photos were to be used for the transfer-in process from WPPF.

On the day of the ceremony, people gathered and i rang the bells to begin. I introduced myself and then introduced the minister who led everyone in prayer. Then it was time to open the space. I walked the circle
and invited everyone to look around and see who was here with us...to greet each other with their eyes. The principles were implicit rather than explicit--this was not the time for formality or rigidity--everything needed to be deeply personal.

Whoever comes became: We are all family, all friends. There are no strangers here.
Then i said, "We are all here to celebrate Len's life--to honour the life that he led and the legacy he has left. We are here to share a few of the moments where his life touched ours. To share what he meant to us--as best we can at this time. Please know that your tears are a blessing to that legacy and so is your laughter. His life was a special gift to each of us--and for a few minutes today, we can share that with each other."

Then it was time for the transfer in. I said that we had a gift for each of them and they were invited to come up and choose a picture from the tables. I invited everyone to believe that whatever picture they chose was the one they were meant to have. We took a minute of silence to reflect on the picture, on what it told us about Len. Then i invited everyone to find a partner or two and spend ten or fifteen minutes sharing whatever they wanted to. This is from WPPF and allows everyone to warm up their voices (it's tough to stand up and speak at these things--and my grandmother was scared that no one would). It also gives those who just couldn't possibly get up to speak a chance to share what they needed to share with someone else.

I rang the bells again after about 12 minutes and we all took our seats again. I invited each person who felt like it (and nobody had to) to come and take the microphone and share a memory of Len or what he had meant to them. I added that: "There may be silences and that is fine. We are all here to share what we can and sometimes silence is what we need to share."

People got up and shared stories, some read what they had brought to share, email messages were shared out and read into our circle. At one point my mother suggested that i offer to take the microphone to anyone who felt they couldn't get up. I honoured her request and was glad i had. It's not what i would usually do, but grief needs accommodation. There were several people who wanted to share, but just couldn't bear the idea of meeting anyone's eyes. They were so glad to be able to contribute by having the mike passed to them.

In about 50 minutes it felt like we were done. I said, "We may be finished, we may not be." i gave us all a minute in case someone was still gathering their thoughts. Then finished up with, "Our formal time for sharing is ending." I invited the minister back into the circle for a final blessing. When he finished i thanked everyone for what they had shared and for their presence and support. I invited those who wanted to do so to light a candle in Len's memory from the one on the central table. And we adjourned for refreshments and more sharing. The circle was open. The whole ceremony took about one hour and fifteen minutes.

Open Space invited the presence of Spirit and let us all feel each other's presence. It allowed for each of us to contribute as we felt able. It honoured the grief present and gave us all a brief glimpse of what lay beyond it. Circle supported us with fire in the centre, the heart of family and community. WPPF supported us in bringing our whole self present. It supported healing by integrating both sides of the brain, by inviting our voices, and by helping us to hear each other with open hearts. It provided a liberating structure to what might otherwise have felt overwhelming.

The feedback has been very positive. Many people have remarked on how fulfilling it was--on how it was just what they needed. That was what i had hoped for: to provide an honouring space and time that would be meaningful and healing for those who came.

I did not have long to prepare for this, as you might imagine, so it just flowed from my heart and what felt right and possible in the moment for all of us closest to it.

In Memoriam Len Turner 1913-2006

gramps and me, originally uploaded by the view from in here.

My Grandfather, Len Turner, died just after 11:00 on Saturday night. It has been a long 14 months and it was a longer 4 days for those of us who sat by his bedside as he struggled for each breath. His final moments were peaceful and we all feel a huge sense of relief that he has finally found freedom after being a prisoner in a body that no longer served his will.

He loved life so much. He loved this beautiful earth and didn't want to miss a minute of what might happen next. His love for his family, for my grandmother, for my mother, for me and my brother was a blessing and privilege to witness and receive.

His stories, his humour, his smiles, his ingenuity, and his gentle strength have been a daily part of my life for 40 years. He was a blacksmith's apprentice, a welder, a builder of planes, a fireman, a maker of jewelery, an artisan, a handyman, a gardener, a trickser, a farmer, a fisherman, a naturalist, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather.

I have been thinking a lot over the past few days about all of the things that i learned from him. He taught me to fish. He tried to teach me to fight (but i was a hopeless non-violence practitioner, even at ten.) He taught me how to light a campfire--my status as a fire goddess is largely due to his example. But of all the lessons that i learned from him, two stand out as most important.

I learned from him the belief that what you can imagine you can create. He could coax beauty and usefulness from anything--bits of wood and string, scraps of metal, discarded perspex-- with a bit of glue and paint, or some whittling, under his hands they became a mobile of airy delight, an eternal rose, an exotic parrot. Thanks to him i can see beauty and possibility everywhere.

He also gave me the gift of companionable silence. You can't fish and chatter. You can't see a deer or a purple finch or a drowsy snake if you're always filling the silent spaces. Those daily adventures in the woods, and wandering along streams and beaches--quiet. Listening together for the mystery in the spaces of life.

I love you Gramps. And i can't quite yet absorb that you're gone.

horror--and its remedy?

Today a colleague sent me images by email of an 8-year-old boy having his arm crushed by the wheel of a car for stealing bread in a market. Last week, as i sat in my car in the ferry line with my children waiting to take them to school we listened to news of a mother who had murdered her children. The day before, we heard news of ten girls bound and shot in an Amish school. Every day they die of hunger. Every day they die of AIDS. Every day they are shot by militias because they got in the way, or they were homeless. Every day they are neglected in orphanges. Every day they suffer in the bondage of slavery. Every day they watch their mothers beaten and murdered. Every day they are beaten and murdered.

I sit here almost incapacitated by horror. There are images and sounds and stories of torture and murder burned in my memory from the past fifteen years of work. I know i am tired. I know i don't usually consume ANY media for good reason. I know I will wake up in the morning, having managed to fall asleep somehow, and get on with my day, my work, loving my children, my family, my friends. I know that somehow, beyond this moment, i will find again the hope and determination to imagine a future for my species that is free from hatred, fear, and cruelty. A future where each child can grow up unharmed. I will somehow, once again manage to choose compassion over despair. But right now all i can do is shake and cry with the horror of what we can do to each other.

This news that bathes and barrages us with the basest of who we are, depletes us and alters us in dangerous ways. We can lose hope; we can lose faith in ourselves and our species. We can slide from horror to numbness to incapacity. It fuels our flight from reality into endless entertainment. It fuels hatred and suspicion. And most of all it fuels fear--the kind of fear that can be used to manipulate, to silence, to subvert, to oppress.

I don't know if those photos were real. They looked real. They could have been faked. They could have been from a movie. They could have been staged by the CIA or any number of other special interest groups dedicated to promoting hatred between people to further some project or other through a disinformation campaign. I'll never know the truth. Neither will you. What i do know is real is the trauma in my body. The disruption at a cellular level of my self and my energy. My heart contracts in self-protection. Can you feel it too?

It hurts--and it's hard work!--to open and soften that heart again. I am working at it as it type this because i choose to believe that compassion is the only response that will change us--that has any chance of success. And so i breathe in the suffering and terror of the child and breathe out compassion--because it's all i can give him--because i choose to believe that at some level it matters. And then it gets harder--i extend compassion to the man who is holding him down (it could be his father) because i choose to believe that only someone who is experiencing tremendous suffering could harm a child that way. So i breathe in that suffering and breathe out compassion--because i choose to believe that it matters. And i choose to break the cycle. I will not perpetuate the energy of hate and fear.

I don't believe it's about right and wrong anymore. I choose to believe it's about the energy of love and compassion versus the energy of fear. And i choose to believe that it matters at the level of energy--regardless of distance or time.

And i say choose to believe, because i have learned that faith is not a rock that we stand on, but is an activity we engage in moment by moment as life presents us with each new opportunity to be present in a different way.

So the horror and despair are receding--replaced by the ache of a soft and open heart.


-----author's aside to self:
A wondering to capture for further reflection: Things seem to be moving beyond questions--or at least verbalized questions--and into a realm of being or flow. There seems to be no question relevant other than to perhaps be a question. Or be a response. Perhaps we can find repose in our response-ability?

balance

So much one could say about this...but sometimes pictures are worth more. And when it's pushing one A.M. and one's children are heading off to their first day of school in the morning, and one is still jet-lagged and totally bagged...a picture it will have to be.

If you haven't seen the incredible West German short film BALANCE, then do. It's seven minutes you won't regret. This is a pretty decent version up on youtube.

questions on human competencies and complexity

In our workshop today there were some really interesting discussions and questions raised. Marquis Bureau suggested that perhaps we should look at nomadic people for the skills and competencies that would help us to function and thrive in more fluid and changing organizations. That led me to think of the Lakota people who offer that their particular genius is in human relationships (Dr. Martin Brokenleg). And we certainly could use improved competencies in that area. Birgitt Williams pointed out that many nomadic people still had a cycle of regular places that they stayed. This leads to a couple of questions...what other competencies do nomadic people demonstrate that might be helpful for us to learn from? Are there any truly nomadic people--those who have no regular round of locations?

Another question that arose as we pondered where untapped treasure troves of human understanding might lie, was: When was the last time (if any) the human species (or its predecessor) has been faced with this degree of complexity and change? I posited the Ice Age. It would be really interesting to take a look at this and see not only if there are times that compare well, but what arose out of those times. Memes for example; that we may still be carrying today.

Well, as you might expect after a long day of stiff brain work, i'm toasted. So i leave you to ponder along with me. Looking forward to your thoughts.

(Sorry for the lack of pics. I forgot to bring along the camera cable.)

argghhh. social engineering meets the web?!?

This is one of the horrors i imagined happening when i fully grokked what Stephen Downes was talking about during Northern Voice 2005. When he was trying to disenchant us all about the big spike-long tail thing and started getting into how power, control, heirarchy, etc is built right into the coding that makes our beloved web work.

The last thing we all need is software that engineers social interaction--facilitates fine, engineers....eeek!!!

community and leadership

Great post from Gardner Campbell over at Gardner Writes on leadership and growing community:

On the topic of leadership, this quotation also seems striking to me.

He who loves community, destroys community. He who loves the brethren, builds community. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

With allowances for the androcentric language, which I’m confident Bonhoeffer meant inclusively, the observation is keen and apt. The idea as I understand it is that communities are built out of persons, not out of ideologies, and that one of the most insidious traps a leader can fall into is that of advocating community while evading engagement with persons in all their alterity, all their knotty complexities.

There's more good stuff to read here about personal integrity and learning communities.

There's a real link here to what we are practicing with Community Weaving. Weaving a social safety net and creating a village effect by connecting with one person at a time, meeting them where they are, however they are, and inviting them to ask for what they need and offer what they can--believing that the resources required to resolve local problems reside in the hands and hearts of local people. As each person responds to an invitation to step forward and take responsibility for what they care about, they become a vital and creative organ in a self-organizing body of increasing civic health and wellbeing.

I am working with People for a Healthy Community on Gabriola to pioneer this approach in Canada. I also presented on this approach when i was in Moscow and there are now several initiatives begun there as a result.

Well, i am in North Carolina with Birgitt and Ward Williams and a group of wonderful folk from around the world. We are all learning together and sharing our experiences of helping organizations integrate Open Space principles into their daily way of working.

The conversations are deep and there is much to ponder and much fodder for future bloggin'!