By the Light of Collective Intelligence
Much depends on the strength of the lantern we hold up to see where we are, our surroundings and the possible paths through the deep woods around us. A dim lantern won’t shine deep into the dark. It won’t clarify the looming shadows. How do we make our lantern burn brighter and more stable, since […]
Neighborhood is the New Wilderness
I have to say it again: Neighborhood is the new wilderness. Love that. Wish I’d said it myself but I didn’t. I do want to go to the neighborhood wilderness though: build a little cabin . . . off-grid, wood stove, birds and animals, my sweetie. No I heard the phrase, almost in passing, day […]
Simple thoughts about the complicated virus
There’s so much to say about the virus, it has so many dimensions. So I’ll keep it simple and share just two thoughts from today. Earlier this evening I was speaking with a friend in Poland about how it is for her. She was telling me that if feels like the end of the life […]
The Surprising Visitor
What do you need to move through this time well, something more than just getting through it still standing. Could we actually use this time to emerge stronger and more resilient? The question may seem crazy when we’re struggling to keep our head above water, when people close to us and maybe we ourselves are […]
Women and men love each other
Here’s a simple lens I find useful for looking at what’s going on in society and in Self. It presents an image of what balance looks like and what imbalance looks like. The consideration of the image presents a context for showing where imbalance is and what helps bring the system back into balance. What […]
Activists and the field beyond “us” and “them”
How can we work better together on a survivable future? What supports climate activism, and climate activists, in being more effective? Here are some observations using Regenerative Culture (Regen Culture) as a lens. (Regen Culture is Extinction Rebellion’s (XR’s) branch that supports activists.) The observations are filtered through a lot of exploration of small groups […]
Some feedback on online calls
I spoke to a few of you who’ve been on live Zoom calls and learned more about what’s working and where we might go. Here’s some of what I took away (special thanks to Betty, Laure, Andrea, Lynn): You like it when we break out into small groups, to do “Presencing practice” or something else […]
While we’re busy making other plans
I like John Lennon’s saying that life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. I take from that that there are hidden agendas and intentions that make things happen, dynamics beneath the ones we usually think. This is an interesting lens to look at politics or our own lives. What’s hiding beneath those […]
Inside activist culture
Inside Activist culture I received a phone call this morning from a friend in Germany who’s active in Extinction Rebellion. She was concerned about the activist culture there, how it favors action over reflection, a masculine doing over a feminine being, how it has little tolerance for the hidden or secret voices of members which were […]
Change is a shift in consciousness
My friend John Heney has referred to our normal experience of the world as an “isolating personal performance.” This seems to me a telling phrase, one I can certainly relate to from personal experience. In this essay, I want to take this experience of isolating performance and place it beside the experience of Presence or […]