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Archive for Art – Page 4

Congratulations! The Art of Convening is Born!

My old and dear friends Craig and Patricia Neal of Heartland Circle have just announced the birth of their first book, with Cynthia Wold. It's called The Art of Convening: Authentic
Engagement in Meetings, Gatherings, and Conversations
.

Artofconvening-cover
This book is going to be very important and of great benefit to everyone, especially those of us working with groups. The Art of Convening is available for pre-order at Amazon, and I invite you to join me in welcoming this wonderful new book – pre-order copies now for yourself and your friends and colleagues, and become a fan on their FaceBook page.

European Salon

Just 10 days or so ago I was in Reichenau an der Rax in Austria (an hour or so outside of Vienna) for a European Salon put on by World Cafe colleagues.

Mountains

Stunned by the beauty of this lovely country, I was once again moved by the beauty of the human heart as we naturally and collectively answered the gravitational pull towards deep connection and the spontaneous expression of community.

Centerpiece

The latter (community) was my particular passion and interest for this salon, which was focused on the themes of dialogue, leadership and community. Several of us spent some time exploring a definition of community that could address the range of new community forms being created by the reality of geographic dispersal.

I was fascinated to find a direct connection, in practice, between the depth of community that was formed and the other two themes of the event – leadership and dialogue. It was through our experiment in shared leadership – a truly collaborative expression – that our powerful sense of community was forged.

I am continually amazed by this human need and drive to find depth and connection through dialogue – we hosted an online World Cafe on the subject of community – "What is your most powerful experience of community and what were the elements that made it so?" – using my new favorite "tech tool", the extremely simple to use MaestroConference. Once again, I was absolutely stunned at both the depth of our inquiry – from the roots of community to the historical and contemporary rituals that bring us into or out of it – and the feeling of true connection it engendered among a group of virtual strangers, or at least we were when we began.

Harvesting Lightning

Have-a-nice-day

This image came at the end of one of those "state of the world" PowerPoint slide-shows that are being emailed around. The material was fairly predictable until this last slide, which I found myself totally enchanted by – an image of ma and pa – two regular folks – harvesting lightning.

I don't know where it came from, so I don't know how to credit it, but there's something so cheerful and matter of fact about this image of harvesting lightning, light-filled bolts of inspiration that are emerging from the cloud-saturated skies of these dark days. Regular people watching for the ideas and dreams that are appearing now, and harvesting them like canned peaches for the winter when they will be most sorely needed; a time that is coming fast upon us now.

Meet you in the root cellar!

Alex Grey’s Obama

Here's the amazing Alex Grey's view of Obama as a truly global visionary:

Obama