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Archive for Thought Leader Gatherings

It’s a New Day!

Like about 300 million other Americans and countless others all over the world, I spent much of this historic day glued to the TV for the inauguration ritual celebrations. Like so many others I found myself choking up with tears and the courage to hope for a new day in America. I felt pride and a sense of gratitude towards my countrymen and women who helped elect this good man.

In his powerfully direct yet compassionate and inclusive inaugural speech, Obama didn't balk at the immense amount of work in front of us, nor did he give us false promises that it would be easy. But I couldn't help but feel if anyone can pull this self-obsessed nation together and inspire us to make the changes that are imperative for our survival, and the survival of others on this planet, he can.

Part of the excitement for me is how beautifully Obama's election is galvanizing the people and organizations I am part of. Basking in the glow of the new president's idealism, there seems to be an explosion of optimism and a feeling that this is "our time"… to have the conversations we've needed to have, to reach out to each other, work together, and begin to rebuild our country.

Just this evening, I received this video from the new Soul of Money website, revealing the silver lining in the current economic crisis that no one seems to be acknowledging yet.

Synchronicity

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Another powerful Thought Leader Gathering session from Heartland Circle

This July’s conversation starter (and regular TLG member) Betsy Saunders led us in an exercise using the symbolism of a monk’s begging bowl as a channel that receives contributions from the world and demands only that the gift be accepted as precisely "enough" for each day’s needs.

In the first part of the exercise we were to gather in small groups and
answer the question "What is my gift to the world?", write down our
answers, and put them in one of the beautiful brass begging bowls Betsy
had brought for this purpose.

I thought about my work and my joy, and an answer came to me: "My gift is in making your voice visible and audible in the world". I wrote it down and put it in the bowl along with the others.

In the second part of the exercise we were asked to join a new small group, and this time see what the bowl of life would offer for us. When my turn came, the slip of paper I pulled said "My gift is to share my voice with the world." Wow. What synchronicity.

This coincidence would seem unusual enough by itself, but everyone in my small group had something similar going on with their own picks, a phenomenon that was mirrored in the large group when we gathered later that morning to share what had happened.

It seemed that we each picked what we most needed, and in my case the gift was to receive for myself what I so enjoy giving to others. 🙂

Spark to the Fire

We just finished another amazing Thought Leader Gathering on Friday, produced by the west coast
Restoring Wholeness team of Heartland Circle, Resonance and myself –
this one was held in San Francisco, in the Golden Gate Officer’s Club at the Presidio.

Our conversation starter (so called because rather than a keynote
speaker or presenter, their words are truly a spark to fire the
group conversation) was Eamonn Kelly, CEO of the Global Business Network.

Eammon’s perspective about the state of the world (outlined in his excellent new book, Powerful Times) was in complete accordance with my own, but he used such a different analytical matrix to get there that it had the effect of blowing the top off my conceptual limits and letting in more light, illuminating my understanding with different hues than I am usually aware of. I heard variations of this opening and quickening in others as we engaged with Eamonn’s words in small group and whole circle conversations.

The group assembled for this TLG was one of our largest ever – 55 of us sitting in a circle around a centerpiece of beauty created by Pele Rouge of Resonance. We had to lean in a bit to hear each other at first, but with our ‘outdoor voices’ on it was soon effortless and the morning’s experience was extremely full and rewarding, in the unique way this event has of creating magic for us all.

I am continually awed by what happens in these sessions… it seems that no matter who the conversation starter is, who shows up, what the weather or external conditions are (we met the week of 9/11 in an almost unbelievable confluence, given travel limitations in the US at that time), there is always ‘something’ that occurs to make the morning seem like a special gift to each of us. I have the feeling this one will be reverberating in me for some time…

In this Moment

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This last Friday Craig & Patricia Neal from the Minnesota-based Heartland were here for September’s  Thought Leader Gathering, the every-other-monthly invitational event that I help produce with the Neals & Firehawk & Pele of Resonance.

The conversation starter, Mal Warwick of BSR and SVN, was wonderful as each and every one of them have been since we started these evolutionary dialogues back in 1999, but it is immediately clear that the TLG experience goes far beyond the specifics of any given conversation starter.

What is happening at these gatherings is ‘presence’. The TLG calls us
to Presence… to be here, in this moment, with ourselves, with each
other, and within nature.

The methods are deceptively simple, as these things tend to be (after
all, Presence is our natural state), but profoundly effective. How many
of us regularly take the time in our busy lives just to ‘be’ together? To turn off our email and cell phone and tune in to the messages coming from our own inner being? How many of us have the deep pleasure of a community of peers where we have the opportunity to listen deeply to each other. To feel the fundamental connection between us as fellow meaning-seeking creatures, and the inspiration & catalytic impetus we can be to each other as a tribe of humans committed to making a difference in our world?

We sit in circle and speak our words, and listen to the words of others, and all the while alongside this profoundly satisfying level of connection and interaction, something else is happening. Our hearts are opening, and we are experiencing a deeper rhythm, a silent resonance between us. There is a calming of our everyday concerns and a re-alignment with the larger patterns that have a sense and reason that gives meaning and direction to the actions that will arise from our time together.

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At the center of these gatherings, quite literally as well a metaphorically, is Beauty. Each time we gather, Firehawk and Pele bring abundant expressions of beauty – candles & fabric, stones or feathers or other ‘medicine’ materials from their cupboards & trunks, and flowers & plants & the all-important clippers with which they bring the outside in – and gather the elements into a beautiful patterm which is laid in a place of honor in the center of our circle. This ‘beauty in the middle’ is our anchor. We don’t have to speak it, it just is. Beauty calls us to presence, and shows us who and what we are at an essential level.