Hope you are enjoying the summer. Can’t believe the conversation has already turned to the beginning of school…time marches on! I’m just going to stay in a summertime mindset through October! So be it… – Stewart
PTS
Recently my step-daughter sent me the following link to a piece about PTS. My essential conclusion after reflecting on it is that we are all living with some degree of PTS. http://tinyurl.com/pahm22j
I responded:
That’s the umpteenth piece I’ve read or was mentioned recently painting the scenario we are in including a recent piece in Esquire and Meg Wheatley’s book “So Far from Home.” I just signed up for a year long program with her and others called “Warriors for the Human Spirit.” I have a great deal of respect for her as an organizational / systems theorist. She makes an unfortunately accurate stringing of the beads of how we got here and that we are beyond a point of no return on climate, greed, democracy, personal values and capitalism…essentially saying that those of us doing good work need to keep doing the good work with equanimity in the face of it not likely to make a difference in the long run (whatever that is.) I was going to send you the book but was concerned it was too negative. Thank you for sending the piece…it is well said.
Have been thinking of the long term impact of the stress of the past years as the shock of death quiets and what if anything to do about it.
She responded with a lovely quote I had not heard ….
Add your light to the sum of light
– Dostoevsky
It is an interesting time for soul work…!
Letter from southern white woman –
My friend and member of the Roundtable Gwen Mazer sent me the following shortly after the Charleston massacre.
A good friend forwarded an essay to me (link below) and I hope you will read it and think about, as the writer has done, what you can do as an individual to facilitate the kind of dialog we all need to have about race and racism… and I do mean dialog, not arguments. It would be great if we could have a conversation that values everyone’s point of view so that each of us can be heard and not feel we don’t have a right to our opinions. Only when each of us does our part can we really begin to change things, to eradicate this cancer that is eating away at our country. In order to change a person’s mind, you first have to know what is on his/her mind and why he/she thinks the way he/she does before you can present a different point of view. Many, many people have what they believe to be valid reasons for feeling the way they do–whether we agree with them or not. Below is the link to Natalie’s essay and my response. I hope this will start all of us thinking about this very crucial issue.
Peace and blessings, Barbara
I Will Not Stay Silent Any Longer: A Southern White Woman’s Response to the Charleston Massacre
http://natalieholm.com/blog/2015/06/silence-south/#comment-926
Agreements
Because of my work around explicit agreements as a foundation for building strong organizational culture and strong collaborative relationships I was so pleased to receive the link my friend and colleague Elizabeth Doty sent around the importance of being aware when promises are made. Click on the link and think on this great post in Business and Strategy!
Why Leaders Need to Ask: “Is that a Promise?”
The Real Impact of Technology: A recent assignment from my friend Gerald Harris:
View the following video at this link: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/generation-like/
I was stunned by it and don’t know what to make of it in terms of what it says about the future and the growing role of social media in all aspects of our lives. I found many things about it disturbing, but also interesting and inevitable. Questions for us to share:
1 Does this make you see the future in a different way?
2 Does this change anything you believe about people?
3 How should any of this be incorporated in shaping enterprises?
I look forward to seeing you all.
– Gerald Harris
Specialist in Scenario Analysis & Strategy Development
What did it bring up for you?
Grief Process
As my grief process continues I am pleased to say that recently I was writing a friend who just lost her husband to ALS. I found myself saying:
“as the dust settles I have discovered I have a special
friend,love and relationship that is with me forever.
To my surprise It’s joyous.”
Books I highly suggest:
- Blue Nights and The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
- Healing Through the Dark Emotions by Miriam Greenspan
Wevorce.com
I have previously shared that I have been doing divorce mediations again as a Wevorce associate. Now that I have done a few I can resoundingly state that the process and level of expertise is as elegant in practice as in theory.
I have completed a few cases and can now say with confidence that if you want a process that reinvents your relationship and elegantly takes care of the issues you need to address to get a divorce I can provide that. Weather it’s you or struggling friends or relatives please get in touch for a free consultation to see if the process is for you.
Pollinate.life
Last week I was supposed to be in NY supporting my sister’s knee replacement surgery. That was delayed due to a sting right on the knee. So instead I filmed the clips for a new app about the Art of Collaboration. I’m excited about the platform and the opportunity for people to learn what I have found to be critical components of powerful, sustainable productive collaborations. Look for updates and if you want to participate in some beta testing let me know.
Poetry Corner
GIVING
What an honor it is to care for another
To know the concerns of sister or brother
To hear their voices and anticipate needs
To fulfill their desires and offer sweet deeds
Receiving them fully no matter their wound
Allowing their humanity feeding nourishing food
Offering your whole self to cherish and love
Providing your kindness being their dove
Some people do this with ease and grace
Some do it over as they move place to place
Others resist live in their own skin
They cannot let go of concerns within
If you can release get big embrace
The needs of another give you a new face
No longer focused on your inner map
Your feet will tingle take on a bouncier tap
When you look around do you get a sense
You can provide gifts like nobody else
You fill in what’s missing seek to give not take
You see the sweet apples you have to bake
Take the ingredients in front of you
Your sacred recipes can create a new roux
When ready to leave let others observe
You came to care to give and to serve
Do you spend much time scanning your environment
looking for what others need? When was the last time
you did? Have you experienced the gifts you get when
you care for the concerns of others? Where is your resistance?
ShareSEP
2015