Homecoming
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Whoever said you can't go home again may not have been completely right. At least not in my case.
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Let Your Compass Guide You
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I realize I am more likely to be orienting to my true north when I take time to breathe, to step back from my sense of rush and urgency, and to consider a long view of what seems like a momentary crisis. To step back and check my compass rather than racing by my clock.
Read MoreFind and Know Your Why
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Gifts have been on my mind--both literal giving and receiving but, also natural gifts that we share with the world in a sometimes less obvious way. I am reminded of Michael Jr's Know Your Why and share that video below. I also, share a video of my thoughts on what this means for me and a story of a gift that was given to me.
Read MoreDon't Go Changing
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Sometimes songs go through my head. And stay around, circle around, repeating themselves. Sometimes it's just the melody, and I can't even recall the lyrics. I end up having to hum whatever it is to my musically talented husband. And he comes up with the name of the song, and searches out the lyrics.
I've learned over time to pay attention to those lyrics, just as I have learned to pay attention to a line of poetry that circles around in my mind. To take the words seriously. To mull them over. To be curious about what they might have to teach me. Now.
Read MoreSnowstorm Heading Our Way
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Greetings from the Washington DC's snowstorm's path. It began to snow about an hour ago. We have a fire going in the wood stove, and lots of soup. Flights cancelled. My work trip to San Antonio has been postponed to Monday. And I feel like a kid who doesn't have to go to school.
Perfectly All Right
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Recently I was co-facilitating a weekend retreat at Pendle Hill on the theme of The Undivided Life. My co-facilitator, Carol Kortsch had brought along a collection of natural materials from woods and garden—items that are beautiful even in the winter, simple, natural. Rocks. Branches. A turtle shell (her favorite). And a complex twist of roots and twigs bleached out into a single piece of driftwood. That was my favorite.
Read MoreBaggage
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I’ve made a commitment to travel lighter these days. Take with me only what I will really use. Still my suitcase is often heavier than it needs to be. Which means on most trips, I have to check a bag. Which is what put me at baggage claim at the Sacramento Airport last month. Gawking at a remarkable piece of public art: An enormous pillar of baggage.
Read MoreSoon You Arrive At The Edge Of All Your Plans
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The last note to friends was about PQ and CQ—passion quotient and curiosity quotient. The little furry caterpillar accompanying that note (he was on the table at lunch and I took his picture!) seemed to suggest nature’s version of curiosity. A living thing holding on to the edge of the table, still wiggling to see more, reaching further. Extending himself.
Read MoreA Different Kind of Intelligence
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The January 30th NY Times had an intriguing article by Thomas Freidman suggesting that something called PQ and CQ could be more important than IQ in a world in which increasing numbers of folks have open and low-cost access to information, education, and news via I-phones, IPads, and I-everythings. (Not withstanding the observation you and I could make that people of struggle may not have the I-everythings to access all this abundant resource.)
Read MoreHeart Song
/Dear Friends,
I’ve been thinking about these words:
“Listen to yourself; Know what makes your heart sing.”
That’s a chapter title in my book, The Art and Spirit of Leadership. And since almost always when I write something, I have learned that I am supposed to pay attention to it myself, I’ve been thinking about it.
I must admit that I don’t know where that title came from. One day it just popped into my mind. And it kept returning. As is my practice as a poet, I took note of it. I listened. And I continue to ask myself what it has to teach me. What it asks of me. What does make my heart sing? And what does that song ask of me?
Read MoreHolidays
/January 2, 2012
Dear One and All,
A few days back, my friend Mary Parish and I spent some quiet time together musing about what we might be sensing for ourselves, and for each other, in the year ahead. Not New Year’s resolutions, so much as a dissolving of the constraints of old ways of thinking, old expectations, old demands we place on ourselves.
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