The Power of the Pause

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The Power of the Pause

A few days ago, working with leaders from nonprofits who serve elders, I opened with a poem.  When we took a break, one of the executives whose leadership experience before entering eldercare was in the military, asked me "Why don't you leave a moment of silence after you read a poem?" 

I was startled. And appreciative of his question. I'm a great proponent of the power of silence--as you can see in the poem of mine that follows--but with poems, especially my own, I have a hard time practicing what I preach.  

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A Different Kind of Circus

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A Different Kind of Circus

The first time I saw a Cirque de Soleil performance I was blown away. The beauty of it. The gymnastic skill. The use of colors. The silk ropes. A whole new world.

The second time I saw them I was in Las Vegas for work and saw a performance of Love, a spectacular enthralling experience built around music by the Beatles. It was so amazing I knew it would be worth a second trip to Las Vegas (a city I don't enjoy) just to see it again.

These circus performers were different than those in the traditional circus.  And it brought to mind the Greenhouse movement in the field of care for frail elders.  The Greenhouses look unlike a traditional nursing home. They are managed by a Shabazim, a person whose role that breaks all the traditions of the older care models--by creating a small homelike setting with a "homemaker" who provides care and connection.

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On Encouragement

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On Encouragement

I came away from last week's poetry gathering at Kirkridge--Bread for the Journey--thinking of the power of encouragement in the lives of those who love poetry and those who write it. 

Eighty-four of us gathered for four days--listening to poets and poetry. And to stories about poets and their poetry.  And everywhere were stories of encouragement. 

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The Cactus

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The Cactus

This picture of my rangy blooming  cactus servers as a reminder to me that things take time and all natures critters bloom at their own speed. Including you and me. 

I can't remember where the cactus came from. Maybe a gift years back.  It seems to survive long periods without much water or attention.  But it's a gangly thing growing in strange directions with some branches that seem almost broken. 

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More on Time and Gifts

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More on Time and Gifts

After worrying about not having enough time for everything our group had planned for our agenda--and finding that the retired Methodist missionary women, who knew nothing about the time bind, had gifted me three packets of Thyme seeds (enough thyme/time, you think?)--I began wondering about gifts. 

Where do gifts come from? Can we recognize them for what they are?  Does the giver understand the power of the gift?  And do we realize what we have been given?  Especially when we are stressed, or anxious, or rushing about. 

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Enough Time

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Enough Time

I was in the midst of a recent leadership development program, where we were juggling a complex time schedule and wondering if we had enough time for everything we had planned. We visited a home for retired Methodist missionaries and in the gift bag they gave each of us were three packets of thyme seeds. I loved the pun: plenty of thyme/time. And almost immediately my longtime friend Diane Cory sent me this story.  It seemed apt, and I wanted to share it with you. 

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Flourishing

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Flourishing

These past few days I've been at Case Western Reserve University for a huge gathering focused on human and environmental flourishing. It was a celebrational time as the focus was our new book Flourishing Enterprise; the new spirit of business.

The remarkable synchronicity of chance meetings and the joy of seeing old friends was huge for me.

I met wonderful people through my work with poetry and sat with strangers only to find we had heart connections and good friends in common.

Toward the end of the time there I was thanking Bruce Cryer, former CEO of HeartMath, for wonderful comments about the power of the arts as a force for health. He handed me his card and there was the name of his latest venture: What makes your heart sing?

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Questions and Listening

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One of the practices that I use in various leadership programs is what I call "soft-ball" questions--questions to which only the person we are asking could possibly know the answer,  And once we get the answer we can't possibly second guess the person.  They are the complete authority on their answer.  Questions like: "When did this first begin to trouble you?"  "What have you thought about doing?"    These questions which come from the hundreds of year old Quaker tradition of the clearness committee draw out the wisdom of the other--or as Parker Palmer says, they"listen the other person into their own knowing."  

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Flourishing Enterprise

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Flourishing Enterprise was written with eight colleagues who bring wildly different backgrounds and perspectives--all of whom intend to contribute to the possibility that the human species and all other species might flourish together on the earth, forever.  Published by Stanford University Press, and under the auspice of the business school at Case Western Reserve, it is the result of three years of arduous and challenging dialogue and exploration.

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The Antique Lilac

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The Antique Lilac

This year, after a miserably long and cold Michigan winter, the natural world up North is full of blooming wonders.  And one of the most remarkable examples of the exuberance of this spring is the antique lilac that lay on the ground for years behind the forsythia out by the road,  and which we hoisted up a couple of years back with a clothes-line tied off on a cedar stump.  In past years, if there were a bloom or two we were impressed.  But this year, the lilac, here to prove that age has nothing to do with vitality and creativity, has done itself proud.  Virginia Woolf said "I don't believe in aging.  I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun."   I guess we helped the lilac do that:  we altered the lilac's aspect to the sun.  Interesting to ask ourselves how we do that for each other.

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