Art of Hosting, the chaordic dance and what we can learn from life

A couple of years ago – back when I had long hair – I was doing some work in Estonia, where I was part of a team of people that were leading a week long workshop learning about leadership, complexity, dialogue and belonging.  I was interviewed under a tree one afternoon about some of the concepts and the deeper implications of what we teach in the Art of Hosting workshops, which itself is, at its simplest, a set of practices to help facilitate participatory meetings better.  I talked a bit about what the Art of Hosting means, the need to dance with chaos and order and the learning from the deeper patterns of how life works.

A lot of what I have learned about living with change has come from living on Bowen Island.  The bulk of this ten minute interview is basically my operating principles when it comes to living in my community, dancing between chaos and order, welcoming change and bringing helpful form and cultivating the belonging that the heart truly desires.  This quiet reflection, spoken out in a period of my life when I was wobbly and reflective, captures something of how I see the world deep down.  It’s a bit sentimental, especially at the end, and I don’t apologize for that.  It’s from my heart.