It is amazing sometimes that the RSS aggregator seems to collect a pattern that is fleeting and yet solidly present in the diverse world of the blogs I read. And so today, I am delighted to find these three posts, all of which seem to be saying something bigger:
- Alex Kjerulf writing on love and leadership
- AKMA in a meditation on the gift of endings and continuings prompted by Lemony Snickett and JK Rowling’s last novels.
- Christy Lee Engle on “the unwanted passion of your sure defeat,” and other thoughts inspired by David Whyte.
There is a tenderness in all three of these posts, finding the soft underbelly of what might otherwise be a hardened and closed experience. Something ineffable like that, and all three touched me quite deeply on this late autumn day, when the snow is melting around me and the rain and fog move through in small moments.
Harvesting is up in a big way for me.
Monica Nissen and I captured the results of our conversation on harvest within the Open Space at the Art of Hosting near Boulder and we made this map. If you click on the picture above, you will be taken to the photo page where there are annotations on the map. You can also add comments here or there as to what it sparks in you.
Micro conversations can be a counterpart to micro credit: what if we could encourage people to converse in little groups, to take charge of their lives, jointly, in little snatches, and spread these micro conversations to thousands and thousands? Here is where the pyramids and circles work, because there is an infinite set of permutations and each one is creative (not additive, not multiplicative, not geometric). It is not zero sum, where one gathers at the expense of another: all benefit. Not just individually but in our interwoven whole.
Just host a little conversation, do it deeply and with intent, but not a big deal…on the bus, at lunch, at the Art Gallery. Harvest something and get something started, or just inspire.
Micro everything…enough of that and macro starts to feel it.