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A Pablo Neruda poem for Caitlin

April 2, 2009 By Being One Comment

When I read this Neruda poem, I thought of my wife.

Sonnet XVII

I don’t love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz

or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:

I love you as certain dark things are loved,

secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom and carries

hidden within itself the light of those flowers,

and thanks to your love, darkly in my body

lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,

I love you simply, without problems or pride:

I love you in this way because I don’t know any other way of loving

but this, in which there is no I or you,

so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,

so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.

via Neruda.

Loving downtown Portland

April 2, 2009 By Travel 3 Comments

I’ve been in Portland Oregon this week working with Native community radio stations from across the United States on an exciting capacity development project.   While here I’ve been enjoying the city.   Portland, Seattle and Vancouver really are sister cities.   We share the same climate, the same eco-systems and concerns, the same look and feel.   The histories of the three cities are intertwined by the people that have lived on this coast since the cities were founded.   The Columbia is the furthest south outlet of Canadian freshwater on the west coast, so in many ways, what flows nearby here is tied to what happens in the Canadian Rockies.   Out in the ocean, the migration of birds, salmon, whales and seals intimately connects these three cities too, even though Portland isn’t strictly a coastal town.

I have been here only once before, on a road trip to California, and I never spent any real time in the city.   On this trip, I was staying in a downtown hotel, and working a light schedule, so I had time to walk around and explore.   Took in dinner one night at a lovely restaurant, Higgins, which serves local, seasonal food in a west coast style.   I also stumbled into the real world version of Powell’s Books which is located in a funky little neighbourhood surrounded by the specialty bookshops that it spawned.   It’s a very friendly book store for such a big place, and full of helpful and cheerful staff.

I’ve been travelling by public transit on this trip too.   I almost took the train from Vancouver but was constrained by time.   Otherwise I would have loved to have gone from Vancouver straight through to San Francisco by train.   As it is the only train I will ride on this trip is the excellent MAX light rail in Portland which whisks you from the airport to downtown in a little over a half hour for $2.35.

On my way now to Sausalito to spend the weekend in some relaxed but important conversations around designing a global conference which will be held next year on Hawai’i.   Looking forward to being in the Bay area, and at the same time, resolved to return to Portland again soon.

Face to face

March 31, 2009 By Collaboration, Open Space 5 Comments

Interesting stuff popping out today around the net on social tools and face to face.   On the OSLIST, there was a little discussion on using twitter and facebook and the pros and cons.   I posted these thoughts:

I love the social tools because they allow me to connect with and get to know people in far flung areas who are closer to me in thought and spirit than those who are nearby.   For me, twitter, facebook, skype and blogging are a means to an end, and that end os sharing open face to face conversations with folks that are in disperate places, but with whom I learn a lot.

And something to think about intergenerationally is that there are teenagers now who have lived their entire lives in a world with blogging, skype, and facebook.   Think about that for a minute.   These people don’t consider these technologies to be old at all.   They consider them the default setting.

In a time when intergenerational conversation is becoming more important (how do we talk to the people with whom we have saddled with a trillion dollar debt, to explain to them to follies of our excess?) knowing a little about how these technologies enable self-organizing behaviour among digital natives is very important.   And learning to use them I think is as important as employing other powerful social technologies like, say, Open Space.

So I don’t begrudge the unwillingness to particiapte in the collective monkey mind (thanks Karen!) or the pining for real contact, but I do encourage people to learn about and play with these tools, just like we have with OST and see what happens…

And then today, a couple of posts in the feed.   Wendy Farmer-O’Neil dives back into blogging with a piece on “Web 3.0” and my neighbour and friend Emily van Lidthe de Jeude offers a lovely reflection on working with real world intimacy and global connectivity.

A great hybrid Cafe design

March 30, 2009 By Open Space, World Cafe, Youth One Comment

Micheal Herman posted a cool cafe design to the OSLIST today.   It marries the best of Cafe and Open Space:

i just facilitated an afternoon program with 120 “high potential” high school seniors as part of a final selection process for full-ride scholarships to two excellent universities.   it was a cafe format, but the first session was used to write questions that these young leaders thought they and other young people should be addressing.   then we did three rounds in which table hosts picked the questions and raised them with whoever rotated to their table for one session.   after the first question-making session, the 20 tables went in 20 different directions, like an open space with so many small stakes in the ground.   and i went around picking up cups and the last bits of box-lunch trash in cafe-style, with a small tray and quiet “can i take that out of your way?”

UPDATE: Michael has posted an excellent detailed write up of this design at his blog.

Co creation in Antarctica

March 28, 2009 By Collaboration, Conversation

We’ve explored very interesting, extremely challenging conversations using amazing tools, related to climate change and what we are to do about it. But the most engaging and mind blowing of all conversations was in a small circle, with the right people, sharing in an intimate and trustful environment, our dreams and expectations of this journey, sharing stories (Oh! The power of stories); and preparing ourselves, yet once again, this time as a collective, on what awaits us, an experience which will significantly have an impact in all of us as individuals, in our collective consciousness. And while connecting with words such as generosity, love, wisdom, and native ancestral knowledge, possibility is what emerges.

Via BP.