This past week I have been in Minnesota working with colleagues Jerry Nagel, Ginny Belden-Charles and Mandy Ellerton. We were conducting a second residential training in collaborative leadership with a number of planning grantees working in communities to make impacts on the social and economic determinants of health. In this residential we spent a fair bit of time working on tactical community organizing, exploring how to teach this from the perspective of the Art of Hosting. The traditional tactics of Alinsky-style community organizing operate by creating strategic targets for action and mobilizing community power against those targets. It’s a zero-sum …
Awoke to the glorious sound of eagles calling on the wing. # Excited to be meeting with mates and picking my #WhitecapsFC seats for this season! #werebluewerewhite #scarvesup # Curious about some good books to read? http://t.co/imafqse # Chickadee duets in a sunrise the colour and texture of sweetness. # Just had a divine wild smoked salmon sandwich at @thekaboombox on Granville St. Omg ever good fis! # Decision making wrt the national park http://bowenislandjournal.blogspot.com/2011/02/thoughts-on-good-decision-making.HTML #bowegov #npcac # It's just a fact of life these days: I am awakened every dawn by garrulous young bald eagles chattering over the bay. …
A lovely description of what happens when the magic of conversation flows. This past weekend I had the opportunity to be part of a Quaker-style “clearness committee” with a few twists thrown in. I have done a few similar sessions in the past, though it has been a while, and once again it proved to be a remarkable experience. The impetus for the session was a friend who, acknowledging that she is at a crossroads in her life and career, reached out for help with discernment. My wife, Emily, and I suggested convening a small group of …
From “Smart Flesh” the new album from Rhoda Island band The Low Anthem comes a beautiful collection of tunes, led by Ghost Woman Blues.
In this video piano soloist Maria Joao Pires is confronted with a nasty situation. As the conductor begins the piece of music they are to play, she discovers that it is not the piece she prepared. She has left her music at home Imagine that. Undaunted, she engages in a short conversation with the conductor who encourages her to play it any way – she played it last season, she knows the piece well. Pires digs ddep – you can see it in her face – and conjures up Mozart’s D minor concerto form the depths of her mastery. There …