youth leadership

I'm headed to facilitate at a creative youth leadership camp next week and want to share some of the energy we experienced during our week at cpsi. I'd love to take any poems, excercises or ideas from group members. Anybody have a poem or story they love that we don't have posted here yet? Thanks! Hope all are well. Love, Betsy

Being Here, Now

Said by a participant in Michael’s workshop: “How can I learn to not be not present?”

Presence has flirted with me from time to time, but it sure does play hard to get. My really wonderful high school calculus teacher told me I would never make it through design school; he claimed that I was one of his best students ever at figuring out how to go about solving a problem, but as soon as the solution was in sight I lost interest. In design school I had one of North Carolina’s finest painters for a color class, and on one of the assignments everyone marveled at how well I had rendered my beloved Earth Shoes in acrylic, but then asked why I just quit on addressing the background.

A couple of years later I sat tinkering at a piano – I’ve never had lessons – and figured out how the two hands were to work with each other on Fur Elise. It was tingly, marvelous, but I basically ran away, never to go there again.

In our time together at CPSI I found myself checking in and checking out, once again. Since then I’ve been reading Dialogue, by William Isaacs. (Michael Jones shows up in there from time to time!) Isaacs says that what often gets in the way of dialogue is a tendency to be preoccupied with either the past or the future, at the huge expense of engaging in the present. I’ve often thought Yoda was talking to me and not Luke: “Always your mind somewhere else. Never on where you are, what you are doing.”

Two weeks before CPSI I taught a planning workshop on Russell Ackoff’s Idealized Design. I was struck yet again at his emphasis on developing the design for the present, on what is wanted now. I’m now reading his Redesigning Society, and as he talks about systems, synthesis and analysis, and I’m seeing Isaacs talk about coherence, unfolding and fragmentation…………they’re talking about the same things!

Bruce's artwork, Michael's Visionholder call

Greetings to each and everyone,

First of all, I want to say thank you to Bruce for posting larger images of your artwork. Several days ago, I did get to the new site and I very much enjoyed looking more closely at your work!

Secondly, I was part of Michael's VisionHolder call at Heartland last week. It was wonderful -- a revisit to our week together in Georgia. The environments and community that Heartland creates resonates with what we had together at CPSI. Separately, I'm sending an invitation to explore Heartland's work -- if anyone would like to talk with me about their AOC communities, please feel free to call or email me.

Isn't it so true that life changes pace into a different gear after we leave somewhere like CPSI? And yet, I'm convinced it's so critical for us individually as well as us as a group plus all of us collectively (i.e., Michael's "commons") to keep working with... sharing... and spreading the energies we benefited from and enjoyed.

Namaste,
Kathy Anne

Drawings

There was a post that expressed interest in seeing some of the drawings at a larger scale. To avoid crowding the nice thoughts that are appearing, I have posted them here on Flickr.
My best to all!

The Only Solution

We shall have to evolve
problem-solvers galore -
since each problem they solve
creates ten problems more.

--PIET HEIN

Candle Wisdom

If you knew
what you will know
when your candle
has burnt low,
it would greatly
ease your plight
while your candle
still burns bright.

--PIET HEIN

the I-ching and creativity

Hello Friends,

Yesterday I decided to cast the I-ching, and my initial hexagram, "Heaven" had an explanation that reminded me of our many discussions. Out of all the times I've cast the coins, this is the first I have ever received Heaven as my message. It especially echoed our last meeting, where we "jumped into" our new lives together, feeling renewed and excited. I've quoted the lines that spoke to me most below. And since there are so very many interpretations of this text, these are from The Living I Ching version, by Deng Ming-Dao. If you've never owned but are interested in a copy of the I Ching, this is a beautifully written and illustrated version perfect for both beginners and those more familiar with the ancient Chinese writings. One of my friends, who studied Eastern spirituality in monestaries in Japan and China, helped me pick it out, so it comes highly recommended!

Heaven (hexagram 1):

Heaven is the beginning. Heaven creates from open sky. As the calligrapher begins from white paper, heaven works from emptiness.

Many of us, deep in darkness when we cannot sleep, wonder about the stars turning above us. We think of our own aging. The clock ticks. Our holidays mark the passing years as much as they might mark celebrations or remembrances. Our own birthdays impassively tabulate the number of years we have been on this planet, reminding us that our store of health and vitality can only lessen until heaven takes us again in the ultimate transition.

Creativity is the only act that denies this undeniable constant. When we make something - whether it is a wooden spoon for our kitchen, a painting, a poem, a song, a speech- the effort we invest is stored for the future and becomes a vehicle that lets us live outside of normal time. Creativity, then, begins new cycles that spiral out and spin into the coils of heaven. Heaven, the origin. Heaven, the pervasive. Heaven, the bountiful. Heaven, the pure. If you worship heaven, then be like heaven. If you would last as long as heaven, then create like heaven. In all things, be no different than heaven and the future will be yours. We must act like heaven, which creates and acts and furthers all things but never seeks to accumulate for itself.

Have a wonderful and creative day,
Rachelle