Seeds for a happy planet

I want to speak briefly here about the map that was unfolding. Showing it to others and speaking about it, it dawned on me that the elements that I named ‘Subtle Arts’ and ‘Tending the Land’ were not the right categories and they didn’t really fit in the map either, they were not the same category of things.

Like designers who strip away what isn’t necessary and programmers who search for beautiful code, there is also a simplicity and a rightness when getting to a map that works.  Here is why the two elements weren’t working: the Subtle Arts is about right relationship with much more than the land alone, and people-place relationship isn’t only about the land but it is about connecting with all that surrounds us.

Starting left on the map, it is about a subtle relationship with the past. Not as strong – and sometimes heavy – as we see in some indigenous cultures, but (much) more aware of ancestry and lineage than we do today in the West.
Also relationship with the future (right on the map), the seven generations, and more, which will follow us. Here the whole sustainable movement, up-cycling, cradle-to-cradle and so on fit in; but also what Scharmer calls ‘learning from the future’ and the subtle sensing of what is the next elegant step to take.
The work of Christopher Alexander – which I would describe as a subtle listening to the land and sensing where buildings fit in – and the many experiments these days with buildings out of local and natural material, houses and factories that use zero energy and inviting future residents in planning of neighborhoods are all practices of our relationship with the human build environment. Some are tried out for the first time; others are up to a level of mastery.
Connecting with the non-human, the plants, the animals, the landscape and the many, many layers of energy of the intangible is part of reality that we, Westerns, have to learn a lot about, but it is so essential when we want the Earth to be called our home, and not just the space within the walls of our house or apartment.

I’m sure this map will be fine-tuned when people start relating with it and work with it. It will only be by combining the many practices – in all directions of the map – that we will reach the mastery and artistry that is needed for our challenging times ahead.

Donderdag – onze tweede dag in de Art of Hosting training – met het thema van Ver-beeld-ing. Gisteren startten we met de Ver-wonder-ing en morgen gaan we door met Werk-elijkheid.

Een opening… een voorwerp…
Voelen, ervaren, met open aandacht waarnemen…
Ruiken … en proeven…
Slikken…
Een rozijn.

Vraag: Als verbeelding aan de macht is in Vlaanderen, wat gebeurt er dan?

Als Vlamingen kwamen we traag op gang, maar de diepgang van de gesprekken was er zeker niet minder om.

Een bloemlezing

Metamorfose…
Het is niet wat het is, het kan in VRAAG worden gesteld.

Het hosten van de vragen…

De spreekwoordelijke box… een poging tot betekenis maken,
Samen betekenis afchecken
Zien we dezelfde realiteit?
Out of the box
Het leven zijn gang laten gaan

De feitelijkheid van het samen op deze grond te wonen en te leven – dit Vlaanderen – niet oude ideeën erover

Wat heeft je geraakt?
Wat zien we nu bij mekaar komen?

Individuele expressie.. vrolijke kleuren… schoonheid
Het inspirerende… geen vaste structuur
De levensstroom die door alles heen gaat.

De ver-beeld-ing blijft gehoorzaam aan de ver-wonder-ing. Het beeld mag sterven… de verwondering aan de macht, de verbeelding om ze tot expressie te brengen,
Verwondering komt uit het leven…

Vlaanderen is waar we nu leven…
We zetten onze levensvreugde niet vast in een bekende doos.
Wat als we het leven er doorheen laten stromen?

VERWONDEREND VLAANDEREN

Ik leef hier – op deze grond – naast mijn buurman
Verwonderd?
Verwonderend?

Verwondering is drager van het potentieel.

Prettig gestoorde verwarring…
Zoektochten

Kleine en grote verwonde”ring
Niet los van mekaar

Zijn – samen – nu – uniek

Bijna iedereen kan omvallen
Uit mijn hoofd vallen

Stroom zorgt voor drang
Drang laten gebeuren in een licht
Stroom is beweging

Just before lunch, on Saturday, the second day in our gathering Women Moving the Edge, my impulse was to speak about emptiness, speak about naming the feminine as ‘just being’. To me these are not the right words for what we are actually doing. It can be named more precise and explicit. And this has been my journey since a long time.
The so-called ‘emptiness’ is the holding space of the potential; indeed like a womb. It is an open space with no-thing in it, but it is a space that is ready to be of service to let new life unfold.
The ‘just being’ is like being pregnant. There isn’t much you can ‘do’ while being pregnant, but still a lot is happening! But the act of giving attention and care has value and importance.
Holding space – beyond being pregnant – is to be understood as holding space for your children to grow up. You want to support them so that they become their true self; you are holding space for that potential, although you don’t know what kind of person they are going to become.

This all let me to explaining more of my model and what holding space has to do with finding the right question and embracing a bigger complexity. Here is what I wrote on it earlier:
“At some point in our inquiry, it occurred to me to wonder why we (women) were always speaking about Source, and not about Spirit. It seemed obvious to us women that holding space had to do with Source, not with Spirit. But why? It got me thinking.

Following some impactful physical/energetic experiences, I realised that – for me – holding space is something that happens in my body. I don’t ‘do’ it, rather, it happens through me. It is as if my body is a vessel, through which I am able to hold space for potential to unfold. We are familiar with this idea of ‘potential unfolding’ when we think about raising our children. But now we were applying it to groups and organisations. Is it always future oriented? Again: why Source and not Spirit?

The more I contemplated it, the clearer it got. To my sensing, Spirit comes – somehow – from above, from somewhere away from here, while Source seems to be accessible from somewhere deep within. Source is like a seed, it holds potential, which can unfold into manifestation. But the full picture needed to include Spirit. So what was that about? What did it have to do with manifestation?

In my daily life, I understand Spirit as asking for distance, reflection, talking about, concepts… very different from potential! Spirit has focus and clarity. It seemed to me that the translation of Spirit into ‘the future that wants to emerge through us’ was to stay in the inquiry, to keep the questions open. It is the intention that some innovation will become possible.

Wasn’t that a beautiful couple: Holding Space for Potential to Manifest and Staying in Inquiry to discover new patterns? Isn’t the synergy of these two what we desperately need in our complex world with it’s huge challenges?”

Since I wrote this piece there is more to this model. In a conversation with Maria Scordialou, Sarah Whiteley and Judy Wallace, as preparation for our upcoming program The Edge of Collective Sourcing, we saw a new aspect in this model. This is what we saw:
“Ongoing spiral between Holding Space and Staying in Inquiry creates New Wisdom
We realized the ongoing dynamic  – like a spiral going back and forth – between the level or depth of Sourcing and the level or depth/height of Awareness or Spirit.
The depth of the potential can only become accessible for manifestation and action when we are equally able to become aware of the intention or the clear purpose. This explains us the importance of finding the good guiding question(s). If our question comes from a higher level of awareness it will invite in a deeper possibility of sourcing. In this widened field of wisdom, through many cycles, new wisdom can be generated.

Embracing more Complexity
Related with this – and drawing it in the model – we realize that this dance between both poles in the spiral also relates to widening our reach in the manifest. The depth of sourcing and the height of the intention make sure that we can embrace more of the whole, which is so needed in dealing with the challenges of our time. “

Many of the participants were very happy to get this framework and to see their own role in holding the new paradigm. One participant said: “There is wholeness in the model. It is like an egg.”

I want to mention here the site (and there is a book too) Worldchanging.org. They really have good articles and a regular email with the latest postings. This one I have found good food: Recession and Innovation.

And a good quote to contemplate upon:

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”
Mark Twain

Since some time I feel the need – and the motivation – again to pick up my blog posting. So many ‘Seeds for a happy planet’ pass my screen and come up in conversations, that it feels like wasting them, if I don’t write about it. Not only for you the reader, but also for myself.

Because I notice there is a difference between seeing or reading something and really getting it! To stand still, to reflect on it, and to really harvest it, in order for it to get integrated and available to cook with it, that is the point here. I was reminded of this by a blogpost by my friend Amy. Thanks Amy!

So here are some seeds that I noticed recently.

I’m trying hard, but I don’t remember how I came across…. I knew already that the kingdom of Bhutan is measuring the collective created value in a different and more menaningful way than our GNP. They measure happiness of the people! Seeing in this video that so many people with statistic minds are actually working this out, felt very supportive to me. It gave me a feeling of: others are finding out what I don’t know about! Thanks to these people, and the many others that I never heard about.

One line of inquiry that I hold for myself is around: What could a new financial system or economic model look like? Here is a blog post about how it is going right now, and why it should change in the future. If you have more time you can watch this video, although I knew the basic ideas, I found it still worthwhile watching this.

A friend of mine, who I met in Spring at the European World café Gathering, started today a blog action for Burma. This is what he wrote:
I believe that blogs can make a difference to the world. So here is my request to all other blogs: Please post the following message in your blog:

In Burma (Myanmar), thousands of Buddhist monks are marching through the streets every day to protest against more than 20 years of dictatorship. They are joint by major parts of the population. In the past, any anti-government protests have been stopped by the army with fierce violence and the arrest of the protestors. So, far, the military has not intervened on these latest civil movement.

We want to tell to the Government of Myanmar: the community of bloggers – and therefore the world – is watching every step you take. Do not excert any violence on the peaceful protesters.

We want to tell to the monks and to the people of Myanmar: you are not alone. The time for change in Myanmar has come and the people of Myanmar have a right to enjoy the same economic growth as their neighbouring countries and the increase of democratic rights.

So, we ask all blogs to post this message. Feel free to translate this message into your language. If you are a blog reader, write a message to your favourite blogs and ask them to participate in this joint action. Please follow the news on BBC World or any other news channel.

We further ask you to report us that you have posted this message. Please go to
http://cf.humap.com/tool/quout_login.php?passwd=burma and enter your blog name, the URL, and the estimated number of readers.

Thank you for you support.

Posted by Holger Nauheimer

It is so fascinating when you see patterns, same themes arrising in different places at – almost – the same time!

One of these days I found myself sitting on a terrace in Paris, with Anne Stadler and George Por. Anne started talking about being called to some places to heal old wounds. The conversation went on with how we can see the whole web of relations. Is Europe able to see it’s whole history of what it has done in the colonies? Who knows that the North-West of the US was connected with the rest of the world through trade in the pré-history?

It seems that a huge re-uniting, a linking up is going on in so many places. Just a few days ago Juanita Brown, founder of the World Café, wrote about the recent European gathering in Dresden to some friends. Part of her email was:

“Most exciting was the simultaneous hosting of eight local World Cafés throughout the greater Dresden area (on sustainable business, the arts, media, youth and education, etc.), which led key leaders in Dresden to begin envisioning Dresden as a “learning city” using conversational modalities like the World Café and others to engage citizens at all levels in conversations about the questions that matter most to them— the “world as café” came alive in Germany!

This is so consistent, Toke and Phil, with the wonderful work you all are doing in Columbus. Maybe at some point down the line Colombus and Dresden might become “sister learning cities”–depending on how it all unfolds in terms of the follow up and next steps with the folks in Dresden.”

And look what Phil – doing the Health Care Project in Columbus – wrote in response:

“What is so wonderfully strange about this is that Dresden is Columbus’ European “sister city”.  We have certain municipal and cultural exchange relationships with Dresden and have adopted each other as sister cities.  I’m going to be in contact with our former Mayor who sits on our Foundation Board and has strongly supported our “hosting work” to learn more about this, because he was Mayor when this “adoption” took place.”

This is so consistent with one of the last things that happened in this Dresden gathering itself.  One of the last blog post I made while being there was about a Chinese man (sorry I forgot his name) who brought a gift from his country: a cloth with a view on his city: Hangzhou. And he told about his dream to connect cities, and inviting each other. He talked about appreciating the history of the people you will get to know and much more that could lead to a ‘wisdom civilisation’. He got a big applause!

And on the last afternoon in Dresden I participated in a conversation around the question: What is the highest potential of The World Café as a contributor to the development of large-group dialogue and collective leadership in Europe? One of us said that what is missing in Europe is a vision for Europe that is coming from the people, from ‘the inside’; instead of the politicians and other leaders. I noted down one practical idea raised by somebody else: setting up conversations between twin-towns!

Time seems to be ripe for this…