Walking down the lane, I picked up these gorgeous plump acorns. This year they have been particularly large, and the blackberries are following their lead. Yet what makes them so big? It’s not their individual capacity for growth because fruitfulness is not a solitary action. An acorn cannot determine its own size. Instead, it’s the … Read more
Rebecca Solnit is a writer, historian and activist. In a conversation with Krista Tippett in 2016, they talked about her work giving voice to the untold histories of redemptive change in places like New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “When all the ordinary divides and patterns are shattered, people step up to become … Read more
None of us can produce good fruit on our own. Even when we’ve let go of the identities and ideas, the things and the memories that have previously defined us, we are still not alone. Every creative idea, each insight, whatever is healthy and lovely, is the product of some form of germination. And has … Read more
My identity is unique, yet I am not singular. I do not exist on my own, even if, at times, I feel alone. Even what we call ourselves has reference to people and places beyond our bodies. We all need to be seen and heard. And our privilege is to do this for one another.
Even though many of us may have spent the last year feeling separate from others, this observation still rings true. It’s the people we choose to be around. Those who influence the way we see the world as we are immersed in their vision of how things are. And those with whom we share the … Read more
I love this emerging community of people who care about words. Who pay attention to meaning and context. Who want to inspire change by crafting, without shouting. This delight in words and communication in its many forms gives me hope for our world. After all, it’s the thoughtful and creative makers of change who have … Read more
I love the practice of gathering. Not meetings and talking for the sake of it, but drawing together with people I want to know more. Those who inspire me, whose vision excites me. To exercise my curiosity about what makes them tick. To understand how they see the world and what has shaped them and … Read more
I wonder, what can we hear together that we can’t hear alone? Or maybe it’s what we make sense of collectively that we can’t understand by ourselves. Without the ‘other’ we only have part of the story. What are you hearing and who do you need to share it with?
Today I’d love you to hear Staci Seyferth-Taylor. She is an amazing woman on a journey, open to exploring her unique contribution to the people around her in Michigan. We’ve just spent the last two and a half months bumping into each other online in Seth Godin’s Bootstrapper’s Workshop, which I mentioned in Growing hope… … Read more