What is an underlying question that gives form
to your work or interest in this field?
How do we dance between the particular and the universal….how
do we develop one relationship with both the immanent and the transcendent
Divine mystery?
What is your personal experience of collective
wisdom in groups?
My early training in Drama first elicited the notion
of elevated outcome through collective wisdom and collective consciousness.
Subsequently my spiritual path has offered a host of experiences with
the phenomena. Meditation retreats, Reiki learning and healing, Spiritual
Direction experiences have been especially profound for me.
Lately, I am fascinated by the growing groundswell
in my region for spiritual connection and learning on the part of seekers
of all faiths and those of no particular faith. This feels like an organic,
cosmic happening. As a strong intuitive I am often blessed with a sense
or glimpse of future direction before it happens. When you are on your
piece of the path of cosmic consciousness, connections just fall into
place.
What is it about the work in this field that excites
you and connects you to your own deepest self?
Working at developing The Orchard Spirituality Centre
and watching it come to fruition (no pun intended) has been most exciting.
I feel a personal and deep meaningful call to be a conduit for others
to develop spiritually. Sometime I muse that certain people are wonderful
vessels….they collect an amazing narrative, they are filled up
with incredible accomplishment. I don’t experience my life that
way. I feel more like a lightening rod…I attract cosmic energy
and ideas that I pass on to others at the opportune time. It’s
a strange sort of role…but an ever interesting one which brings
me radical amazement every time a connection is made.
Although I work with both groups and individuals,
it is in my role as Spiritual Director/Guide that I notice the spirit
at work the most. When the G!d in me can listen to the G!d in you the
depth of experience and transformation is awesome.
Please provide a brief storyline or snapshot of
what brought you to this work.
Between 1994 and 1997 I was part of a small international
group of 20 company leaders and consultants, who called themselves "The
Intellectual Capital Pioneers Group" and who met a couple of times
a year in San Francisco. The idea of cafe type discussions for large
groups came out of this forum, an idea which I have developed over the
years into my own special area of expertise.
Over the years I have, of course, constantly paid attention
to my own personal development, my knowledge and practice, and there
has been an underlying, driving question: How little is enough? The
question does not arise from laziness but rather from my observation
that people and organizations expend a lot of effort to obtain results,
which they are then not satisfied with anyway. In 1993 I wrote the words
"self-organizing???" in a notebook, at the top of a blank
page. It remained like this until the autumn of 1996, when I took up
the subject and we developed the learning expedition, Leadership in
Living Systems, which was launched in February 1997.
These two areas, discussion among large groups
and the capacity which living systems have for self-organization, excite
me both professionally and intellectually. They cross-pollinate each
other and lead to a third area of expertise: an understanding of the
deeper principles of processes. There is enough in these areas to require
years of learning. I think it is fair to say, that the extent to which
I am of value to my customers (and can therefore bill them for my contribution),
is due to the fact that I learn well in these areas, as well as having
my earlier experience to draw on.
How would you like to be available to others in
this field?
Through my facilitation and development work at the Orchard
Spirituality Centre in Peterborough, Ontario, through Spiritual
Direction relationships, and the blessing of ongoing gifts of interactions
with other seekers.
Links to this site or others:
Orchard
Spirituality Centre
Spiritual Direction International
The Forge Institute
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