What is an underlying question that gives form to your work or interest in this field?
How to cultivate a presence which moves freely between
our individual and collective lives?
What is your personal experience of collective
wisdom in groups?
Collective wisdom has been most present to me in groups
which hold and participate from the consciousness of circle. I've been
a part of a women's circle, Chakra, since 1995 with dear friends and
it always amazes me how something different sets up when we sit in circle,
light the candle and move into silence with an intention to listening
to what is moving in us and what we call the Chakra being. I can be
with the same women in group conversations, without the collective intention
to listen and be present beyond our individual/ego selves, and the experience
is palpably different. Same women, different intention, different experience.
Perhaps the most profound experiences of collective wisdom have been
through the practice of Authentic Movement, again a circle practice
which cultivates the practice of witnessing internally and externally
while tracking what is true or authentic for ourselves. This is a wisdom
that is lived in the body first, coming into words, story, poetry and
shared in circle. Being a collective witness is in this practice is
a time of awe.
What is it about the work in this field that excites
you and connects you to your own deepest self?
My sense of myself is I am a bridge. I am a woman who
seeks and builds bridges between the worlds, primarily between the seen
and unseen worlds. The edge for me is to continue to understand my boundaries,
limits and responsibility as I move between these worlds. Embodied work
is what excites me most. After over a decade of exploring "theory",
I find the mind necessary but insufficient if not companioned with the
organs of perception the subtle body offers. My willingness to validate
and listen to other ways of knowing continues to open portals in the
collective field.
Please provide a brief storyline or snapshot of
what brought you to this work.
The story for me has been about falling into a stream
of consciousness, that I have come to call home. I first fell into the
stream while working with Sheryl Erickson during the convening of the
first Bretton Woods 1992. At the time we were both working for Innovation
Associates, (IA), focused on the work of Organizational Learning and
co-founder Peter Senge. Little did I know my mantra at the time of preparing
"I am an ocean I am going with the flow" would submerge me
so fully in the collective waters. The gathering for me was like living
in the sustained zone of what I later learned to call synchronicity.
The story I tell myself about it was I borrowed from the collective
wisdom, from the individually held belief systems that were different
from my own yet pervasive enough to make my own limited beliefs inconsequential
to my experiences. My fascination with collective fields, altering belief
systems continued with the study of Community Building via Scott Peck’s
model, my recognition of the necessity of emptiness in Peck's model
and then absent in theories of organizational development and learning.
Practices of Dialogue from David Bohm's model, interpreted by Bill Isaacs
spawned dialogue circles in my life with women in the US and abroad.
My passion for helping people understand systems, inherent and often
invisible inter-dependencies that impact the effectiveness of our action
led me to learn from Michael Goodman and Jenny Kemeny the discipline
of systems thinking that I later taught, trained and developed a companion
practice of systems sensing. My dear friend and mentor Diane Cory was
present to listen, help weave and reflect what I was learning, opening
doorways in the work world and my inner psyche like only a poet can
do. I woke up to the role of art and archetypes, I awoke to the role
of my body as an organ of perception through the Authentic Movement
work and the role of dreams to speak in symbolic wisdom. While consulting
is the easiest label to use for my work, I identify more with the practice
of midwife, listening to what is ready to come into form and lending
my energies to it, be it a non-profit organization, documentary, transformational
art or new practices in philanthropy.
How would you like to be available to others in
this field?
I'm available by e-mail, please note collective wisdom
in subject line to catch my attention or by phone. Areas of my recent
work and on-going intrigue include the role of the transformational
media in our lives as well as the experimenting with philanthropic partnerships
informed by spirit. Recently, I co-produced a documentary on women's
circles, BeComing: Women's Circles Women's Lives, " A different
kind of conversation". I am interested in the way multimedia can
evoke, provoke and inspire us to live into a different story for our
individual and collective lives. My work with foundations and philanthropists
has convinced me of the need to experiment with a new model of philanthropy
where the currency of exchange includes spirit. My contributions come
from the moment and what is moving, impossible to predict.
Links to this site or others:
Demeter Matrix Alliance
BeComing:
Women's Circles, Women's Lives
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