What is an underlying question that gives form to your work or interest in this field?
How do we invite people into their deepest possibilities
and invite them to step forward with the leadership only they can offer
at this precious time on our planet? How do we deepen the connections
and relationships with each other that truly matter, in a way that serves
life and the emergence of what else is possible now?
What is your personal experience of collective
wisdom in groups?
I have been in many groups where I and others have relaxed
into the warm embrace of the surrounding field and where we have found
magic. We have found the wisdom that rushes into the room through the
opening created when we step into the fullness of not knowing, and to
the release of the pretense that we control outcomes.
What is it about the work in this field that excites
you and connects you to your own deepest self?
It is in this field that I find my connection to my deepest
self. Each time I step forward, with the deepest authenticity I can
muster, into the collective field, where I show up for what is truly
present, I and others are called to even deeper authenticity.
Please provide a brief storyline or snapshot of
what brought you to this work.
More than ten years ago I read David Whyte’s The
Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate
America. Much to my horror, I discovered that my heart was no longer
aroused, although I had been doing exciting, changemaking work for 20
years. That discovery led me to a PhD Program in Learning and Change
in Human Systems at the California Institute of Integral Studies. While
in the middle of that program, my dear friend and colleague Robert Theobald
developed esophageal cancer and moved to an apartment near my home to
complete his life and work. Our journey together in 1998 and 1999 led
to my own rebirth as Robert was completing his life, this time around.
I stepped away from the organization I had co-founded and served as
Executive Director for 25 years and stepped into my current work at
The Berkana Institute with a global
community of folks who are making a difference in the world. I’ve
been learning that in many ways it is very simple. We need to surrender
our fears. We need to embrace ambiguity. We need to radically accept
that we are not in charge. We must demand diversity. We are invited
to find our true calling and true work. We can’t do this work
without the close company of others. Likewise, we can’t do it
without a spiritual practice. And we must always be in the space of
learning.
How would you like to be available to others in
this field?
My work at Berkana is around connecting people in this
field with each other – and those whose work grows from this field.
Drop me an e-mail. And we’ll see where it might lead.
Links to this site or others:
The Berkana Institute
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