The Gift of The Impeded Stream

"It may be that when we no longer know what to do

we have come to our real work,




and that when we no longer know which way to go

we have come to our real journey.




The mind that is not baffled is not employed.




The impeded stream is the one that sings."




The Real Work by Wendell Berry

I have made mistakes.

I regret those that I have hurt.

I honor the lessons.

I ask for gentleness and honesty.

I seek to understand.

I am eager for adventure.

With that comes consequences.

Please meet me in the exploration of it all with an open heart and a willingness to become better for the experience.  Walk with me boldly and courageously in life.  Let us dare to be fully present, without apologies for who we truly are, building community as diverse and beautiful as each day's sunrise and sunset and as expansive and limitless as the starry night sky.

Come to the Circle

Bring your flame to the still quiet grass,

Look, a small flame is licking

Like an orange cat

Against the legs of your dreams.

Bring your flame to the fire,

Look, how the shadows shape-shift

Slip away – come back bright

To curl around your heart.

Come to the circle, woza, woza,

There is one place left,

It is yours.

- Ruth Everson

A Witness in Orbit

Our last circle, we sat and held space for each other, to simply share a moment of being heard and seen in our stardom. The inquiry was : "What are the gifts I bring to my field of practice?"- How do I shine? What is my star quality? We split up in groups of three, each holding a role of speaker, listener, and witness. The witness's job was to write down the list of qualities that the speaker shared about herself. The truth is that in each moment, whatever role you took, you were always in the eternal role of witness, to other and to yourself.

I believe one of the greatest experiences of being alive, is to witness and be witnessed. Something innately powerful happens to the human organsism that witnessing invokes: more truth, more courage, more love, more compassion, more wisdom, more peace, more clarity, nore celebration, better health, and perhaps that sense of commonality to the human experience of existence, that we refer to as "union". In an esoteric sense, it could be the reason we ARE, the reason we LIVE.

Now, we have taken turns orbiting the inner and outer space of another while witnessing their unique beauty, their sense of self, their profound importance, and some of their distinct gifts. Their rich past and present, is creating a new and valuable perception on life. We walked away with a list of precious qualities about our own self that are too often forgotten or stored in our private universes. But to share that shine with another, is to bring more of it into the world, to amplify its potential and to allow it to fuel our personal passions and choices.

What strengths we thought we brought solely to our careers, we actually bring to our families, and all other facets of our lives. We are truly here to live who we are, and that is authentically and effortlessly embodied from the beginning of time.

Reflection, Part II

Your Greatest Work is this...

http://vividlife.me/ultimate/11343/reflections-of-self-what-do-the-people-around-you-say-about-who-you-are/

"Emotions are the best internal guiding system to which direction in life we want to go." said Stacy Sheasby in a post last February on Reflections of Self.  She also lists 10 affirmations (link under photo above).

At the end of each day I usually reflect on the emotional guidance I received during the day.  If nothing else, I just notice, and often I take it a step further and realize how that guidance informs my future choices in so many ways.

What is reflection and why is it important?

Have you ever looked in a mirror and thought "oh my!  How long has that been on my face and why did no one tell me?"

Have you ever had a friend discreetly tell you about some observation that allowed you to make a change and avoid going forward another moment to meet unknown potential embarrassment or some other less than desirable experience?

Step one in life is learning to appreciate the mirror.  Learning to check in with yourself and to check in on yourself with various tools, like the mirror is a tool for doing a visual check on your appearance.

Step two is creating relationships and a community of others who will do this with and for each other, extending the benefit of reflection to include so many other needs being met: community, being cared about, growth, self awareness to name a few.  

There is certainly value and power in being able to carry yourself with confidence, like the kitten who sees the Lion in the mirror.  And now expand that vision.  What if, in addition to the magic mirror of reflection, you could be a part of a community that reflected back to you through their eyes how amazing you are in so many ways...  what does this look like for you?

Center Circle is a place where you are invited to explore that.

Reflection and Stillness: Good Partners

I entered the association pool area today during a fortunate quiet moment.  The pool surface was as still as I've seen it.

Note:  STILL

As I entered the pool and began my swim to the other end, I watched the ripples extend outward away from me as though they could not bear it if I reached the other end of the pool before they brought news of my approach.

Note:  The slightest movement of energy moves outward in waves.

One of my nieces, earlier this summer, in our pool

My swim became a reflection on the physics of my experience and its valuable message about the relationship I have with this physical world.  My every thought is like stepping into a still pool.  As soon as I think the thought, I can not take it back.  It already has launched the waves of energy outward.  What I can do next is swim, sure and steady, rhythmically and confidently, toward my intention and observe what else is going on as I make my way through the water.

After a couple of laps, I could no longer make out the ripples that were going forward as I started a new lap. Now the waves and ripples from both ends of the pool, as well as the return waves from the sides of the pool were cancelling each other out, and all I could perceive at this point seemed like random water sloshing here and there and all about.

"This is so like my day!" I thought.  I start the day with one thought.  One single intention to do one single thing.  Before I know it, I have thoughts coming and going in all directions, competing for clarity, asking for stillness so that they can complete their purpose, and I'm taking action on some, jotting reminders to self on others and hoping those thoughts that escaped me come back or were not important.  Here, in my reflection time in the pool on a warm summer evening, I imagined what all that thought energy was doing inside my mind and my body.

"So that's why there is so much advice out there to meditate and to take time to be still."  I can't say that I get it completely yet, but this message I received today did give me another perspective about the importance of stillness.

At the same time, I appreciated the importance of reflection.  

In Center Circle, we are all women in process.  We are constantly becoming; constantly in motion.  We are gaining wisdom.  We are expanding.  We are committed to taking the time to be still, to reflect, and to notice how amazing it is to be a part of this living experience here on Earth.

Choose your experience.

copyright 2008-2011 Lori Steed

Leadership and Centering

I received this quote from Joel and Michelle Levey's Thought for the Day email today.

The final paragraph is what inspired me to share it here in our Center Circle blog.  Center Circle is very much a non-linear self-lead leadership program because what we do encourages staying in tune and in touch with what's going on inside you; staying centered.  From there is where you operate in authenticity and integrity.  If you stay centered, i.e. have a regular practice of re-centering, you have a far better chance of becoming a great leader, even if all you're leading is your own life.

"A leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to project on other people his or her shadow or his or her light. A leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to create the conditions under which other people must live and move and have their being-conditions that can either be as illuminating as heaven or as shadowy as hell. A leader is a person who must take special responsibility for what's going on inside him or her self, inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership create more harm than good.

    The problem is that people rise to leadership in our society by a tendency towards extroversion, which means a tendency to ignore what is going on inside themselves. Leaders rise to power in our society by operating very competently and effectively in the external world, sometimes at the cost of internal awareness.

   I've looked at some training programs for leaders. I'm discouraged by how often they focus on the development of skills to manipulate the external world rather than the skills necessary to go inward and make the inner journey."

                                 --Parker Palmer


Parker Palmer wrote a wonderful book exposing his personal experience and path to understanding leadership; Let Your Life Speak.  It's a great read.