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Over the summer, Taylor Milsal and I committed to hosting a weekly salon with the sole intention of creating a community of people connected through a common desire to non-dogmatic spiritual and emotional thriving, and to creating more love in the world, starting with themselves. The idea was to meet every Wednesday night, for supper (breaking bread together and hanging out), create a framework for real connection, offer a focused discussion topic presented by a guest speaker or member of the community, and do some meditation together- and usually offer some amazing music. Thus LoveSpring was born.
It’s been running for a few months now, and it’s a beautiful group of people are showing up, from 20 to 60 in any given week. We’ve covered non-violent communication, relationships, meaning/mission, gossip/right speech and more. We’ve had TED speakers, authors, adventurers and filmmakers and former inmates from San Quentin. We couldn’t be more thrilled at the response.
We knew it had a place in the world, and it’s hitting some sweet spot for many people. We’re now working on adding more structure to the topics, a more deliberate skill development and practice component.
Please take a look at what we’re up to, and if you find yourself in San Francisco on a Wednesday night, please join us. We post audio and transcripts of prior events, so they can be more widely shared, even if you’re far away you can participate by getting and commenting on the content.
There will be groups starting up in LA and NY soon, too. If you’re looking for something like this, let us know, and we will connect you with other local people.
XO,
Christine
Love is the most powerful transformative force in the universe. And I like love most when it’s used as a verb, not a noun. Loving can be learned, and practiced- just like a tennis serve or making the perfect cup of coffee. Loving itself isn’t always soft or easy- living from love encompasses fierce honesty, broad acceptance, core strength, and a kind spirit- because to live from love you have to be able to take in the world in all of its contradictions, and not fight it. From love, we see the soul in each person first, not their utility- we put this seeing before judgement. Putting loving intention first makes everything easy, whereas the absence of love creates immense suffering. That’s something worth investing time in.
In our continued effort to offer relevant content and community for conscious living, we have launched Santa Rosa Yoga, serving practicing yogis, professionals and the yoga curious in the North Bay area.
The greater Santa Rosa area is home to more than 200,000 people, with a higher than average interest in healthy lifestyles and spiritual living. The site offers a directory of teachers, studios and events, and original content on practicing, as well as a book and product review section, and a curated shop.
If you are interested in yoga, visit the site, and maybe follow SRY’s updates on Twitter.
You may also want to try the prompts we used in small groups in your group of inquiring friends:
Where do you derive meaning? What matters to you most?
What desires are underneath the things you do in the world?
What problems in the world are you attracted to working on?
What problems have you been able to see, or have insight into, due to your unique life circumstance- how has your life experience itself prepared you to serve?
Where are your deepest values and actions aligned now, where do you want more alignment?
Where are you acting on someone else’s (culture, parents) values, not your own?
If you are living your purpose, how did you arrive in that place? What can other people learn from you?
Thanks to Tom Foremski and Oliver Starr for inviting me to share my thoughts on curation at last night’s salon, and to the group for a lively discussion. This article is an expansion on the bullet points in my remarks. There is a prior post- What is Curation?- that attempts to professionalize and put some limits around the use of the word, which may be needed- lest I seriously think that I’m curating my garage next time I clean it out.- CMM
Does all curation have a viewpoint? “The Curator Bias”
Yes, all curation has opinion and intention- this can be conscious or unconscious. When a professional curator sets about to create an event, an exhibit or a collection, they are also bringing about a state change or highlighting a new way of seeing something for the viewer. This intent may be subtly driven by what the curator’s experiences and exposure, and the worldview they have adopted or, ideally, be formed from a more aware and examined consideration of their purpose in framing this event or collection in the way they have chosen.
Two different curators can create vastly different views on a topic by how they frame it. Take, for example, conferences on sustainability: northern California’s Harmony Festival has dozens of speakers address sustainability in a very different way than Sustainable Brands does- similar topics, some overlap in content, but a very different underlying political and economic philosophy shapes each experience.
In any curation, what is omitted is as if not more important than what is included. I’ll use a personal, easily accessible example. On a recent trip to New Mexico, we took two sets of pictures. One showing the incredible beauty of the land and the richness of its history, and the other focusing on the shameful third world poverty (aside: NM is the 5th poorest state in the US- 156 of 234 US census places live on less than $15K per capita per year, 60 of those are under $10K per year. Outdoor plumbing, vast stretches of dilapidated homes, limited fresh food.) The lens a curator chooses to apply directs the viewers seeing, like any artist- creating pause, creating a new way of seeing.
How is curation different than a mere filter or editorial slant?
This is splitting hairs at some level. Editorial slant, like curation, is a branding of a sort, right? Fox and News Hour are both selecting the stories and the angle they want to show, and the material that supports that position.
Yet, the word curation has a higher bar: it implies a sense of care over the longterm, of preserving and assembling a special group of items or content or speakers. Merely by their selection and setting aside, by their juxtaposition to each other in a complementary set, the curator creates a group of reference objects. (Read a prior post on what is curation) A great digital curator would never list all the articles on the same topic- they would cherry pick the best to create ease for the reader, to cut through the jungle of information for the reader. (more…)
You know I’m mad for TED Conferences, and the whole global juggernaut of TEDx and TED conversations- especially for how it taps into a worldwide need for meaning, impact, connection- and awakens our infinite curiosity. After attending 5 big TEDs and organizing 5 TEDx events, and attending several of the other conferences and events on the list, I have come to believe that shunning mass hypnotism and engaging with real ideas, idea generators and activators is one of the most important things you can do in your lifetime- to be woken up, to share yourself, to act and interact in a new way- and to get into content that hasn’t been overcooked, sanitized and reheated so as not to offend (eg mass media outlets, textbooks). Then act from that information, as well as from your own deep knowledge and direct experience. If you can attend in person, these are among the best networks in the world to be engaged in. If not, have a video over your morning coffee- play idea roulette, and get inspired.
Here’s my list of broad thinking conferences and organizations that inspire innovation and dialogue across disciplines (and, in some cases, partying and playing with the global elite).(more…)
As a preface to this: This is a personal account, told as bluntly as I can tell it, and because I hope that others will be helped if I narrate my path. Also, I have come to completely love, accept and forgive anything in my family of origin- and I really loved my dad. That doesn’t change the truth of the story.
I had a mad dad. When things didn’t go well, he would bang and break. He would bully sales clerks and support people with his analytical brilliance. There was usually a low level of exasperation and sighing in his presence. It was this way before my mother died, and continued until he was well into stage 4 cancer. My stepmom wore her jaw down by clenching it over many decades, and although she’s a very cool and aware person now, I can remember her kicking her foot through my plywood bedroom door, because I had locked it and wouldn’t come out. I never understood their anger, I just learned to get out of the unhappy way, and wait for the good part of them to return. I would run, hide out, dream, and wait for the wave to pass. But the loneliness and fear in these moments didn’t stop me from growing up and doing the same kind of thing in my own household. (more…)
We’re looking a conference room full of 40 to 50 year old executives from all around the world, gathered for leadership school, the majority in standard issue khakis and well pressed shirts- corporate casual. And they are giving us that evaluative eye common when you arrive to address a room full of people. We’re here to get real, to invite these mid career professionals to share their untold stories and big ideas, to go out on a limb and say what the organization needs to hear. And we’re putting all their shiny faces on video. Essentially, we’re taking a few days helping people go deeper, looking for the treasures of their company’s culture and eliciting the kind of stories that would never make it into an ECM system but are the heart of the what it means to be part of the company, and tell the world (or perhaps just the leadership team) who this organization really is. (more…)
Do you know what it takes to raise a child to adulthood, and then what it takes for them to make their strides from early adulthood to get to the point where they are mature decision makers in the world? Say, 30 years old?
I decided to do some back of the envelope calculations to get to an answer, starting with figuring out what has been invested in a person by the time they get to this age. Basically each person is a walking treasure, an immense investment by their families and the culture- and simply walking around with that realization has shifted the way I see each person. So, here goes:
The hard dollar costs of raising a person: In the United States, we can use some government data that says it costs parents on average $250K to raise a child from zero to 18. $350K if their parents made over $98K per year. If the parents don’t pay, the society picks up the slack. (more…)
Here’s the list of TED 2011 Ads worth sharing, with links to YouTube.
Chris Anderson reflected on how the internet changes the conversation between brands and people, not constrained by media buys- you can invest in these beautiful miniature stories without the limitations or mandates to deliver on a 30 second or 60 second media buy.
Most of these selections had been widely consumed in social media prior to receiving the TED curatorial stamp, but some are new discoveries.
The Chase!
Target’s Light Show Spectacular at The Standard in NY
DOT. Camera phone creates world’s smallest movie- 9mm tall character interacts with pins and insects. Nokia.
Article on why this matters: http://bit.ly/fhafkX
Dulux Personally, I found this one just WONDERFUL- the power of color, care and effort.
If you call “your people” assets or human resources, you may want to rethink your approach.
True leaders see people, not replaceable widgets. Leaders understand the full range of capabilities, values, desires and concerns of the people on their team. Conversely, the commodification of people as Assets, Resources, or Employees dehumanizes them, creates assembly line mentalities, and dissuades people from giving their all to the work they are doing.
If you want enthusiastic, committed support, cooperation, collaboration and an ownership mentality, you have to see and treat individuals, not widgets.
Here are some ways that can show up:
Stop the cookie cutter job design. You meet the needs of the individual, taking their needs and the organizations goals to heart. Often, it’s caring about how the job fits into the person’s life, and adjusting the framework of the job to support the overall life that creates long term loyalty and minimizes undesired attrition.
You attempt to create jobs that use the whole person. Vary and combine jobs to tax and utilize the brain’s cross training skills and eliminate boredom. Overspecialization minimizes creativity and effectiveness.
You celebrate the individual. See each person’s gifts, contributions and unique qualities in a way that makes them feel seen for who they are, not as a widget. Play to their strengths, and everyone wins.
You invite the person to express their authentic self. Whether by default or intention, see where you are trying to have people fit a mold that makes the dominant group (the group in charge) feel more comfortable, and where you are valuing their individuality, their true selves.
You love. When we see all people as their highest and best selves, as their full potential realized, they live up to the expectation. We move from a perspective of judgement and criticism, to one of wholeness, contribution and possibility. We highly recommend Ben Zander’s book The Art of Possibility, especially his chapter on “Giving an A“.
Cube living can already feel rather closed- like a person is not living fully. As a leader and a manager, sending the message- you matter, I see you, you exist- can make all the difference in creating a better life for everyone you have the privilege to lead and guide.
