🔥 Digital Campfires🔥

How we gather when we can’t get together.

I was over the moon to see folks join our first digital campfire from all over: London, Lima, Lagos, and more. Someone from Lisbon was due to join but got lured by another fire. Maybe the next one will have people from only cities that start with a different letter.

The place is really beside the point, what matters is it that everyone is feeling it, seeking to make meaning, and willing to share their experience. For if we don’t speak our mind we often feel diminished.

On the first Thursday of each month, I’ll be hosting a candid conversation online. To be sure, there’s nothing that replaces live and in the flesh. But when used as a tool, technology ain’t all that bad. You get to see a different side of people you know, and if you’ve embraced the insurgence of Zoom-fuelled happenings, you’ve also seen sides of people you may never have come to meet in the first place.

Plus it’s all we have right now.

Why Circle?

A circling practice is emergent, organic, and in-the-moment. The approach is interpersonal with a deep and generative process to rapidly hone in on matters of ultimate concern. It’s direct, uncomfortable at times, but always transformative.

I’ve been experimenting on and off with this modality for some time and haven’t come across anything as powerful that can accelerate getting into it with more beauty. Although a virtual circle only approximates the real thing — with a different twist, it still yields a gratifying sensation.

We’ll continue to explore and evolve this method in future sessions.

Power of the Pause

A simple ritual like a cup of tea and a slice of cake at 4 pm is not only a treat you god damn deserve, it also helps break up your day. In Session I, we investigated the benefits of the pause both at a micro and macro level. For many, work + play or play + work have been indistinguishable from one another.

For others setting boundaries, finding hacks, and sensing what is needed and when has become imperative. This may look like reconnecting with your body (online sweatfest anyone?), connecting to others (hey, can you FT right now?), or to nature (Oh my, I think my plants need more watering.) The point really is to know what you need when and to see how connecting with self, others and nature are all interdependent.

And putting it into perspective: seeing the pause through the lens of the elderly a friend remarked:

The world may be on pause, but not everyone has time.

Syncing in Asymmetrical Times

We explored how to make well-considered decisions, use time and energy wisely, how to uphold (or create) new rituals, and appreciate that change is the only constant. And we investigated how to journey within and with others to gain a semblance of sanity in a world that has gone mad.

Things have always been uncertain. But what is certain is our ability to choose how to engage with the unknown. When we can’t sync with one another and to nature like we used to, there is a freedom we exercise by seeking out and cherishing the alternatives. This will be the kick-off talking point for our next campfire.

Self-Renewal

“Some men and women make the world better just by being the kind of people they are” — John Gardner

We also touched on some passages from John Gardner who was the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Lyndon Johnson. His work recently resurfaced for me (coincidence or synchronicity?) and looked at this passage from 1990 :

…The question of why civilizations die and how they sometimes renew themselves, and the puzzle of why some men and women go to seed while others remain vital all of their lives. It’s the latter question that I shall deal with at this time. I know that you as an individual are not going to seed. But the person seated on your right may be in fairly serious danger.

The earth is not the centre of the universe, yet until 1543 we functioned as if it were. Likewise, when we ditch the idea that the self is the thing around which everything else rotates, we shift into a new paradigm. We see that we are not our work. We understand that we depend on others and others depend on us. We learn, and grow to bring more meaning into our field of view. We renew ourselves by making progress in doing what matters most.

The next circle is on May 7th, 10 am PST. Pull up your chair simply click here.