There is no justice in this world; only our collective struggles towards it.
All we have are our collective desires and practices.
Through bellies on fire, heavy hearts, cloudy visions, longings to ground in new prayers and practices for the future,
We gather in community.
We circle up to receive the resource and restoration required.
We circle up to grieve, to heal, to learn.
Every year during performance reviews or interviews, we get asked and ask others questions like this “what are the areas of improvement?”, “what are the strengths and weaknesses?” As if it is a predictive exercise that may foretell what I am good or suck at.
As a human, I recognize that I am not complete, and the areas of improvement are far more numerous than there are strengths. However, I think I should be able to dynamically assess the strengths and weaknesses as the situation arises - identify it and work on it or seek help to fill the void.
Read MoreI know some people that determine a word of the year as a sort of new year's resolution – they pick a word they want to focus on for that year, a word they want to strive towards. Can I pick a word of the year almost ten months into it?
I want my word of the year to be grace.
To me, grace means seeing others for where they are at. No questions. Respecting needs or desires with no judgement. It is both internal and external.
Read MoreHunter S Thompson observed that writers are either peckers, laboring over every word, or swoopers, getting lots of words down and doubling-back later on for edits. I see that people tend to be this way in their interactions with other people, too: one may concentrate solely on a few very strong connections, or more widely distribute their attention with a greater number of weak connections. Between these two ways of being, I’m certainly the latter.
Read MoreOne of my favorite parts of the morning is opening the curtains to my favorite room in the house, which happens to be my baby’s nursery/my yoga room. Although this may sound sweet at first, it’s not because that’s how I wake up with baby. That sounds beautiful. But, in fact, I typically wake up in the pitch blackness to my baby crying and/or screaming at 5am…which is not, in fact, my favorite part of the morning. But, a couple hours later, her Dad takes her out for a morning walk and I come back into her nursery and transform it back into my yoga room…..
Read MoreThere is a word I really don’t like – “closure.” I used to like this word I think. I would use it as justification to spend an inordinate amount of time to replay past experiences and ask, “what went wrong?” I would open up old wounds or go back to people who weren’t good for me – or let people back into my life who were not good to me – in the name of “closure.”
Read MoreBack to school week was always special to me. The time when the weather got cooler, friends were reunited in community (sometimes against, sometimes in support of the new teacher), and days regained routine. The sense of normalcy, predictability, and routine that the locker-clad walls and scent of books, pencils, and chalk dust created for me still feels tangible to this day.
Read MoreWhat is the new normal? What’s the next normal? What even is normal?
In my work these days, almost every business I speak to is doing one of three things. They’re preparing for a reorganization, they’re in the midst of a reorganization, or they’re emerging from a reorganization.
I have no idea if that’s factually true, but it feels true.
In all three instances, I’m personally finding this weird paradox. Everyone wants to do meaningful things, but no one wants to start anything meaningful – including, ironically, me. And I think: How do you even begin to plan for the now when you don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring? Maybe I’ll write a book about it. But, oh god, why would anyone read that when, you know, <broadly gestures at the world>.
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When I need a break from work and I can simply walk into the next room, plug in my electric guitar, and mangle blues standards to my heart's content
My dog lying on her back and snoring her way through my video calls
Enjoying the first coffee of the day with my wife before the working day begins.
- Oliver Davies
Read MoreThis feeling of wanting is curious.
I am sitting outside on my sister’s patio table, gazing out at grey clouds intertwined with mountains and the setting sun above the Hudson River. I’m immersed in the sounds of crickets and the chirps of birds at dusk and a few rumbles of thunder on the horizon. The air is cool, laden with water droplets both rising from the earth and ready to fall. It is beautiful.
This is where I have wanted to be all day, and for many days. This is also where I want to leave.
Read MoreI remember years ago Pip and Brynne had me consider/brainstorm what easy-on and easy-off ramps might look like for community members' involvement in businesses or organizations. While listing a plethora of these easy on/off ramps, I then remember thinking about the importance and also the impact of keeping freedoms in place for the customer, and how just having that freedom affects the relationship as well as customer turn-over.
Read MoreHere are my two favorite anti pet- peeves with regards to home...
(photo enclosed below) California. I attended my first West Coast Crosby event and immediately felt at home with everyone. For the first time ever I could have been seated next to anyone in the room and immediately felt at home. Everyone there felt like family, tribe and I adored them from the minute I met them.
Read MoreHello! Before I dive in, here is a fresh anti-pet peeve for you…
I am currently lucky enough to be working from Nantucket Island, where I have been going since I was a kid. One of my favorite views in the world is here: looking over the moors to a red and white striped lighthouse here called Sankaty that sits right on the water. I got to ride my bike to see it this morning, and seeing it for the first time every summer never ceases to make me smile.
NOW back to business...
Today’s blog is simple - we wanted to highlight some of the changes we’ve made to the Community for Change website and talk a little bit about why we decided to dedicate some time updating it.
If you would prefer to look at the website and skip the details - no worries! - here is the URL. BUT if you are curious to hear more details, please read on!
Read MoreThe Earth is still tucked in beneath a blanket of clouds when my sneaker first meets the pavement. I adjust my armband and look out at the empty sidewalk that rolls down the street ahead of me.
Just months ago, I used to feel almost proud on the days I’d sleep in. Those extra hours on the weekend would feel like a much-needed catch up from the long week I’d just closed out.
Now, something else has become more needed.
Read MoreThe “well of reciprocity” is a concept that I learned years ago when I was “coming up through the ranks.” I hope it might be of use to you.
I most often apply the concept of the well of reciprocity to work settings because your relationships with coworkers and bosses are quite different from your family relationships. Though the emotions can feel the same, when we are stressed, frustrated, confused, tired and annoyed, how we talk to our work folks is different from how we talk to our home folk.
Last week, we released a piece Corey wrote about being in the "bardo,” or the term Buddhists use to describe being between two states. Our sense of time and what we consider the “future” has been fundamentally changed this year. How can I think about what my life will look like in a year from now when I don’t even really know what it could look like two weeks from now?
Read MoreI just love helping my kids with their homework. Helping them out with math - or french classes makes me feel like I am really helping them and connecting with them. It also reminds me of how my dad would sit at the kitchen table with me, helping me out on all kinds of topics with limitless patience and understanding. Sometimes going over certain difficult math problems again and again until I finally got it. Something that I am still very grateful for. - Michiel Plakman
Read MoreIn a conversation with Srin Sridharan today during a breakout session of our Reflections Call, I mentioned how I’ve always been more of a writer rather than a speaker. Writing comes much easier to me than openly speaking does. Public speaking is actually one of my worst fears. And it’s most likely because I get caught up in my head and my own ideas and then freeze up or feel myself being pulled into a ridiculous internal tangent. Writing, on the other hand, gives me the time and headspace needed to reflect and collect my thoughts and articulate them how I actually intend. At the end of our conversation, Srin mentioned that writing and journaling could be used as a tool to crystallize one’s thoughts.
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Pip, Brynne, and I had the privilege of sitting down (virtually) with April Tam Smith, founder of PS Kitchen, a few weeks ago to talk to her about the mission of the nonprofit restaurant she founded with her husband, Graham, only a few short years ago. I’ve gotten to know April very well - first through her partnership with Restore NYC and now through the Community for Change - but I love how every time I talk to her, I seem to learn new incredible stories. Whether you have been to PS Kitchen before and know April’s story, or if this is a new name for you, I am sure you’ll take away something new in this podcast (you may or may not learn how Graham proposed to her, and you may or may not want to have a tissue hand). Check it out below!
Read MoreWe’re right in the middle of it. Past the beginning, somewhere before the end. Certainly, the end of things is in sight. Or maybe it isn’t. It’s as though we’re in this strange, nebulous, uncharted, hazy space of uncertainty. Well, at least we can say we’re somewhere in the middle. Somewhere meant to be transitory, not a permanent place to set up camp. We are definitely in a liminal space. That’s a fact... I think.
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