Writers Circle - Coburn Ventures Community for Change — Community for Change

Community for Change

Sort posts by: Author | Date

#349: Accomplishment vs Achievement

What an interesting distinction between two seemingly similar words Steve writes on here. It has me thinking more about the kinds of activities I love doing simply for the process of doing, not for the end result. One thing that comes to mind for me is running. I never time my runs, and haven't since I was on the track team. It's the time alone, the music, and the fresh air and oxygen high that drives my motivation step by step. I hope you enjoy this note from Steve! It's now left me thinking about what other hobbies I'd like to learn or pursue next.

- Amanda

Steve CrandallJune 13, 2023Comment

#348: Community Anti-Pet Peeve Share

A couple weeks back, I asked a few people in the community to share something small that brings them great joy. I loved going through all the different responses, and am sharing this compiled list of anti-pet peeves below. Hope you enjoy it too. Happy Tuesday everyone!

- Amanda

CommunityJune 6, 2023Comment

#347: In Time of the Breaking of Nations

NEW lead-in from Richard Sugarman:

Such a beautiful touching story from Niko.

It’s made me think about reducing people to numbers or not seeing them at all. The people around us every day struggling to make a life often under the most difficult circumstances. They can seem invisible. Just a blur in a moment of a day. Who are these people? What are their lives? Who do they love and who loves them?

There are real people behind all these numbers. Real people quietly getting through the day, loving and being loved, building a life brick by brick day by day.

Maybe there is richness and healing in…Stopping to See them. Pause with them. Honor them.

- Richard

Niko CannerMay 30, 2023Comment

#346: Time For Practice

As someone who likes to partake in yoga, I found it interesting to get to hear what the experience and process is like from the instructor's end. Corey’s blog reminds me of one of my teacher’s styles - she teaches the vinyasa flow slowly in steps, and then gives us a few minutes to practice on our own afterwards. During this time, there is no guidance or help or feedback given. She simply turns up the music and allows us to practice at our own pace. I appreciate the sense of freedom here to work independently and attentively, even though I often forget the order of which pose comes next in the sequence of the flow. Yet it still feels empowering, mistakes and all. And as Corey mentions, this practice time and being able to take the reins to teach myself is crucial in that it provides the opportunity for personal growth and new learnings.

- Amanda

Corey LoftusMay 23, 2023Comment

#345: Life is (Pretty) Good

#345: Life is (Pretty) Good

Sadly, I am not the sister accredited to the quote Amanda cites in this blog. But I do believe I should receive honorable mention for keeping that quote alive. Nonetheless, I love each of the stories Amanda shares in this blog that so accurately embody what one sister or other other said years ago. I am left thinking of all the tiny compartments that make up this bigger, good life...

- Christina

Amanda PosaMay 16, 2023Amanda PosaComment

#344: Daring to Care

My brain went into a red alert after reading the first sentence of this piece. It seemed to contradict an idea I hold dear from The Alchemist, "don't take anything personally". And how can I not take anything personally AND care about something at the same time? But my perceived paradox is neatly resolved when I change my scope — don't sweat the small stuff, and care deeply about the big stuff.

Thanks for this piece, Sasha! I dug reading more about the values your company champions.

- Corey

Sasha DichterMay 9, 2023Sasha DichterComment

#343: The Mud and the Miracles

In a breakout room last week, Richard Sugarman asked some great questions around what may be the indicators of trust being evident and connection to be felt between people. It had me thinking more about how one might start to build the foundation for this. I immediately thought about the importance of expressing curiosity for others through asking questions, particularly meaningful ones as Rich had just done, as these can truly serve as bridges amongst individuals from all different backgrounds. Jaime's writing below inspires me to think more about the beauty of learning about others and their interests and beliefs, with both friends and strangers. And how doing so can expand not only my perspective but my empathy for others.

- Amanda

Jaime PosaMay 2, 2023Jaime PosaComment

#342: Mishpucha

NEW lead-in from Alex Tulloch:

Whenever someone asks about ReShawn or Sedric or Floyd or Cedric or Calvin, I always introduce them the same way: as my brothers. And every time I say that, the response I usually get is "Well, not your brother brother." That's always confused me, because while we're not biologically related, we're certainly connected in a way that I could primarily describe as brotherly. So Irwin's piece helped me add another word to describe the connection that we share; a sensation that I've grown to feel amongst our CFC, a family family (whatever that means).

Irwin KulaApril 25, 2023Irwin KulaComment

#341: Setting Up the Space

I recently picked up an old software project that had been collecting a bit of dust. It was something I worked on with a friend a couple months back, and we had a lot of fun making it. But life things crept in and took focus for both of us, so we got it to a good place where the project could be left in “storage” for a while, its future features’ by-when dates set to the nebulous “TBD”.

And then last week, I decided it was time to give our project the nice coat of paint we always wanted it to have. I checked out our prototype, decided on the feature to fix, and a feature to add. Keep it simple to start. My brain reached for the next step…

…but nothing appeared.

Corey LoftusApril 18, 2023Corey LoftusComment

#340: The Zoom Nod

Zoom is here to stay, an integral part of our work lives and work culture.

I’m a big fan for lots of reasons: gone are the days of faceless phone calls, and our work norms have finally shifted, making it professionally acceptable to ditch the logistics of unnecessary travel for in-person meetings.

Sasha DichterApril 4, 2023Sasha DichterComment

#339: What If I Slowed?

It's easy to feel obsessed with convenience and quickness.

Doing things faster. More efficient.

There's a desire for the quick high of the left lane

We grow the “most food for the most people”.

And I know I can buy anything from anywhere and have it tomorrow.

But what if going slow was sexy?

Jaime PosaMarch 28, 2023Jaime PosaComment

#338: You Are You Because Of Today

As someone who spends a good deal of time in technology, it’s always hard for me to gauge when something “big” has really arrived. I’ve come to depend on my lovely wife as that signal. We have a daily ritual where we end our work days, and a bottle of wine (or Tequila depending) comes out. And if she opens the cocktail hour like a comedian (“So, what’s the deal with this thing”), I know that the thing is starting to get some buzz. Well, like many I’m finding, she’s equally frightened, fascinated, and filled with wonder with what’s going on in AI right now.

Robert RoseMarch 21, 2023Rob Rose, Robert RoseComment

#337: Pockets of Time

At the moment, I’m able to decide my schedule each day. Of course, there are a couple important nodes that MUST be attended to at certain times. But what I’ve become present to is something I had only dreamed about years before — distinct pockets of blank open time.

As soon as I started to realize this space existed, thoughts of should-be-doing filled my mind. Every role I hold for myself or others worked to make its obligations heard, arguing for its tasks to be attended to. And why not pick one and do it? And then another, and another? There was available time, and the thought of doing nothing filled me with fear.

Corey LoftusMarch 14, 2023Corey LoftusComment

#336: Flight Writings

It’s a gray cloudy day with patches of blue and white sky, southeast wind. Columbus Day – (Now Indigenous People’s Day) has come and gone – and almost like clockwork the weather is starting to change like the colors on the trees.
I had an interrupted night of sleep. The moon was blasting through the skylight and I drank too much water after eating salty cod, lobster, and crab. The moon-mad cat kept waking me up. The wheels in my head were rapidly turning after talking with a friend about building a new website.

Eric HopkinsMarch 7, 2023Comment

#335: I Am Enough

A big part of my work at RESET — after years of racing from Wall Street to Silicon Alley to Madison Avenue, straight into a therapist’s office — centers on helping people bring peace into their lives and work.

But, for me, this past year—these past two months especially—has felt, at times, worlds away from peaceful.

And maybe that’s the nature of change—of loss and the labor of birthing something new—or the hardened habits that have me chasing happiness into every "next best thing"…

I’m not sure exactly, but this is one practice that keeps on saving me, when I’m present enough to remember it—to breathe myself back into my body and really recognize that, at this moment, “I have enough, I do enough, and I am enough.”

Kurt PeloquinFebruary 28, 2023Kurt PeloquinComment

#334: Fiddling

I’ve written more than 1,200 posts on this blog over the last 14 years. It’s become part of my life, and I can’t help but inquire what the practice brings to me.

I wrote about this in 2009, with a list of 44 Reasons I Blog (my current favorite from that list is number 27, “I’m a little compulsive.” You don’t say….)

My addition to this list, a 45th reason, has to do with “fiddling.”

As in: here’s something that’s just a thought, let’s see how it comes out with a bit of attention and effort.

Sasha DichterFebruary 21, 2023Sasha DichterComment

#333: Love, Loss, and the Space Between

I took a long walk this morning with my dogs to a state park near my house. The gravel trail winds in and out of trees adjacent to the hudson river. I've walked these very same steps in the past with many different loved ones who have come and gone. I’ve had picnics in the field with friends who have now moved away. I’ve done yoga near the weeping willow tree as my old dog who has since passed laid in the shade. On one of the benches facing the river, I shared a first date with someone who would later become my world. On another bench a bit further down, I wrote my dad's eulogy.

Amanda PosaFebruary 14, 2023Amanda PosaComment

#332: After the Floods

As I started to write this, Marine One carrying the President had just passed by my log-strewn beach as he surveyed the millions of dollars of damage caused by a succession of atmospheric rivers. In Santa Cruz County where I live, it is destruction of a biblical proportion: flooding, mudslides and destruction of piers, businesses and homes. Layers of toxic sludge now cover some of the most productive farmland in the country.

Stephanie JacobsFebruary 7, 2023Comment

#331: Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done

Two years ago, after attending a talk by Bryan Stevenson, the Founder of Equal Justice Initiative, (EJI), I raised my hand to become a penpal to one of their clients, a prisoner who had been tried and incarcerated as a youth. Part of EJI’s mission is to defend clients they believe were punished too harshly when they were sentenced as children under laws designed for adults.

About three weeks later I received my assignment to write with someone I’ll refer to as DL. DL is living a life sentence in a prison in South Dakota. He’s been there for 18 years, more than half of his life.

With his full name, I did a strange but probably predictable thing: I searched online for his case and read the whole public file on what happened, what he did, who was involved, and what his sentence is.

We’re not allowed to correspond about the case, so all of this was purely for my information. I had a feeling of needing to know. Out of security. Out of making sure I wasn’t in over my head.

Brynne ThompsonJanuary 31, 2023Brynne ThompsonComment

#330: Standing Alone

Lately, I've been trying to become more comfortable with being alone. It’s something I’m not particularly good at nor fond of. I've been fortunate to have amazing friends, caring sisters, trusting roommates and incredible significant others to walk through life with for many seasons at a time. I've had the privilege of being in lines of work that have allowed me plenty of opportunity to work directly alongside others as a close team. I've always loved to feel the joy that is togetherness. Though there is so much value in experiencing that solidarity, I've also come to realize the importance of making time to be alone, too. And I don't just mean the literal part of being alone that is doing things without the presence of others. I mean truly finding the time and space to acknowledge introspective thoughts and find the connection with oneself on a deeper, soul-level. I've noticed lately how seldom I actually get to that place, as I am usually trying to "make the most" of my time throughout each of the days to the point that even if I am technically by myself, I don't feel it because I am still looking outward to my environment for some external escape or interest and attaching myself to that.

Amanda PosaJanuary 24, 2023Amanda PosaComment