I was paging through a book I love and was paused by this:
… in this participative universe, nothing living lives alone. Everything comes into form because of relationship. We are constantly called to be in relationship — to information, people, events, ideas, life. Even reality is created through our participation in relationships. We choose what to notice; we relate to certain things and ignore others. Through these chosen relationships, we co-create our world.
Margaret J. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science
That final sentence really grabbed my attention. “Through these chosen relationships, we co-create our world.”
Wheatley is talking about our relationships with everything we encounter throughout our lived days: the standstill traffic yesterday, who won that critical election, trees covered in burgeoning spring-green leaves, the kind person who sold you much-needed chocolate so you could survive a thirteen hour day of schlepping and driving packed highways followed by more schlepping and driving. (So. Much. Driving.)
It’s not just the aggregate of these events that creates how we view the world, it’s how we relate to them—what words, and attached feelings, we wrap around them.
Was my experience of the snarled traffic an annoyance or an opportunity? Did it wreck my morning, or give me the chance to think creatively about ways to reduce my carbon footprint, and stress, by using a different method of travel? (With the distance of a night’s sleep, I’m calling it both. My relationship with the event is full of both frustration and possibilities recognized.)
What we make of each encounter and how it fits into our co-creative efforts is determined by the words we use about it.
When I co-create my world with my experiences from yesterday, I’m building a place that allows for both frustration and the possibility for a more sustainable outcome infused with feelings of kindness from the person who sold me chocolate and hope from the budding trees.
We create connection through language.
We co-create our world using words.
So, amazing human, perhaps spend a few moments thinking about the language you use to co-create your world? It could be illuminating, possibly even inspiring.
Spring and summer writing circles and workshops!
Here, for your creative exploration and relief:
a gentle 90-minute experience called the Virtual Meditation & Writing Fire Circle on Saturday, June 11. Perfect for people who can use some relief, maybe a little freedom, without a lot of fuss.
ongoing writing circles on the first and third Saturday each month. In this circle, we write to remember—and to celebrate—our Selves in the face of an off-kilter world.
a six week dive beginning July 20 called Listening with Our Bodies: Writing Toward Resilience. This class through the amazing Transformative Language Arts Network will benefit word artists of all kinds: facilitators, coaches, counselors, activists, educators, and explorers. It will serve anyone looking to connect more deeply with the source of their creativity and/or the source of their resilience. It will nourish people working to make change in their communities, who have been stretched thin by life, or who are at a crossroads in their personal growth explorations.
It would be a joy to have you join me in one or all of them!
And, finally, this from Mary Oliver’s Devotions. It just seemed to fit.