On What We Need Now For the Future
There is something about this moment that feels different. There’s synergy flowing is whispering to each of us that we need to evolve. What we don’t know, is how to evolve? What is it that I need to change?
I spent this week at the Agenda for Children OST Symposium. Workshops are put together by and for the the Out of School Time community. I was reminded how much humans can learn from one another. There is no better teacher than the people you know and have some shared live experience. It’s not just kids, adults learn best from people they like, too.
We are looking back and forward to a time when and where we are connected beyond text messages, likes, and memes. Through interdependent relationships, we know our best selves can only show up when we are in deep community with others.
What We May Need: Pratices for Liberation in Relationships
Long lunches with our love circle. And not just on weekends. But as part of our workday where we can have the room to dig deep and we have no timed responses.
Truth telling. Not just the “you got spinach stuck in your teeth” truth telling, but the kind that may make you tear up, not ouf of sadness, but because there is someone who knows you so well they can see deep into the scariest parts or yourself.
Phone calls. I hate a phone call, until I am on one. Then I realize the beauty of just hearing someone’s voice. The way they can feel in the room. The way you have to pay attention to their words and listen for clues about their expressions. In the absence of sight, we can pratice deep listening.
All the magic. Stones. Crystals. Sage. Candles. Tarot Cards. Rosary beads. The Bible. Whatever pulls us out of ourselves and sends us floating above the clouds thinking beyond what we physically experience will be helpful for this new world we are shaping. We’ll need the imagination, hope and faith (that is part of practicing spirituality/magic) for the future.
Solitude. Not isolation. Good time spent with yourself. Giving your thoughts permission to dance in your head. Or lying on your back on the floor for hours. Or on a walk down a quiet road. To enter community, we need to know and see ourselves. This way, when we engage with others, we are clear about who we are now and who we hope to be someday, and perhaps some insight on the work we are doing to get there.