Adventure

My trusty co-blog author has been sailing and creating a life that is suited for her. She's listening to her instincts and smelling the salt air.

As for me, tonight I'm drinking whiskey on the rocks in my Colorado apartment, thinking about my birthday and the year to come.

What adventures are in store? What needs planning?

Vagabond/Home

We are starting this up once again, my friends.

This theme might be more relevant to those in our circle-- seasonal workers, outdoor educators, those that don't take the common path of settling in one place.

So how do we own "home" beyond the Hallmark cliches of "Home is where the heart is?"

What does it mean to be a vagabond? What are the thrills of it? What is difficult about it? What does it mean to have a home? What are the thrills of it? What is difficult about it?





Image: Kentucky Welcome House. Taken when I drove from one home (Asheville) to a new home (Boulder)...

Fear of Conflict

The Theme for April is:  Fear of Conflict.

This statement struck me a couple of weeks ago while attending an Outward Bound Professional training.  A participant mentioned that to have a good working relationship and a healthy organization, there has be positive tension, and willingness to have conflict.  I had such a hard time with this thought.  Contrary to popular believe, I am not a huge fan of conflict.  Often finding myself trying to make things better, always searching for a solution instead of sitting with the discussion and being ok with the debate.  But I know it is a key process in group development and healthy relationships.  So, I want to spend some time looking at this and hearing from the community of what their relationship with conflict is.  

What the Filter Catches

I am continually facilitated by this process.  When a simple filter is put into place to catch key words, they seem to really become apparent.  The following two links are snippets of what has been caught in the filter of Evolution:

Process Theism - this stems from an amazing conversation with MR

Horton Hears a Who - a podcast from The Best of Our Knowledge.  Segment 2 is what struck me the most.

enjoy.

Evolution

Just received a wonderful letter from a friend that inspired me to think of a new theme:

Evolution

This word has an interesting flavor this month.  For some it is an incredible challenging concept to embrace.  The challenges could be based on one's faith or it could also be based on one's physical structure. Evolution could also be a process that one embraces and invites into their lives. For this post I want to focus on the physical structure, then expand, or evolve if you would like to say.

While waiting for crews to return to Sunset Island this evening, I found a pair of Horse Shoe Crabs mating on the small beach that faces Chokoloskee Bay.  These creatures who have compound eyes located on the front of their shells and 5 more addition eyes located from head to tail.  A creature that has remained basically the same since the Paleozoic Era.  The world around it evolving.  The birth of flowering plants, amphibians, humans have all come to life, while the humble Horse Shoe Crab has remained the same.  The blood that courses through their systems also protects humans by preventing harmful bacteria from being introduced into ours.  

How does this creature remain unchanged for over 350 million years?  How does it not evolve?  A world spinning and changing and the Horseshoe Crab plows it's way through history doing it's thing.  

In the Company of Pilgrims

Just wrapped up a two week adventure with a crew of International Semester Students on their Florida phase.  Throughout the expedition, I truly felt like I was traveling with a group of pilgrims.  When asked why they were on this course, they all spoke of searching and looking for a direction in their lives.  Some even spoke of being lost.  They had all landed in this place in time together for many of the same reasons.  When I look at the definition of Pilgrim:

pilgrim |ˈpilgrəm|
noun
a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.
• (usu. Pilgrim) a member of a group of English Puritans fleeing religious persecution who sailed in the Mayflower and founded the colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.
• a person who travels on long journeys.
• chiefly poetic/literary a person whose life is compared to a journey.
verb ( -grimed, -griming) [ intrans. ] archaic
travel or wander like a pilgrim

I can see these individuals on a quest for reason.  It was so humbling to be with these folks as they struggle and search.  Having deep conversation with them about what their values are and how they came to those conclusions.  Then having an opportunity to share with them how I came to the place I am at as well as how I continue to search for knowledge and direction.  I am not sure if that was comforting or disconcerting for them. 

We are all on a long journey looking for directions.  We just need to pay attention to the little signposts & not just the giant billboards. 

stream of consciousness and confession

So this month was my choice, pilgrim, both for the holiday and the idea of us going off to search what "it" is on a quest. Both inward quests, but outwardly with TH in FL, KD in SF. I feel like it has mainly been a quest within the confines of my heart, actually. It's been a rough month and I wonder about keeping the idea of "purpose" and "legacy" that Doc references in his year to live. What do you want to wake up to do each day? How do you want to be remembered?

So confession (as I sit listening to Weezer). I have been focusing less on pilgrim and more on boundaries this month. What does that mean? I'll have to meditate on all of it.