The DAILY SPARK Blog

THE ART OF GATHERING

“Why do we gather?”  We gather to solve problems we can’t solve on our own.  We gather to celebrate, to mourn, and to mark transitions.  We gather to make decisions.  We gather because we need one another.  We gather to show strength.  We gather to honor and acknowledge.  We gather to build companies and schools and neighborhoods.  We gather to welcome, and we gather to say goodbye.

Excerpt from Priya Parker’s book:  The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters

Priya Parker is a conflict resolution strategist and author of the book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters.  She is a founding member of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network, a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership, and a Senior Expert at Mobius Executive Leadership

REFLECTION:

  • COVID has curtailed our opportunity to gather and yet being with others, offers so many benefits.  
  • Community is built through participation.  Do you allow others to be involved?
  • How can you include others… gather a group to build something even better.
  • Do you need to organize a gathering or ask to help someone else having a gathering?

BEING PREOCCUPIED

Monasterio de San Julián de Samos⁩, ⁨Samos⁩, ⁨Lugo⁩, ⁨Spain⁩ - Mural of 7 Deadly Sins

Being preoccupied with our self-image is like being deaf and blind.  It’s like standing in the middle of a vast field of wildflowers with a black hood over our heads.  It’s like coming upon a tree of singing birds while wearing earplugs.

Quote by Pema Chödrön

https://pemachodronfoundation.org/about/pema-chodron/

REFLECTION:

  • Do find yourself at times preoccupied with your self image?
  • How can you set yourself free?
  • How can you love yourself more… be kind to YOU… flaws and all?

SEEING THE CONTINUUM

Sculpture along the El Camino de Santiago -‎⁨Pedrafita do Cebreiro⁩, ⁨Lugo⁩, ⁨Spain⁩

It’s so much easier to see and process the world if we divide it into discrete bits.  This is non-fiction, that’s fiction.  This is a good restaurant, that’s a bad one.  This person is successful, that one isn’t.  These distinctions are almost always wrong.  Not just wrong, but unhelpful, because by ignoring the stuff in between, we isolate ideas (and people) instead of seeing them as part of a continuous whole.  Slopes aren’t necessarily slippery, but they’re far more likely to exist than neat staircases.  And then we have to make the very difficult decision of where in the messy middle we’re going to place a marker.  

FROM:  Seth Godin’s Blog

REFLECTION:

  • Do you tend to divide… good/bad; helpful/unhelpful; successful/unsuccessful?
  • Are you willing to work within the messy middle?
  • How can you see people and ideas as part of a continuous whole?