As I was packing up my mother’s nursing home room after her death, I found a little heart-shaped stone that said ‘serenity’ on it. I took it back to California with me and I hold it frequently. It’s heavy, it has form, it feels soothing, and it reminds me of her. I love the weight [ Read more … ]
aesthetic space
For change to happen, you need to create the space for it.
Spaces instigate transformation. I went to graduate school with the desire to understand how adults learn in life and through my research it was remarkable to me how important space was for learning and social change. For example, during the civil rights movement, black churches were instrumental in creating change because they provided “free [ Read more … ]
Make space around others so they can grow.
Space under the surface. Have you ever found yourself saying, “I feel inspired around her” or “I get amazing insights in that person’s seminars” or “I don’t know what you said, but it shifted everything.”? Those are examples of how we (perhaps unwittingly) create space for others’ growth. Magda Cragg said her husband, the poet [ Read more … ]
What is aesthetic space and why is it important?
Philosophers throughout history have asserted that “the fundamental nature of the world is aesthetic” (Alfred North Whitehead, Gregory Bateson,James Hillman, Martin Foss,Donald Winnicott to name a few.) The word aesthetics comes from the Greek word “aisthenesthai” which is the ability to perceive. James Hillman writes, “Aesthetics in this primordial sense involves sensing the things of [ Read more … ]
The Enchanted Loom
I feel moved to post this email from an amazing woman who heard me on the radio last fall. Her metaphoric images are full of spirited life, and I love her image of the culture being in the “neti-neti” stage of childbirth: “We are ‘not here nor there’ but somewhere in-between. Neti-neti is a time [ Read more … ]
