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YOU HAVE OUR ATTENTION...
No, we are not talking to the cake pictured above...
Over the last few weeks, hundreds of you responded to our survey asking for reactions and ideas to a forthcoming, membership-based GFJ community platform. In many ways, the responses were overwhelming - they brought us tremendous joy, excitement, and the desire to reflect back the honesty and vulnerability you put forth in sharing with us. We felt seen and heard by you all, and at times we wanted to shout out some answers to particularly tender or burning questions that were asked.
In lieu of shouting, we'll be addressing your questions, slowly but surely over the coming weeks and months, through this newsletter, through the community platform we're putting together, and through the website itself. But for today, we'd like to share some of the highlights of what you offered, all of which was truly a gift to us in this 'birthday' month of October, marking 15 years of GFJ.
Much like Julia Child said, "A party without cake is just a meeting," Mary Oliver wrote that, "Attention without feeling is only a report."
I've been thinking a lot about attention lately, and its close relationship to time. In some of the responses from the survey, I noticed how people put into words something I've been grappling with around online community. One person wrote, "I'm not sure how the intersection of having a very offline life and being a part of an online community even sits with me currently."
Another person shared, "I appreciate forms of connecting that allow us to engage off the internet," while another said, "I enjoy being part of a global movement that can connect on a tangible, local scale." And, "I always wonder if there was another digital medium that allowed for the kind of message GFJ shares without turning to social media."
I spend a lot of time thinking about where my hours went before smartphones existed. Another way to think about it is, what did I do with my attention? In the so-called 'attention economy,' even attention has been coopted. It reminds me of the word 'love' losing its meaning, or becoming impossible to define, when used without clarity and care.
Recently, I noticed a friend's cat sitting near a patch of sun on their porch, and I realized I felt...envious. It reminded me that, at times in my childhood, I was much more like that cat than I am now. The cat's attention remains instinctual, and therefore - perhaps - more balanced, while mine has become more separated or disconnected from instinct, or inner listening.
Aside from processing my cat jealousy, what I'm coming to understand is that where I want my attention to go is toward experiences of feeling connection with other people, with the living world around me, with art, with spirit. When we are not listening closely to our inner selves, where we put our attention often leads to disconnection. How do we turn this around, or transform it?
Your responses came through so clearly with the desire to connect to people on a small scale, in your local area, while also acknowledging how deeply important it is to know that there are people out there, on a planet-wide scale, who care about the same things, and are doing the work to advance a more human connection for all. We felt your desire to share tools, resources, and ideas among like-minded members far and wide, expressly to stay grounded and present with who and what is happening right in your area. For example, we heard...
..a resounding 94% Yes! to the question of whether you want to connect with others in the GFJ community.
...multiple people said they'd love to hear the responses that we get, when we ask different questions week to week. Our intent is to start doing that immediately, as regularly as we can.
...and we noticed some confusion about what exactly a membership-based online community is. We hope to talk more in depth about that in the coming weeks, as we prepare to create something that will be shaped by you - by your hearts, your wishes, your needs, your participation.
Most of all, we want to say thank you to everyone who is with us and has been with us, so many of you for many years, and even some from the beginning.
To paying attention for, with, and to one another,
Dor + Tay
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