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| ISSUE NO. 705 |
| THE PARADOX OF TRANSFORMATION . . . is that change is hard. If that seems like an understatement, all we can say is: you're not alone. In his 1923 prose poetry fable, The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran wrote: “your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” In Gibran's words, we see that difficulty, pain, discomfort, all lead to a new understanding. The wisdom that comes from growth. September in the north east United States is a time of change that has us seeking balance and peace, but so often brings a level of energy that we don't know what to do with. We can't seem to put anything down long enough to keep our arms from hurting. We are reminded that the circle is the shape of balance, and it is also the shape of continuous change. What we return to, again and again, must - by necessity - involve departure. Ericka Hines of Every Level Leadership, and Black Women Thriving, writes: "When it comes to racial equity work, change is not only constant but essential...DEI and race equity work is a change management initiative. That is important because whenever we are working with organizations and working with the people inside of those organizations, we ask you to change. We're asking the people to change, and we're asking the organization to change. So has your organization ever thought about how we operate, address, or react to change? The answer you give will predict your success with your DEI work now." I'm beginning to realize how my yearning to return to a sense of peace and balance has so often felt like a need to work against change, to find some way to avoid change or put it aside...when really the two are in concert with one another. GFJ was founded on our inner certainty that meaningful work not only exists, but that it is about more than our individual wishes and desires - it is a collective yearning. Meaningful work is not about suffering in individuality, it's about finding one place - however small - where you work to make change, reminding yourself whenever you lose track of it that there will always be community and communality in transformations. Walking in circles is a common way of saying that you are lost, or that you've lost your purpose. What if walking in circles together is how we find each other and ourselves? Entrepreneur, storyteller, and soul mentor, Maggie Battista, is offering GFJ readers a free masterclass on how to "Hold Space for the Soul", a zoom workshop taking place this Wednesday from 4pm to 6pm EDT. Here is the link to register. In community, |
tidbits...resources on anti-racism, environmentalism and food culture AKA stuff we're reading / listening to / watching / noticing / thinking about / captivated by this Tuesday . . . |
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