I haven’t been active on this blog and the reason is very simple: my life has been so full lately with inspiring work and projects, connections, love…, and, well, I just choose to live it as fully as I can, rather than sit in front of the computer trying to describe it.
But there is a celebration I want to share with you now.
For over 20 years I have been working as a group trainer full time and I thought that I have worked with just about any sort of groups, from hard-core business to school teachers and students, from doctors to soldiers… But a couple of months ago a call came in from a Catholic church in a village, inviting me to give a talk to parents about establishing dialogue with their teenagers. In the church! Straight after the mass!
At first I thought it was a joke. Namely, I am not at all excited about organized religions, especially the Catholic one (don’t know even where to begin listing all the unmet needs and values…) and I have written quite some pretty critical stuff about Catholic religion on this blog as well as elsewhere and so I thought I would be the last one that they would invite to lecture them. But it proved to be a true request for help and support.
Anyway, there I was yesterday, starting my talk right after the evening mass. The church was packed with almost 200 people, parents as well as their teenagers (I have requested to be able to talk to both “parties”, not to parents only), and the spirit was totally amazing. It felt a bit weird at the beginning, me standing there as a priest and everybody squeezed on these benches, but soon the magic started to happen. We connected so beautifully, somehow love and celebration of life was in the air, we were laughing together and feeling touched together while I was talking about building bridges across generations, hearing each other emphatically, using the connecting language rather then the disconnecting one, together working on ways for everybody’s needs to be met…
I felt touched, uplifted, very peaceful and connected to everybody. And grateful. It was just such a beautiful experience.
After it was all over and I left the church, walking toward my car under the shinning full moon and the stillness of the night at the edge of this village, I felt that this was probably the original idea for building places of worship; to bring the community together, to support the heart-connection to happen within people as well as among people.
To support the spirit of life to manifest itself visibly and to open space for rememberings, celebrations, mournings…
Very, very nice story! Thanks for sharing! I would even invite you to share it more widely! (heard about the Art of Hosting online community? could be a great blogpost there!
http://artofhosting.ning.com/
Comment by Ria Baeck — March 23, 2011 @ 7:41 pm
Hi Robert. Those RCs obviously did their darndest to ‘bless those who persecute you and do good to those that hate you’. I guess “I´ll meet you in that field beyond right and wrong” riff applies to them as much as anyone else
Mind you, I do envy your globe trotting and seemingly robust life of contribution where you really put yourself out there to be blessed in this way by all quarters of society, with yet more opportunities for contribution. All love and the more power to you and your ever extending brethren.
Comment by giraffedancer — March 31, 2011 @ 11:50 am
Ria – hi there, I am really happy you liked the post. Very encouraging to see there are still people reading this blog, although I post so rarely lately. Never heart about the Art of Hosting online community. Will look it up. Or perhaps you can just post a link to this post of mine, or copypaste it or something?
Giraffedancer – yes, yes, yes, this is what happened. Amazing. They actually said they would like me to come back to speak about some other topics as well. I really love this. And when you say envy I actually choose to hear it as a celebration and I so much celebrate this myself too. Right now I am again at the coast with our camper van, for five days, to cool my system down a bit, enjoy peace and quiet… And just yesterday in the evening, when drifting away in my bed, I was thinking that there is so much to celebrate in my life, really so darn much. By the way, do you ever come to Europe? I would love to meet you.
Comment by Robert — April 3, 2011 @ 10:23 am
Wow. You know, right now I am here in cyber-space enjoying being with you in cyber non-reality. And it is fun. A physical meeting I find a shocking possibility. Right now, so many needs are met by reading your writing on and occasionally commenting on your blog. I realise it meets a need for escape for fantasy, maybe, from my mundane demands of life? You achieve something in your blogging I find just fascinating and extraordinary.. a strong ego that is able to reflect on and post on its experiences, believing them to be valuable and of interest to others. For me that is a whole world and a fascinating role model. What needs would actually be met in meeting in the flesh? I am baffled. Curiosity? What actually could we achieve together? I am left completely blank at the prospect of a physical meeting. I have no real life I would like to share except the moment to moment with my family and the challenges that arise. Stumped. I guess a sense of shame at this kept me from saying anything (lack of responsibility, I am afraid) for so long in the face of your expressed wish to meet. I regret this, but, as I say, it is a real shock to contemplate a meeting! The richness of what we have now is, to me, in two separate, distant worlds, infecting, or pollinating from a far… or some such fantasy!? Or it was until you stopped blogging, because real life is just too real and celebrational! And long may it be so. P.S. I’d love to have an update on how your blogging self or real self is right now!?
Comment by giraffedancer — June 24, 2011 @ 10:14 pm
Giraffedancer – well, I just love sitting down with people, enjoying sharing our lives, connecting… Perhaps poking into the fire (something I have been doing a lot lately, with friends in our back yard…). I find it enriching, inspiring… Anyway, yes I have been having this thought on my mind – to write an update… Will most likely do something in this regards over Summer. It is really amazing, all this fullness of life, with so many connections, inner as well as with others, all the new inspirations and worlds… It just somehow does not feel like sitting behind the computer and describing… But, will do, I want too…
Right now I am sitting in a cafe in a forgotten little town in Greece, getting ready to be dragged by my loving wife to a fortress on the hill… And it is our wedding anniversary… 
Be well, my friend, be well.
Comment by Robert — July 5, 2011 @ 5:01 pm
This story is inspirational for real, I love it and I am so inspired thanks for posting this!
Zero Dramas
Comment by mycelebritydesigns — November 2, 2011 @ 3:50 pm
Wow! What an honour. I sure could have used some of that connection when I was a teenager. Well, 45 years later it still hits home. Thanks.
Comment by Hunter Dickson — January 31, 2012 @ 4:11 am