Tag Archives: Welcome

The Art of Asking

This week we link in a TED talk given by Amanda Palmer.  I love her story and approach as a musician.  It is hard to ask for help.  It is even more difficult to accept the help.  We speak about the power and beauty of vulnerability  on this blog, and here, Amanda Palmer eloquently addresses vulnerability through the art of asking.  The connection she lives with her fans across the world is a reminder of how important we are too each other.   Her description of the dialogue that took place between her and people who watched her perform on the streets, just through prolonged eye contact, is riveting.  Her trust in people is amazing, something to strive for in our day to day lives.

 

Take a quick 13 minute break and enjoy Amanda’s talk.  Simply beautiful…

 

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Sometimes it sneaks up on you…

Families gather...

Families gather…

On Monday of last week, my family attended the end of the year St. Mark’s Pre School family gathering.  Upon arriving at the park, we  set out our blanket and briskly followed our kids to the adjacent playground for a quick swing session.  Minutes passed and the sea of children and families swelled.  Familiar faces all around, as this is our third year of sending at least one of our kids to the pre school.  New faces appeared throughout the evening, depending on the tide. Continue reading

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Practice of Welcoming: A conversation with Bruce Anderson

The genesis of Come In From The Cold came from the yearning to reflect on how we, as people living in a community, can live a practice of welcoming.  Last month, I had the pleasure of meeting a gentlemen by the name of Bruce Anderson, who has made it his life’s work to explore this very idea. Bruce lives in Washington, in a place called Vashon Island, where he is immersed in living a practice of welcoming. I immediately invited him to share some time to chat with me and he graciously accepted.  So I invite you to have a glimpse into our conversation…

Bruce Anderson

Bruce Anderson

Me:  How did you become interested in this practice? Continue reading

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“From Below, Not Above”

Before we introduce this week’s blog link, we have AMAZING news!  Co-author and co-creator of this here blog, Linda Keys, along with her partner Alan MacFarlane, welcomed their son Findlay into the world on Saturday evening, May 4.  In a text she wrote, “Our beautiful wonderful son Findlay Keys MacFarlane, was born last night, May 4 at 8:21pm at home in water.  Weight 8 lbs, 11 ounces. It was the most perfect home birth I could have ever imagined.  His transition to the outside world was gentle and calm.  Auntie Jenny made it here in time.  We are all incredibly well and happy.”  Congratulations Linda and Alan on the birth of Findlay!! Findlay is blessed to have you as parents!  Now on with the show…

This week we are honored to provide you with a link to a dear friend’s blog, April Doner. Continue reading

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Imagination creates beauty…

A friend, and recent guest blogger, Chris Lee, recently shared this video about a project coordinated by Christina MacLeod.  She organized a group of community members to transform a “dull and lifeless street, into a public place that encourages activity, community and health.”  It is a beautiful piece about a beautiful idea.  Take the time to watch this 6 minute video.  Be well friends!

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Friendship Is Just A Ball-Pit Away

My good friend Beth Gallagher hipped me to this video produced by a group called Soul Pancake.  They constructed a ball-pit in the middle of a busy city and put up a sign reading, “Take a seat, Make a friend”, and filmed interactions between people brave enough to participate.  What ensues is beautiful.

For me this video speaks to the simplicity of human interaction.  It speaks to the genesis of any relationship…the invitation.  In this video, the ball-pit acts as the invitation.  Fun, innovative, clever and probably a bit impractical.  However, we can all be fun, innovative and clever.  We all have this invitation inside of us.  We all have the capacity to invite others into our lives.  To ask someone “What’s you story?” Continue reading

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The Original Roving Listener…

This week we share an interview facilitated by Janis Foster Richardson with De’Amon Harges.  Janis Foster Richardson is the executive director of Grassroots Grantmakers, a non-profit group that strives to “strengthen and resource the work of everyday people and citizen-led groups”.  De’Amon Harges, the original Roving Listener, shares his wisdom with Janis about the work he is doing in Indianapolis with Broadway United Methodist Church, and neighborhoods across North America.  Thanks to Janis for originally posting this interview via podcast.  Thanks to De’Amon for sharing his stories…

Take the time to listen to this podcast.  You’ll find it by following the link below.  You may have to cut and paste it into your address bar. I tried embedding it into the post, but it is in a format I’m unfamiliar with embedding.  We are working on being as tech-savvy as possible.  Bear with us, but in the meantime, follow the link and enjoy the conversation between Janis and De’Amon.
http://www.grassrootsgrantmakers.org/2013/03/roving-listening-a-strategy-for-building-community/

 

 

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Beautiful Justice

This week we link in a TED talk given by Beth Mount, titled “Beautiful Justice”.  In it, Beth invites us to see all people through a different lens, listen to people with our whole selves and to think and act creatively.  We all have gifts…we just need to figure out a way to connect with them in each of our places.  Take the 20 minutes to watch this simply brilliant approach to engage in the humanity we are all a part of…

 

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Building Community One Latte At A Time

The drive thru...

The drive thru…

Nestled snugly at the bottom corner of Bay Park, just off Morena, in the little Bay Ho shopping complex, is a business percolating connections.  Waiting in line for my morning coffee at Coffee Quick, a small drive-thru coffee hut, I began to notice something.  Svetla, owner and operator of Coffee Quick, seemingly always happy and ready to have a conversation, had something more than just a business brewing.  Curiosity welled up inside of me, wondering if this little hut was more than just a coffee shop.  What’s the story behind it?  So I decided to find out and extended an invitation to Svetla, to share her story.  As usual, when an invitation is extended, the storytelling unfolds along with the beauty of human connection. Continue reading

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All Together Now

Though Kirk and I both do a lot of work (and share friendships) with amazing people who have labels of disability, we don’t often write a lot specifically about that in this blog. We are both using our posts to explore wider aspects of community and connection and this focus has not yet emerged here…

This week I read a post which I want to share with you all. Our friend Tim Vogt wrote a wonderful piece in his own blog about John O’ Brien and Connie Lyle O’Brien’s Five Valued Experiences. I use the Five Valued Experiences in my work a lot, and increasingly notice how the aspirations I have for my own life fit into these dimensions. I think the examples Tim gives really brings some of these ideas to life, and his post is relevant to us all. It is relevant for us to think about the Five Valued Experiences in terms of our own lives. I also believe that everyone if in our communities takes a shared responsibility for welcoming people who may be at risk of segregation, we would all have richer, more diverse, more wonderful lives!

I hope you enjoy reading and watching…

http://cincibility.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/the-five-valued-experiences/

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