The Great Remembering: An African Journey Home

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Last night I interviewed Craig, my Heartland partner and husband of 26 years, following his recent trip to Tanzania, Africa. The trip with 13 men over 50 years old, led by old friend Richard Leider, was a watershed journey into his emerging elderhood as well as surprise "inventure" into a deep remembering into his humanhood. Caig kicked off the session saying........

We’ve all had those moments of awakening or remembering, some fleeting as if from a dream, where we know and feel connected in a visceral sense to all things, human and otherwise. Then, most of us return to the “real world” where day-to-day life resumes. What if these moments were the reality in which we were born to live, and that what if these episodes are the great remembering of what it truly is to be human?

My recent trip to east Africa, the birthplace of humanity, was one such moment in time, when the journey to a far off place brought forward a deep remembering of innocence, and connection to all things.

Craig's connection to the land and the people who have inhabited and known the land for over 4000 years was ground-shaking for him because it brought him squarely to the question of being, remembering, connection.

What is it you wish to remember about who you are, why you are here, and to whom or what you belong?

Patricia Neal

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The Highest Goal /Let the Courage Begin!

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The focus of today's Member Campfire Call was The Highest Goal: The Secret that Sustains You in Every Moment, by Michael Ray. [All calls are 2nd Tuesday of each month]

Wow! what a juicy call today! Many thanks to Michael Ray for joining us. As we reflected on the questions: "What do you know to be your highest goal? How are you acting creatively and/or courageously to meet the challenges of our times?," what became apparent is the intentionality with which we all live.

Michael asked us to explore one of the exercises from the book: "The Most Meaningful Thing," that leads to discovering one or two words related to our highest goal. Some of the words spoken: connectedness - service - justice - action - love - communion - emergence – authentic being - trust – co-creation.

Courage/We are not alone...

We spoke of using these calls and other opportunities to remind us that we are not alone, that there are many powerful, wonderful visions in action, that our combined efforts create and support courage to take the next step, to keep going.

Michael closed with the following reflection: Our shared words of our calling, our passion, move us to exhaltation. Move us toward whatever is emerging. We’re doing it now, together. We are visions in action, in service, in love.

Thank you for joining us!

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Power In Numbers

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The Heartland home page states: "Experience the power of onemultiplied by the power of many" as an offer and invitation. Why is this so important? Excerpts from a newsletter I receive, called the Daily Om, explain eloquently why we must gather— either in person or virtually—to create an exponential effect.

"Like tiny ripples that merge to form great waves, combined human intent is worth more than the sum of its parts.

Alone, the light you emit is a wonderful healing tool, but when you join with others who share your intent to shine compassion and positive energy over the world, a powerful force is created.

Each person's light joins with every other, and through the joining all are strengthened. What matters is not technique or what religion or beliefs you hold, but intent.

As you gather together willing people, your individual intent will become a great and powerful wave, and you will see results in your fellow humans, in the news, and in your daily life."

-Patricia Neal

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Capitalism 3.0- Reinventing The Commons

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Peter Barnes, Entrepreneur for the Common Good

Our VisionHolder interview on Weds. with Peter Barnes, co-founder of the pioneering socially responsible long distance phone co., Working Assets, and author of the upcoming Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons and Who Owns the Sky? is at it again, this time proposing an “upgrade” to the dominant world economic order by introducing radical yet tried and true proven concepts evolved out of “common trust”. It's basically an system upgrade, call it Capitalism 3.0, where we don’t scrap the old world order but activate a parallel more human-centric system based on our common trust....you know, our parks system, the air and sky, water, libraries, arts and culture and on and on...you get it. Not private or government. We leave them alone. It's not about shutting down the machine, but offering a radical yet subtle shift to what we already have....

If you think of the economy as a huge spreadsheet, with each cell representing a producer, consumer or property owner, you can see that the behavior of the whole is driven by the algorithms, or mathematical instructions, in the cells. Our current operating system is dominated by three algorithms and one starting condition. The algorithms are: (1) maximize return to capital; (2) the price of nature equals zero; and (3) property income is distributed on a per share basis. The starting condition is: the top 5 percent of the people own more property shares than the remaining 95 percent.

What algorithms to elevate? I'd nominate four: (1) preserve common assets, such as gifts of nature, for future generations; (2) live off income from shared gifts, not principal; (3) distribute income from shared gifts on a one person, one share basis; and (4) the more the merrier.

More from Peter in this thought-provoking thought piece.

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Turning Your Worst Enemy Into Your Best Teacher

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Seeing conflict as a birthing process...

Deidre Combs has spent decades obsessing about conflict. From her early family days, being one of four sisters, to her 12-year stint at IBM, she's plumbed the depths of what conflict is all about. My one-hour interview with Deidre was one of the most intriguing ever. How does one see conflict as a birthing process? As a Minnesotan, like many other cultures, we're bred to avoid conflict at all costs—to move through life with stoic resolve. What the hell is so frightening about conflict?

On tonight's VisionHolder Conversation, Deidre wowed us with all sorts of stories of her childhood, her corporate life, her spiritual journey. ultimately, the wisdom of conflict is almost of a spiritual practice. There is something so simple about breathing, getting centered, being human. seeing your partner not as an adversary, but as a teacher. The art of holding paradox, and letting go of our positions and opinions.

Whoa, whoa — way easier said than done. when you're totally engaged in oppositional politics, you've just lost your job—what do you want to do?

According to Deidre, "We are all participating- the living being is alive to figure things out. We need this bouncing and pushing and prodding." Intriguing.

How do you resolve conflict? What learnings does it hold for you? Share your stories on how conflict has transformed your life — or not! Simply hit the "Comments" link below and give us your thoughts.

-Craig

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THE GREAT REMEMBERING

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A conversation-starting essay by Craig Neal

In1963 my first remembering came spontaneously at the civil rights march “on” Washington DC, in which Martin Luther King delivered his legendary I Have a Dream speech. Although transfixed by the moment as I stood swaying with the crowd on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, it was the throngs of people I turned to during the speech that triggered my memory of a prior state, a remembering of the human condition as that of love in motion and therefore catalyzing my life’s purpose into motion.

We’ve all had those moments of awakening or remembering, some fleeting as if from a dream, where we know and feel connected in a visceral sense to all things, human and otherwise. Then, for most, we return to the “real world” where day to day life resumes.

What if these moments were the reality in which we were born to live, and that what if these episodes are the great remembering of what it truly is to be human? What if the Hopi elders are right when they say in their prophecy that we all are “the ones we have come to find”? What if you are the wonder and gift to the world you dream about in the sweet dreams of your solitude?

In spring of 2004 I was accepted as a writing fellow at a writers refuge to work on a book that had been brewing in me since starting the Thought Leader Gatherings (TLG)* in 1998. Many had asked me for the recipe for how we created the dynamic dialogue form used in the TLG meetings. The common take away of these “leadership development” sessions is a heightened sense of communion* with a diverse group of people based on conversations of living our lives as if we matter, integrating who we are with what we do.

Midway into the retreat, while writing about my experience at the 1963 march, I suddenly broke into sobs of joy and revelation, feeling waves of love and gratitude for that time, myself and a sense of complete integration with all things. The room glistened, my pulse quickened, I saw and felt from the core of my existence the interconnectedness of all things my “self” as an integral part of the whole matrix of life. A great remembering of who I REALLY am. Whew!

What came next was a flowing out of writing over the next several days of what is now the curriculum of The Art of Convening Trainings (AoC). Rather than a book, a living training in which I would engage people from all over the world, by telephone, in a conversation about what it means to remember our essential selves in  relationship to one another and the world into which we have been born.

Now 2 years and 21 groups into the AoC, this conversation has been and is being had with over 200. We ask to “listen ourselves and one another into being,” strengthening our internal and external listening muscles for the sometimes faint voice of our own awakened selves. We reveal to one another and ourselves our birthright of each human as complete and accomplished beings. This is a conversation of the Great Remembering.

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Last month I joined 13 men over 50 years old for an “inventure” journey/safari to Tanzania, trekking into 3 tribal lands as new elders, to meet and share with male elders of these tribes about what it means to hold a purpose and vision for our people and ourselves. Remembering together our humanness for a shared future.

On one of the evenings while visiting the Hadza, a hunter gatherer people, we assembled on a large rock with 10 Hadza elder men to hear their “creation story” of how the Hadza came into being on this land in the south Serengeti plains. Led by 94-year-old Kampala, they wove a story unbroken over tens of thousands of years of their people, the land, its inhabitants and, most importantly, the nature of their connectedness to all things.

Their lives are an continuous cycle of interrelated and interdependent relationships with the land, animals, the elements and humans. Indistinguishable and in rhythm. Their remembering is current and deep as an aquifer running swift and clean beneath the surface of our lives.

In their story we, too, were called to our essential selves, to remember our nature and purpose as humans.

Now sitting on a plane 40,000 feet over the Rockies, I wonder what shall call to us from the depth of our yearning our true selves?

What is it you wish to remember about who you are, why you are here, and to whom or what you belong?

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Imagining ourselves into a world that works

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What do we need to do to change the world?

Imagine ourselves into the future: imagine a vision for a world that works for most of the beings on the planet. Imagine that an ever-larger network of people each with an ever-larger network, can all connect to bring this vision to a critical mass.

It’s about waking up to see each other and take action together. It's about each of us finding our vision and bringing it to the world. Vision in action.

It's about relationships, connectedness, seeing no separation. We - can - do - this. Read this story to learn more about imagining as a tool to bring vision to action.

What are your imaginings, your stories, for how we will imagine ourselves into the future? Add your comments below!

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On Being Ordinary

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A Conversation with an Extraordinary Woman

What if it all just meant being present to one another in the moment: in our daily lives, in our neighborhoods, our communities and beyond? What if global transformation just meant living a good life, doing the right thing, walking around the lake on a spring day, loving your children, being in integrity with who you know you are meant to be, having the courage to live your values openly and honestly with whomever you are with.

My conversation with Nina Utne tonight wasn't our normal VisionHolder call. It was more an informal dialogue with an old friend. We talked of big ideas and small actions, of serving our communities and the world in one fell swoop. There is no difference between serving self, family, community than of the high-mindedness of changing or serving the world.

How are you serving those around you? How is serving yourself serving the world? Hit the "Comment" button below and start the conversation. We want to know what you think, what you are facing and feeling.

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Connecting the Dots

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Friend Steve Borsch of Connecting the Dots stopped by yesterday. Steve, a visionary of those trying to get their heads around the future of Web 2.0, has been musing and seeking to understand the cultural and societal impacts of the next generation internet. The interest is to use "societal software" to create a "participation culture." The local and global connections are coming fast and furious. Sites, products, and people all want your attention. Where does discernment and collective wisdom enter into the conversation?

Within this emerging culture, there is the opportunity to recognize and nurture the concept of essential conversations--conversations that matter, that bring people together in dialogue not debate (see post below), bring people to true presence, which brings the conversation to purpose.  A book that we've been recommending for a while is Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (Senge, Jaworski, Flowers, Scharmer). Understanding the view of creating wholeness in each venture, conversation and exchange, can create the field for completely new understandings of organizational structures that create the interconnectedness needed to move humanity forward to sustainability and a shared future of health for the majority of people on the planet.

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Welcome to the New Heartland Blog!

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We're working on this new blog to invite the larger circle of new leaders to gather...

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Presence and Dialogue

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How the principles of dialogue create true presence
"If we could suspend our need to be right, and truly listen, could we actually create the possibility of creating an opening for something new to emerge? How do we learn to come fully present and create the possibility for collective wisdom to coalesce and come into being?" -Glenna Gerard

The 3/21 VisionHolder TeleConversation with Glenna was a great 'remembering' of the principles that Heartland was founded on. We are indebted to the work of people like Glenna: the realm of bringing the principles of dialogue to greater awareness because they are the bridge of moving from dialectical debate to shared understanding and collective wisdom. Our Principles of Conversation are based on dialogue. Every gathering, call, meeting that we convene uses these principles.

For more on Glenna, visit her website...

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How to Add your Comments

Your comments are a rich source of interaction, and your vehicle to be 'present' here on the blog so we encourage you to comment as often as you like.

To do so, click the 'comments' link located under the post you would like to comment on. You will be required to give your name and email address, so we know who is speaking, and will have the opportunity to include the url of your website, if you desire. You might want to click the button that says 'Remember personal info', as that will save you having to fill in your information next time you want to comment.

Type your comment, just as you would in a regular word processing program. Any urls (web addresses) you include in your post will automatically be created as links, but you cannot use any other html coding in this box. All urls need to include http:// at the beginning.

When you have finished, click the 'preview' button to view your comment (if you wish), then click the 'post' button to publish it.

There! That was easy, wasn't it?

If you run into any trouble, or would like to share any wisdom you've gained about the commenting process, please do so below. If you'd like to contact us directly at Heartland, please call 952-925-5995.

Help in Subscribing to this Blog's Feed

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The Heartland Circle RSS Feed:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/Circle

To make sure you don’t miss any new conversation around the Heartland Circle campfire, you can subscribe to this blog and have new content delivered directly to you, rather than having to go online & check the blog every day.

You do this through a (free or paid) News Reader (aka a News Aggregator), which automatically picks up news of any new campfire posts via what's called an RSS or Atom Feed. There are many different versions of News Readers, some of which are part of your browser itself, others accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. All allow you to display and subscribe to any blog or website with an RSS feed, including this one.

This sounds more complicated than it is. There are only two basic steps to subscribing:

1) Choose a News Reader. Download and install, or activate it according to instructions (more information on this below)
2) Use the News Reader to subscribe to the Heartland Circle blog using the RSS2 feed, above.

The trick is in choosing and setting up your news reader, and the choices depend on what will work best for your specific needs, so you’ll have to take this step yourself. Hopefully the information below will be of help, and we invite you to add your questions and any wisdom you've gleaned from your experience via the 'comments link below.

If you get stuck, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at the Heartland office and we’ll walk you through some of the choices: 952-925-5995.

More on News Readers:
As you might have surmised, there are many choices for news readers. As a rule, the paid versions will work best for you if aesthetics are important & you want to subscribe to more than one blog. If you just want to experiment, one of the free versions will do just fine. A web search will turn up many more (and there is a full directory at the bottom of the page), but here are some popular options:

For Windows:
* Newz Crawler (cost $24.95)
* FeedDemon (costs $29.95)
* Awasu (free & paid versions)

For Mac OS X:

* Newsfire (requires OSX10.4) $18.99
* NetNewsWire $24.95

Web-based (cross platform):

* Bloglines (free)
* NewsGator (free)

Through your browser (free):
(Be sure you have the latest version of these browsers downloaded)

Firefox -  Firefox’s “live bookmark” is a special type of bookmark that acts as a folder to contain the links in a feed. You can create a live bookmark by simply visiting a site with a feed, clicking on the live bookmark icon in the lower right of the Status Bar, and selecting the feed format you wish to use (we have options for RSS2 or Atom, see above).

Opera - If you have Opera's navigation bar enabled, a Newsfeed button will be displayed if there a newsfeed link is detected on the active page. Simply click the button to start a subscription.

Safari (comes bundled with Apple 0SX)- With Safari, you know right away if you’ve landed on a website that offers an RSS feed, thanks to a handy RSS icon. Click it and Safari automatically displays the feed. Then bookmark the RSS feed so you can return to it later. Safari even tells you when your bookmarked feeds are updated with new articles, so you get the latest news without repeatedly refreshing sites. And if you enjoy scanning the news from all your favorite sites at once, Safari lets you aggregate feeds easily. Create a folder of your frequently viewed RSS feeds from a single window, then browse everything in one cleanly formatted page

Full Directory of RSS-compatible readers

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