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I guess it’s time I took this off my “to do” list, and put it on the “done” list. I hope to do much more of it, but have now had a good solid experience of making it happen, and have a sense of how profoundly rewarding it can be. 5 years ago
Had a great opportunity to facilitate a Talking Circle with an amazing group of people who are all highly motivated folks working on cool projects and who I don’t know very well (except one).
While I can’t talk about what people shared, it was a great success! Good depth, good connection, and the group feels like it knows each other much better now. 5 years ago
I’ve started two new Talking Circles with a different approach: they’re both ‘drop in’, in that folks needn’t commit to being a regular, as long as I get warning about how many folks (up to 6) are coming. One Circle is mid-week, and another is Sunday. Unfortunately after having the first two we’ve lost a bit of momentum, primarily because of a lack of scheduling. Hopefully I can get them going regularly again as of September. It’s exciting to be doing it with new folks, and doing it with a constantly shifting group of people will be handy for me, in terms of experiencing the varieties of ways it can go (as well as experimenting with levels of guidance). 5 years ago
Our talking circle has been good, but seems to have devolved a bit, into more of a “hang out” session – which isn’t a bad thing to have, but isn’t what the talking circle is about. I’m going to end this Talking circle, and see about starting another one. 5 years ago
Last night’s talking circle was beautiful. (With the exception of a few week period, we’ve been consistently having them every Monday for quite a while now).
During it, I had an ‘awakening’. One moment I was listening to a friend talking about work, and all of a sudden it went from an experience of my brain parsing the data of what he was saying to having a deep experience of him as a person, with the words simply being a key “mode of radiation” that was giving me insight into him. It was a few moments of seeing him more deeply than I often do, and was, for me, close to the heart of what these talking circles are about. 6 years ago
The premise is simple enough:
One person has the talking stick. They can take as long as they need to formulate their thoughts, they can talk about whatever they are moved to for as long as they want, without interruption, and when they are finished the pass the stick to the next person.
The focus is on the listening. Being present for the person speaking, experiencing who they are, and witnessing them.
People are free to pass. Ideally, the end of a Circle is when the talking stick makes it all the way around the circle with everyone passing.
Every experience I’ve had of this practice has been incredibly powerful, and I’m deeply called to it. It’s something that whenever I’ve facilitatede it it has gone well. I want to use it both with my friends and also to teach it to anyone wanting to learn it or experience it.
Milestone:
