"A Journey To Community"

<< previous section | table of contents

Closing

As we closed the day, Myron asked us to quietly scan our experience together over the last two days. What might we want to leave behind, and what might we take forward with us? He asked us to quietly imagine a flame that both destroys and energizes. What might we want to commit to the flame to be free of, and what might we want to ignite and embrace in our lives? People spent some time in quiet, journaling reflection. A few shared their thoughts with the whole: one person said—“extinguish competition and ignite cooperation.”

Finally, Myron shared thoughts about change and transformation, and referenced the Sanskrit work Viparyaya, which signifies transformative processes, and literally means:

Transformation is a process of turning 180 degrees, and walking back into your life with enhanced consciousness.

Come to the edge, he said.
We’re afraid, they said.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them.
They flew.

--Apolinaire

Joann offered her heartfelt thanks to all and honored Carl Ball's vision of educators coming together to co-create.

She ended with this passage from A Simpler Way:

The boundary of self is the defining of a contribution. As such, self is an opening to connections, not a barrier behind which we fight for our survival.

When we link up with others, we open ourselves to yet another paradox. While surrendering some of our freedom, we open ourselves to even more creative forms of expression. This stage of being has been described as communion, because we are preserved as our selves but are shorn of our separateness or aloneness. What we bring to others remains our self-expression. Yet the meaning of who we are changes through our communion with them. We are identifiable as our selves. But we have discovered new meaning and different contributions, and we are no longer the same.

From A Simpler Way
by Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers

<< previous section | table of contents