This declaration can apply to several things this spring–I’m finally taking time to blog again! We’ve gotten our new book, The Circle Way, A Leader in Every Chair, both into the office and out the door into the world, and I’ve fulfilled a long-standing promise to myself.  With great delighted I invite you to our business website to check out the new books, both our co-authored legacy work on circle and Ann’s legacy work on Keepers of the Trees. There will be other stories that follow from these book launching months, what I want to celebrate here is the promise I kept–from the time I wrote Storycatcher.

Only after Storycatcher was published and I was reading through the book did I realize I had told three versions of “the same story.” In three different actions, I described leaving something in the earth for the future to find. In Chapter 4, I tell about burying my journal during the Cuban Missile Crisis; then in Chapter 9, I talk about what it meant for a community to decide to bury The Dead Sea Scrolls; and in Chapter 10, I wrote about putting a letter under the kitchen counter during a remodel that will be decades before rediscovery. And the idea wouldn’t leave me alone. I have remained haunted by the question “What of my life do I leave for the future to find?”

Books. I think about my immense gratitude for the words that have been passed down and down that carry meaning both ancient and modern. I love stories like Thomas Cahill’s, How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe. In this book he speaks to how the monks and scribes of Ireland spent several centuries preserving the foundational texts of western philosophy and science hand copying and hiding them until Europe had restabilized politically and could house its own wisdom again. Sounds a bit like the destabilizing going on today in the US with its far-right flare ups…

So I began thinking about taking another banker’s box, as I had in 1962, and filling it with books and burying it again–this time “forever.” I bought a metal box at the thrift store, bought several rolls of cellophane wrap and aluminum foil and began wrapping books in layers of waterproofing, and then putting them into plastic bags taped shut with duct tape, and then placing these book bundles into the box which I then also taped shut with duct tape. I inscribed each book “deposited by the author, March 2010.” So there is now a collection of my writing, Ann’s writing, and a few things I thought might be of interest, including The Chronology of Human History–year by year from prehistory to 1990, buried in our yard.

A few days ago Ann and I took pick-axe and shovel, dug a hole and buried the box. Then the contractor who is designing a patio off the front of the house further buried it under the stair landing. Dirt–>box–>dirt–>cobble stones–>rebar mesh–>four inches of concrete–>stairs. It’s going to be a while before anyone is reading those copies! And in the climate of the region this is about as dry and safe a situation as I could devise. So, I’ve done it at last, and for the lasting. And I am surprised by my emotion, a tenderness walking by that spot. Here lies…

Here lies my life work–or at least the part of it that someone can find in a hundred or more years. They can read about journal writing and circle and story and the seven whispers of spiritual guidance. They can read about how much I loved nature and this place and the people of my life. And I can pray that they too will love nature and this place and the people of their lives. I can imagine someone eventually finding the box: I cannot imagine what life will be like at that time. I hope when they will sit down and unwrap this rusted container, they will find something legible that connects us across time.

Who I am will be immaterial by then. Like the craftsmen who, stone by stone, chiseled the walls of castles and cathedrals each brick providing the raw material for inspiration. That’s what I am: a craftsman who chipped some bricks into books in the Information Age. Whatever will be built from this, I truly do not know– I only dream. And for the rest of the time that I live here, I can step confidently down the new patio stairs knowing that something is under there– waiting.

What might you leave in the earth for the future to find?

You haven’t heard from me in a while because I am soooo tired of writing! I was thinking about this as walked the dog yesterday morning. Though she’s age 11, she still likes to scoot around the corner onto the macadam road that enters the neighborhood and head into a quick sprint. Fortunately, even though I am age 63, I can follow her lead and trot up the hill on the end of our tethered leash until we both look at each other and agree that’s enough for the moment. We continue along at a bush-sniffing, morning-appreciating pace, then return to the house for kibble or granola. And that’s how I’ve always been–a great sprinter, a kid who loved to go from zero to 60–run flat out and stop with happy panting and a sense of the fun of speed, then saunter a while before the next impulse took me into the face of the wind again.

Writing a book (which we turned in on September 1) while working full-time and running a business and now getting the copy edits back and simultaneously helping Ann do the final edits on her book (due November 1) is not a sprint–it’s a marathon!

We have a few weeks remaining in this writing harness and we do feel like a well-matched set of Percheron horses plowing through fields of chapters. I can tell I’ve over-extended myself in the word department because what feels most relaxing is a stint in the garden putting the beds to bed or a beach ramble with no talking… And yet here I am writing this blog in the midst of all this because several important and timely things are happening that I want to find words to acknowledge!

350-350-350-350-350-350-350 and 3/50-3/50-3/50-3/50-3/50-3/50-3/50–350 is a global movement, and 3/50 is a local one.

Global first: 350. This number stands for the number that leading scientists believe is the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide (in parts per million) in the earth’s atmosphere. We have already exceeded that limit, but scientific researcher and climate activist, Bill McKibben, has founded a global initiative to reverse the trend. His campaign is Internet based through the site: www.350.org.

I have been reading Bill’s books since he wrote The End of Nature in 1989, and most recently, Deep Economy. In 2003, editing an issue of Granta Magazine called, “This Overheating World,” he wrote in the introduction, “For fifteen years now, some small percentage of the world’s scientists and diplomats and activists has inhabited one of those strange dreams where the dreamer desperately needs to warn someone about something bad and imminent; but somehow, no matter how hard he shouts, the other person in the dream–standing smiling, perhaps, with his back to an oncoming train–can’t hear him. This group…knows that the world is about to change more profoundly than at any time in the history of human civilization. And yet, so far, all they have achieved is to add another line to the long list of human problems–people think about ‘global warming’ in the way they think about ‘violence on television’ or ‘growing trade deficits,’ as a marginal concern to them, if a concern at all.” The essays that followed turned me around to notice the train of change bearing down on me/us, and set me off to pursue what I could do to contribute to solutions. And while a lot has happened in the way of information since 2003 the useless debates continue at a national and international level while the carbon numbers rise.

The most hopeful thing Bill says these days is “New ways of behaving can still change the future.” Okay then, let’s sprint into action and change it for the better.

The website is an informative, educational, and inspiring read as the world heads toward Global Action day OCTOBER 24 and events are planned in 159 countries (and counting!) Yet if you start walking around wearing their distinction logo <-350 (a great graphic that goes beyond language and yet clearly communicates intent) you’ll have a lot of explaining to do. And won’t that be a wonderful opportunity for practicing story-telling. I want a tee-shirt that says on the back–“Ask me what this means! Then let’s talk about what we can do.”

October 24 is dedicated to building a movement to unite the world in populist action. October 24 is six weeks before the world’s leaders will meet in Copenhagen to formulate a global treaty on carbon emissions. October 24 is next Saturday: What will you do to change the future?

In the midst of our current book projects it’s hard to get far from the desk, but I love a chance to do a little social action. There are things happening within a ten mile radius of my house… I could take the bus. I could ride my bike. I can write all of you–and invite more people to start talking about all the things we are doing and can change in what we are doing that will help bring the carbon number down to a liveable level. And it’s an amazing experiment to be involved in something that has to reach so many corners of the world. Creative minds are at work. Check out the You Tube video, talk to somebody about this that you would not normally engage… Which brings all this right down to the local level and 3/50.

Local: 3/50 is another Internet based action designed to focus consumers on the need to support the local shops on the main streets of North America, Europe–and anywhere else that people have stopped spending their money locally. The premise is simple: think of three independently owned businesses near you that you’d miss if they went away. Stop in and say hello, spend a little money on something you need–even an espresso sipped from a local shop rather than Starbucks which has become a Fortune 500 global franchise makes a difference. Three local businesses, and then in the course of a month spend $50. If even half the employed population of the US spent $50/month in independently owned businesses, their purchases would generate $42.6 billion dollars a year. That’s a lot of money staying home, employing more people in your neighborhood, and helping local folks live their local dreams.

To get involved visit the site: www.the350project.net. Around Whidbey Island people are putting 3/50 placards in the windows, setting little information cards and flyers around their stores. It’s fun to be a local person–to cheer up shopkeepers even by walking in and thanking them for hanging in there with the community during these times when business is slow. Ask them what they need to community to be doing differently–then talk it up around town when you are visiting with friends and neighbors. Get in a dialogue–tell a few stories, listen to their stories.

We make someone’s day, or break someone’s heart, in minute by minute interactions–especially in our public interactions. What is going to happen in the long-haul of the crises represented by these 350 movements we don’t know. We can take charge, day by day, of how we spend our time, our money, our resources, and what stories we use to spur us to action. Let me know how you are and what you’re doing these days.

More soon–now, back to the harness of chapters.

Christina

Dear Storycatchers, I have missed you–missed writing to you and hearing back from you as we make our ways through busy days. The new book, which pulled me off this blogging schedule, co-authored with Ann Linnea, is at Berrett-Koehler Publishers in San Francisco–in fact, on this Saturday morning I am writing from the lobby of Hotel Rex, a few blocks from the B-K offices.

Yesterday Ann and I went through a process they call “Authors’ Day.” We met the folks who will be working with us in final editing, production, marketing, and publicity. At noon, all the staff in the building that day, including Steve Piersanti, President of the company, came to lunch where we talked about The Circle Way, A Leader in Every Chair, and then invited the group of just over 20 staff and guests to push back from the board table and form an oval of chairs. We used the Basic Circle Guidelines from our PeerSpirit website to set up a round of circle process and folks responded to an interesting question passing a beautiful glass disk hand to hand. We talked about the impact of hearing every voice in the room, and then had 20 minutes of dialogue about the book.

The question we used was offered by Fran Korten, editor of Yes! Magazine, when she presented at a conference on women and leadership May 1. As a great fan and avid reader of Yes! I was glad to meet Fran, give her a copy of Storycatcher, and carry on the profound work of her questions–so here they are for you to raise in your lives as well:

• What did you notice on the fringe of society 15 years ago that is now in the center?
• What do you notice on the fringe now that you hope will move to the center in the next 15 years?
• What are you willing to do to contribute to that happening?

I jumped up and said: circle, and the power of circles, especially as an empowerment process for women. And here is a brief rendition of that story.

In 1994 Ann and I had just moved to Whidbey and started PeerSpirit, Inc. I was writing a book called Calling the Circle, the First and Future Culture. It was under contract to Bantam and when I submitted the manuscript there was deafening silence from my editor. Finally I phoned and asked what was going on… She told me they had no idea how to support this title. I bought back the rights and found a tiny press in Oregon, Swan Raven & Company, to bring out the first edition of the book. It sold 15,000 copies and connected us with a circle of colleagues with whom we are still in touch.

In 1997, I got a call from an agent who wanted to represent the book to larger presses. He sold it back to my Bantam editor and I rewrote Calling the Circle in the edition that has been available since 1998. Unfortunately, the circle concept was still so edgy that the book was categorized as “ritual/psychology” and most often shelved in the witchcraft/occult section of the bookstore–not exactly mainstream! Meanwhile, we kept doing our work, expanding our outreach, and through training other facilitators, consultants, and leaders in many fields, kept working to normalize and bring circle to center as a alternative group process. When Amazon and the Internet, and our e-store capacity came along the book could be more easily found.

In 2000, through our association with business visionary, Margaret Wheatley, PeerSpirit Circle started going global in the From the Four Directions and Art of Hosting networks, and now, Berrett-Koehler, a business book company, recognizes circle practice as mainstream enough to bring The Circle Way into the heart of their business group process offerings. So, yesterday was quite a day–as we were carrying this subtext through all the meetings. We were carrying the story under the project; carrying fifteen years of work to help a far-out, woo-woo, women howling at the moon, men drumming in the woods, touchy-feely, get it out of here(!) concept into the board rooms and staff meetings and committee meetings and nursing staff debriefs, and conflict resolution meetings where we and many others have benefited from another way to speak and listen.

In our Berrett-Koehler circle, we addressed the second question: What do you notice on the fringe today that you want to see move to the center in the next 15 years? It’s a very interesting form of strategic planning: for a company involved in both setting and responding to business trends, and also for any person wanting to redesign their lives in the current conditions of the world around us. Try these questions on yourself as a journal writing exercise, with your family and friends after dinner, in the next circle where you need of a conversation starter–and here on this blog.

When I look back, the first question creates a sense of acomplishment and perspective regarding what I’ve been up to all these years in journal writing, circle, and storycatching. When I look around, the second question gives me a way to map current societal trends (what’s moving toward deeper integration, such as sustainability; what’s moving out of the way, such as excessive consumption). When I assess how to focus my own passion, willingness, and skills, the third question helps me set trajectory.

So many of us are in a process of reassessment, may these questions lead us into an ability to tell ourselves the story of how we have navigated the social conditions that surround our lives. As we tell the story of how we got here, we notice the synchronicities and choices that shape our lives. As we create the story of where we’re going, we shine a light on the path forward.

Let’s share responses and stories and see the range of what we notice–and what we are committed to bringing from the edge to the middle!