earlier blog<\/a>). We needed to adjust our agenda, freeing up time to open up what had happened within both the Joint Leadership team and the Wisdom & Money Board.<\/p>\nBack to the drawing board. Through conversations, phone calls and creativity we combined a few sections and shortened another. While it was true that some of the topics we had hoped to cover would have to wait, we were willing to take a risk to see if a potential rupture could be transformed in ways that would strengthen our partnership.<\/p>\n
That is the work that we do. Even if it means changing the agenda on the fly. I\u2019m learning not to panic, but to step into the next unknown with agility.<\/p>\n
By the time we gathered for the closing of our Trailblazing Boards of Directors meeting, our agenda had transformed into something extraordinary that defies easy explanation\u2014truly an Alchemy of Spirit.<\/p>\n
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All thirty-five of us felt the magic we had created together. We headed home having experienced the power of effective and sustainable partnerships.<\/p>\n
The twirling of Spirit toward justice, equity and transformation is happening around the globe, including in our midst last February at the Stone Mountain Inn. On land where the Ku Klux Klan ignited racial hatred and burned crosses of terror for forty years, we gathered together across all our differences, and the Spirit fanned the flames of transformation within our partnership.<\/p>\n
Powerful as our week together was, however, a meeting alone isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n
Sustaining the partnership we experienced requires a commitment by the individuals and organizations to keep aligning our values and actions. Every moment. For every person. No matter how hard we worked on the agenda. Partnership means we have each other\u2019s backs as we individually and collectively walk out of the addictions in our culture that are caught in generations of injustice, disrespect and inequality.<\/p>\n
It takes time. It requires risk.<\/p>\n
I look forward to the day when I can tell Danny about the wonders of the work that started long before he was born that will support the world he will one day inherit. When he hears these stories, I hope he still has enough of his child-like delight to throw up his hands with me in awe at what is slowly turning in our midst.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to our next joint organizational program offering, we\u2019re in the process of creating a training centered around a core practice of both organizations\u2014the Be Present Empowerment Model\u2014and two additional two core practices of Wisdom & Money\u2014Wisdom\/Contemplative prayer practices and money practices. We are exploring using a format developed by Be Present\u2014an 18-month training where we gather for a long weekend quarterly followed by an open conference where we share our learnings. We are in the midst of the early stages of planning, but this part we know: our Trailblazing Training in the Boston area will begin in 2020. Stay tuned.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Howard and I took our year-old grandson, Danny, to a neighborhood coffee shop. After charming half of the room with his bright smile, he looked up. His eyes widened and mouth fell open as he threw up his arms, reaching toward the twirling ceiling fan. He couldn\u2019t believe his eyes\u2014the slowly turning fan was unlike … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Blazing New Trails: Awe”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,8,11],"tags":[21,34,35,268],"class_list":["post-1098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creativity","category-culture","category-justice","category-partnership","tag-agility","tag-be-present-empowerment-model","tag-be-present-inc","tag-wisdom-money"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancymthurston.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancymthurston.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancymthurston.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancymthurston.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancymthurston.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1098"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nancymthurston.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1238,"href":"https:\/\/nancymthurston.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions\/1238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancymthurston.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancymthurston.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancymthurston.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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miracle of thirty-five people from Be Present, Inc. and Wisdom & Money, ages of 6-79, all gathered together at the Trailblazing Boards of Directors Meeting in early February.\u00a0 Be Present has always included people of all ages fully participating in all aspects of the work, including Youth Advisors on the board. In addition, all board meetings are open. This meeting was opened even wider with the full collaboration of two organizations.<\/p>\n