On BecomingThe very act of becoming requires often many elements. Often a slow, long wait is one of them. It also embodies the very weight of change. Change can be soft, it can be gentle, it can be loud, it can be violent, it can be painful. Change is at the very elemental building blocks of becoming. Transformation, is at the very heart of change. To leave one state, and transform into another. Every woman that has ever birthed a child can to the most part talk to you about transformation. Some of the journey might be foggy, but there is a lot of imagination that goes into it. While you are pregnant you imagine what it will be like, all the beauty, the glory, the softness, the tenderness of what lays ahead, there can also be moments of fear, trepidation, outright revolt, yes, let's be honest. Not all pregnancies are planned--so to sugar coat it and say all of us were brilliantly and amazingly, in our Madonna state, awaiting the blessed birth, would be absurd. Does that mean when the arrival happened that love was not there? For many the love was there, to the capacity that the individual could give. I want to emphasize that very clearly, to the capacity the individual could give. This will lead us also to talk about empty cups, as we move farther into this writing. Imagination is at the heart of transformation, we often hear "If you can dream it, you can achieve it" that is very true, but also very, very hard. How many people's visions were smashed along the capitalistic shores of lives, or the pragmatic, or dogmatic, or whatever, ism or scheme was present at the time we wanted to "birth" our vision. How many good ideas, lay like broken wings upon the ground? As we go about our lives, we must understand, that visions are sacred. They were born in some ethers sometimes, that we cannot possibly comprehend. Some of those visions stick, like glue and wait patiently ever so patiently to come forward. They are like small children in the hands of the dreamer waiting for the soil to be ripe enough and SAFE enough to nourish them up. You cannot push the grass anymore than you can push the river, it will flow to it's destination in its own sweet time. There are often times, people that carry similar visions, and that dear one, is when you know you are bringing forth something that will shift the paradigm. Something that is wanted, needed and cried for by our very souls to bring forth. So many of us were getting a vision especially in the 80s and 90s of what could be, for myself, I have held the idea of Full Circle Learning since the early 90s, it cemented itself into what it would be called in 1997 and I have held it in my heart trying to bring it forward for a very long time. But, the ground needs to be fertile to grow a vision. It needs to be free of encroaching and choking vines, weeds, and must be able to flourish. It's ok for a vision to take time...it's ok. The very act of the butterfly becoming itself requires the help of literal cells called imaginal cells, yes those are real things...in definition they are: tissue-specific progenitors allocated in embryogenesis that remain quiescent during embryonic and larval life. This is quite a mouthful when you think about it, but they HOLD the vision for the things yet to come, the very act of transformation turns the very being into a type of soup during the transition of becoming the beautiful butterfly, that I believe and hope most of us love...the beauty aspect from the all consuming caterpillar. We are shifting from consumption to collaboration and cooperation. This requires GREAT change. It requires GREAT patience, and it requires, GREAT vision. As we work towards bringing out the vision of a Folk School, it has required and will require still ALL of these. We pushed back our summer series, because you cannot push the river, it will arrive when it arrives and the people that are meant to support it, to be part of it will make themselves known. Sometimes all that is required of us is to HOLD SPACE. We use that term often in meditation and reflection and as a part of active listening. When you Hold the Space for another be it in real terms as providing a location or sometimes intangible in the silence and reverie that is given when someone is sharing their story, that is very powerful. Very, very powerful indeed. It is a collective decision to listen, versus solving, which can be hard for many of us. It's an energy that kind of supports the light of the person sharing their story, ideas, or more. Sharing SpaceThis Summer we are choosing to share space, albeit humble to provide a summer series of youth to adult courses. This will not be the first time we have done in person classes or hybrid offerings, but it will be the first time we offer a full series in person. Many may know that we were in the bidding for a very special building to bring these visions forward, and we do have the people and the skills to make it happen, we just lack what most do the capital and that is what drives so many good visionaries out of moving faster. While that sale has not finalized for the other bidder, it does seem that our chance of having that vision are in flux? As a good friend once said, "What is meant to be yours, will be yours" Faster is not always better. But we do know that our communities are in distress. We see it daily, and the idea of the Folk School has always been to offer good content first, quality support first and advocacy to support our most vulnerable in our communities often women and children. We know that the laps of our mother's are were education first starts, and when they are under siege, our whole world is under siege. Women deserve advocacy, because the seat of the life lays here. Healthy, happy, educated and supported women, create the same in society. We also know that our men need help as well to create new models from the toxicity that has been our past paradigm. We ALL NEED each other. If you would like to be part of that growing shift, we would encourage you to reach out, to donate, to share your wisdom, expertise, and be part of the growth that is in a new paradigm, a new school model and a hope that we will shift towards a better world. We welcome trades people that might want to volunteer time, or share their knowledge, families seeking new models, educators wanting to make shifts in their school systems, and that being said, administrators. A teacher can only do so much without the support of administration. We have a small space, but don't let that discourage you, we would love to invite you to our weekend bar-b-que and potluck. We ask that you bring your grilling choice of vegie or meat and a potluck dish, some wisdom and enthusiasm, as you get to meet our board of directors, families, and our recreational educational group meets our community group. You will get to meet our collaborative family of artists, writers and educators and get a sneak peek at what we would like to offer. We will be celebrating my husband's birthday, one of our officers, my daughter's Master's work, also one of our board of directors, and one of our collaborators recent success with NPR with his writing. It will be very relaxed, you can learn a bit of what we do, and how we do it and most especially WHY we do it. SUNDAY, July 2nd @ 4-7 PM EST, Ocean View - Join and RSVP for address Join our group and RSVP here |
Lynnea A. LuebbenFounder of Red Tent OV and NaradaHaus Inc. Full Circle Learning, Business woman, educator, non-profit leader, artist, poet and mother. Archives
June 2023
Categories |