Our Longing to Gather

Our Longing to Gather
April 1, 2021

First, From the Heart

Our human nature calls us together. We gather to offer support, love, kinship, care, kindness, and compassion toward each other. Long before the recent dictates of pandemic separation and the rampant isolation of so much of our modern lives, our forebears listened to the instincts that kept our species well and thriving.

Earlier this week we activated a Women’s Global Compassion Gathering for just this purpose. We responded to the profound sense of loneliness, disconnection fragmentation, and separation that has been shared by so many leaders in our community. Our intention was to create a space for women and allies to relax into a felt sense of belonging, and also inspire others to catalyze more compassion and connection in their own lives and organizations. Let’s continue to support each other as we answer the longing to gather and return to wholeness.

Best of the Blog

A Powerful Gathering

The Women’s Global Compassion Gathering on March 28 welcomed participants from forty-one different countries around the world. Presentations from Kenya Casey, of The Carter Center, Liz Grant of the University of Edinburgh, and Monica Worline of Stanford University were interspersed with time for community reflection, sharing intentions and poetry, and restoration. Read more.

Research Worth Sharing

Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier
by Etienne C. Wenger and William M. Snyder
in Harvard Business Review, January–February 2000

In 2000, authors Etienne Wenger and William Snyder asked, "If communities of practice are so effective, why aren’t they more prevalent?" Over twenty years later, the question remains. Forward thinking leaders and organizations should resist the urge to control the creation of community knowledge, allowing creativity to flourish and thrive. Read the research.

Practice Matters

Interwoven

Nature shows us so clearly. The roots of fungi, plants, trees and colonies of various species naturally connect and support each other – sometimes in close proximity, and often at a remarkable distance. This is as true up in the cosmos as it is on our Earth.

We too are wired in exactly the same way: To relate, to connect, and to support all the people we come in contact with, even with those distant and unknown to us personally. Our innate nature is a deep knowing of how we are all intertwined. As humans we know and feel one another no matter our circumstance. Find your way back to that recognition that so often gets lost. Clear away the mental and emotional debris for this fundamental sense to emerge. Sit with this knowing and allow it grow. You will benefit. We will all benefit.

When can we practice? Always!

Upcoming Events

Do We Need a Compassion Revolution in Global Health?
April 7, 2021 at 11:00am EDT

Do you want to be part of the compassion revolution? Come join this upcoming webinar sponsored by Notre Dame's Eck Institute of Global Health. Facilitators Lacey Ahern and Bruce Compton, and panelists Sedem Adiabu and Shams Syed were all participants in a recent cohort of the Center for Compassionate Leadership's program in Compassionate Leadership and Resilience, and panelist David Addiss is a CFCL faculty member. Register Here.

Leadership, Evolved.

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