Time for recess

by | Nov 8, 2010 | Uncategorized

As a novice runner, I use a handy-dandy app on my iPod to tell me when to switch from running to walking. So far, I’ve worked my way up to nine minutes of running and two minutes of walking, repeated four times (for a total of 44 minutes).

Each interval is marked by a chime that rises above the sound of my music. I’ve switched most of the chimes to pleasant sounds, like a Tibetan singing bowl, for example – sounds that sooth me as I run.

The only sound I haven’t changed from the default is the one that sounds at the very end, after all of the reps are completed and I’m home or close to it. It’s a buzzer that sounds exactly like a school buzzer reverberating its way down locker-lined hallways.

It’s a rather jarring sound, and when I first heard it, I was determined to change it. But I didn’t get around to it right away, and by the second time I heard it, I realized that I’d grown to like it. Like Pavlov’s dog, the moment I heard the buzzer, I was filled with childlike glee. It’s the recess buzzer! It’s the sound that tells you it’s time to put away your work, grab your jacket, and run outside with your friends for fifteen minutes of unadulterated fun.

When I get to my front steps, exhausted and sweaty from a hard run, the buzzer sounds and I know that it’s recess time. Time to relax. Time for a hearty breakfast, a soak in the tub or a refreshing shower, a tall glass of water, and then maybe a cup of tea. I’ve worked hard and I’ve earned this recess time.

This past month has been an extended time of recess for me. When I quit my job (and the contract I thought I’d be starting with fell through), I was determined to take some time to refresh myself before jumping into new work. I’ve worked full time for all of my adult life (with the exception of maternity leaves and university), and I knew I needed a rest more than I needed to work at that point.

You know what? It was truly, truly wonderful. I have emerged feeling refreshed and excited about what this new business venture will look like. Now that it’s November, I’ve started some contract work, I start teaching this week, and I’m having lots of exciting conversations with people about interesting work on the horizon. Plus I’m getting ready to birth Sophia Leadership in a week or so. It’s all good and exciting stuff that I feel ready for since I took a break first.

Maybe you need to sound a buzzer now and then to remind you it’s recess time too? You know what they say… all work and no play, makes Jill a dull girl!

Tidbits

by | Nov 3, 2010 | Uncategorized

  • time for play at the Listening Well workshop last week

  • I am so very, very happy. Happy to be working in my tiny basement office/studio with my candle burning. Happy to be dreaming of all of the creative things I will be doing in this self-employment journey. Happy that I’ve been connecting with so many extraordinary people and learning some life-changing things. No, I don’t have a thriving business yet, but there are so many possibilities that I am somewhat in awe of how lucky I am.
  • Next week, I’ll be a bonafide teacher. I start teaching a “writing for public relations” course in the university’s professional development program. Walking onto the campus yesterday and realizing I was there as a TEACHER instead of a student was kind of trippy. In a “holy cow – they’re going to take me seriously” way!
  • Speaking of teaching, I had a flash-back this week of the day many years ago (when I was contemplating going for a second degree in education) that my dad phoned me (if you knew him, you’d know how extremely rare a phone call from him was) and told me he thought I’d be a good teacher. That thought keeps choking me up this week. I have such a deep yearning to be able to ask him “can you tell me what you saw in me that made you think I should teach?” (Dad – can you send me a sign? Anything?)
  • Yesterday I went to my first business owners’ networking luncheon (invited by a dear, supportive friend). And you know what surprised me? It was fun! People were so genuine and welcoming and I realized I have to let go of my irrational fear of networking events. Perhaps I was just at the wrong ones up until this point.
  • At the networking luncheon, I was reminded once again about how much easier it is to speak with passion about something you are truly inspired about – something that emerges from your own heart, your own giftedness. Perhaps that’s why past networking events were flops for me.
  • I got some business cards printed with my photos on the back (thanks to Moo Cards), and they proved to be a stroke of genius. I pulled out the cards at the luncheon and let people pick their favourite photo. It creates a great opener when you want to talk about a creative consulting business!
  • If you haven’t been there yet, check out my re-vamped business-y site… www.heatherplett.com
  • I am also working on another site (to be revealed soon) for all this Sophia Leadership stuff buzzing around my brain. Painting, writing, dreaming, collaborating – fun stuff!
  • One of other things I’m planning to do is re-launch a course I created eight years ago – Creativity and the Spirit. It will probably happen from mid-January to mid-March (for 8 weeks – in Winnipeg). If you’re local and you’re interested, let me know and I’ll send you the details when they’re ready.
  • On an unrelated note (but somewhat related, I suppose), today is “take your kid to work” day for my oldest daughter. Since I work at a computer in a tiny basement office, and her dad is a substitute teacher never knowing where work will be from day to day, I made other arrangements. She is spending the day working with a local fashion designer. (You may remember – she’s the one who designed her own grade 9 grad dress.) I am ridiculously excited for her. I’m no parenting expert, but one thing I know is that there are few things more gratifying than helping teenagers foster their passions and giftedness.
  • And speaking of my daughter and creativity, it was fun this week to watch her cut up a pair of her boots and re-vamp them into entirely different boots (shorter with more fringes and bling). She has such a cool sense of style.
  • And just one more thing… I only created one Halloween costume this year – a coke can.

Carrying the circle into my life

by | Nov 1, 2010 | Leadership, Uncategorized

As life and time take me further and further away from that incredible circle of women who met by a lake last weekend, I continue to reflect back on the powerful things that can emerge when we sit together and imagine “what transformation can we birth if we share our hearts in circle and story?”

Let me share one of the stories I’ve brought with me from that weekend…

In the middle of the afternoon on our third day together, we had free time to replenish ourselves in whatever ways we needed to. Two beautiful older women (“crones”, we came to call them, and not in a negative way) who brought the wisdom of the labyrinth into our circle invited me to join them in creating a labyrinth out of the fallen leaves outside our meeting room. I was eager to join them, but knew that first I needed some time to myself to wander in the woods.

The golden energy of so much wisdom and authenticity and yearning and love that had been shared around the circle that afternoon carried me off into the woods on a cloud of peace and fullness. Or perhaps, to use a more personal analogy – carried me off on a horse named Sophia. We had been sharing that afternoon about how much we yearned for more feminine wisdom and energy in our workplaces, our halls of learning, and our communities.

Punctuated throughout our circle time that weekend, and again as I headed into the woods for some personal time with God and Gaia, were the sounds of gunshots from the other side of the lake. Geese hunters, we presumed.

The sharp contrast of the circular, gentle, feminine energy on one side of the lake and the violent, loud, masculine energy on the other side of the lake was a constant reminder of the tensions that exist for all of us. Not only in society as a whole, but within each of us individually, there exists both masculine energy (animus, from Jungian psychology – rational, direct, practical, assertive qualities) and feminine (anima – creative, intuitive, feeling, visionary qualities). Both have beauty and yet both have the possibility of becoming corrupt or too all-encompassing.

As I followed the path through the woods, and listened to the rustling of the leaves, the honking of the geese flying overhead, and the occasional gunshot across the lake, I found myself yearning to (figuratively) row into the middle of the lake to meet the men for a pow wow.  To move past the tensions and find a way for the masculine and feminine energy to co-exist without either swallowing the other up.  To encourage both men and women to embrace their feminine side along with their masculine side. Yin and yang together in a circle.

Despite the gunshots, the walk through the woods replenished me as I knew it would, but then something happened to deplete my energy once again. Near the end of the trail, someone had dumped a lot of big household garbage – an old couch, old appliances, etc. Standing there with the tranquility of the woods behind me, and the jarring presence of garbage in front of me, I found the sadness welling up within me. This garbage suddenly represented oil spills, the plastic island floating in the middle of the ocean, and all of the other travesties humans are causing all over the world (including, shamefully, the garbage that comes from my own household.)

What blights we allow to appear all around us when we stop caring about the way we treat our earth!

Carrying on down the path, I spotted a path marker – a weathered old wooden sign standing with its back to me. When I reached it, and read what was written on the front, I stopped short. Just one word – “Lifeline.”

In that moment, God whispered in my ear “You are called to offer a lifeline. All of those things that saddened you back there – the tension with the (distorted) masculine energy across the lake, the garbage marring the face of Mother Earth – they represent a lot of lost and hurting hearts. They need a lifeline. Badly. And it’s you. And your circle of powerful women.”

Wow. That’s a pretty huge calling! I felt a little shaky. I had to stand there for a moment before I was ready to move on.

As I got closer to the retreat centre, I paused for a few more photos in the woods. On the ground, half buried in dry leaves, I spotted something white that was clearly not organic. Moving the leaves away, I realized it was a bowl.

I almost ignored it, but then the voice came again “you can’t do anything about the couch or all of that big garbage, but you CAN do something about this bowl.” Right. Just do my small piece.

So I picked up the bowl and carried on. As I fingered it, though, it became more than just a ceramic bowl someone had discarded. It became a begging bowl, like the ones the Buddhist monks carry into the village every day, trusting that it will be filled with just enough food to sustain them for that day. It was a reminder that, if I am called to offer a lifeline, I also need to trust that God and my village will sustain me with the energy and hope that I need every day.

Back at the retreat centre, I found the women near completion of the labyrinth. I rejoiced with them as they swept the last of the leaves into their designated circles.

And then, because it seemed like the right thing to do, I walked to the centre of the labyrinth and danced with my begging bowl, honouring the labyrinth, and honouring this incredible circle of women who were filling my bowl with so much goodness to sustain me for my journey away from the circle and into my future.

Note: it is never my intention to point blame when I talk about “masculine energy” or to imply that men have it wrong (gunshots) and women have it right (circles). That would be far too simplistic and not at all what I believe. I do, however, believe that we have not sufficiently learned to blend the feminine in with the masculine when it comes to leadership and organizational structures in our politics, communities, businesses, and homes, which is why I am working on launching my Sophia Leadership site soon.

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