Do you want to cultivate core skills of intentionality and discernment in this new year?

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn to do it. - Pablo Picasso It is amazing how Google/Internet/ Mobile devices have become so woven throughout our lives and our way of being in the world. We are being shaped by the unexamined beliefs that 1) all that we need to know is searchable and found on the internet, 2) we should know NOW (as in ‘this very second’). I believe we want to know, and be in a state of being in the know, because it has to do w

374% more people biked to work in Portland in 2017 than in 2000. This wasn’t mandated by law; nor was it done by sheer will-power. There was a constellation of interactions that led to the building of infrastructure to support increased ridership. And because of that the hurdle to get on your bike became a bit lower, leading more people cycling, and therefore more people advocating for good infrastructure. And the ratchet emerges. My work as a consultant and facilitator is ab

How do we build resilience? I think it's one of the most vital questions before us, because we are facing so many complex problems that require us to be resilient in the face of them. In a culture that tends towards fear, we can get caught up in tunnel vision and therefore a story of scarcity. How do we shift to a story of abundance? Eight of us were asked to give a 5 minute presentation (a ''Lightning Talk'') to open the annual Forum on Strategic Fundraising - an superb annu

We are storytelling creatures. We create stories even more than we realize. Stories about who she is, how he'll never change, what a jerk that person IS who just cut me off in traffic. And we often will default to the worst possible interpretation of the circumstances. She hasn't texted me back; I hope she's okay! [worry] Our interpretations of circumstances are often so wedded with the ''raw data'' (in this case: "I have not received a text''), that we often don't realize w

Why do we resist change? There are various reasons. And this morning I want to focus on this idea: we want to conserve resources. And to learn something new, our prefrontal cortex uses a lot of energy. However, once we learn something (let's take driving, for instance) our basal ganglia is utilized, which uses much less energy. David Rock's book, Your Brain at Work, was an eye-opener to me when I read it a few years back. This part of the brain, located near the core, is wher

When disasters occur like the recent Boeing crashes, or sexual abuse scandals like the one with Larry Nassar, the USA gymnastics team doctor, it's a system problem. Yes there are individual actors that need to be held to account. And there was a system that was creating a culture that ''protected'' the mal-behavior so that it continued over years, impacting and destroying many lives. The nature of the system encourages certain behavior and discourages others. How can we shift

Last Fall I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Gabor Mate speak. His research into addiction, stress, disease, ADHD is fascinating and insightful. We now know that the mind and body are one system; they are not two separate entities unaffected by each other but are rather in relationship and conversation with each other. During the Q&A time the conversation steered towards our current political and social situation in the US. One of the participants asked in a quite agitated sta

I attended the University of Pittsburgh in the 90s and I have a special affection for Pittsburgh and its people. This week’s post is dedicated to the city of Pittsburgh, the Jewish community there, the refugees and immigrants they have welcomed, and my dear friends who call Pittsburgh home. On Sunday I watched an interview with Bill Peduto, the mayor of Pittsburgh. He was standing in the blocked-off street near Tree of Life. He mentioned the neighborhood was part of his distr

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Victor Frankl (concentration camp survivor), Man’s Search for Meaning This past March I was in Los Angeles at a conference on mass incarceration. What drew me there was the innovative program called the Actor’s Gang Prison Project. Twelve years ago the actor Sabra Williams had recently relocated to Los Angeles and became aware