The Art of Convening and The Sabbath Pause
The beauty of the Art of Convening and the reason why I am committed to this community is that it provides a structure, or better, a container for authentic conversation to take place. I have experienced deep intimacy in the context of such conversations. Through the AoC training and ongoing community such conversations continue to open up new creative possibilities in my life and work.
Through the years of my participation in AoC my creative writing has flourished. With all sincerity and gratitude I give much credit to the AoC community for helping my “shy soul” come out into the world.
There is one movement that precedes the “Heart of the Matter” and empowers all nine aspects of the Convening Wheel. I wrote a bit about this in the Art of Concerning book in a reflection about inner preperation and contemplation (p. 16, 24). This one movement is so critical that without it we continue to spin our wheels in the mucky ground of conventional thinking and ineffective practice.
That one movement is The Pause. Victor Frankl once wrote: “Between the stimulus and the response is a pause. In that pause lies our freedom and power to choose our response.” I’ve dedicated much of my life to exploring the meaning and power of that pause. The invitation to pause before reacting is a thread that runs throughout the whole Perennial Tradition. In the Judeo-Christian tradition this Pause is known as Sabbath.
My working definition of the Sabbath Pause is “a time and space in the heart of creation where we can receive the gift of a non-anxious presence and learn to live out of this essential blessing in service to the world. The Sabbath journey is from the sometimes cramped places of our lives to a place where our hearts can truly sing.”
Sabbath Pause is a resource to help people explore the beauty, wonder and awesome power of the Pause. I hope, even in some small way, in can make a difference in a world that is so reactive.
The Sabbath Pause is available on Amazon. The book is now available, in print and electronic (Kindle and ePub) versions, from the publisher, Woodlake Books.
The beauty of the Art of Convening and the reason why I am committed to this community is that it provides a structure, or better, a container for authentic conversation to take place. I have experienced deep intimacy in the context of such conversations. Through the AoC training and ongoing community such conversations continue to open up new creative possibilities in my life and work.
Through the years of my participation in AoC my creative writing has flourished. With all sincerity and gratitude I give much credit to the AoC community for helping my “shy soul” come out into the world.
There is one movement that precedes the “Heart of the Matter” and empowers all nine aspects of the Convening Wheel. I wrote a bit about this in the Art of Concerning book in a reflection about inner preperation and contemplation (p. 16, 24). This one movement is so critical that without it we continue to spin our wheels in the mucky ground of conventional thinking and ineffective practice.
That one movement is The Pause. Victor Frankl once wrote: “Between the stimulus and the response is a pause. In that pause lies our freedom and power to choose our response.” I’ve dedicated much of my life to exploring the meaning and power of that pause. The invitation to pause before reacting is a thread that runs throughout the whole Perennial Tradition. In the Judeo-Christian tradition this Pause is known as Sabbath.
My working definition of the Sabbath Pause is “a time and space in the heart of creation where we can receive the gift of a non-anxious presence and learn to live out of this essential blessing in service to the world. The Sabbath journey is from the sometimes cramped places of our lives to a place where our hearts can truly sing.”
Sabbath Pause is a resource to help people explore the beauty, wonder and awesome power of the Pause. I hope, even in some small way, in can make a difference in a world that is so reactive.
The Sabbath Pause is available on Amazon. The book is now available, in print and electronic (Kindle and ePub) versions, from the publisher, Woodlake Books.
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