It might take more than a minute, hour or day to filter through the fullness of our time in Mistletoe and yet as the purest essence of Truth surfaces we recognize and resonate with it. One of our most treasured takeaways is the depths and full exposure of each other’s gifts we bring us to the whole….

Where the leadership team has shifted in relationships and how we co create and achieve the seemingly impossible bridges necessary to move the Network forward. The communion of feasting together and being Nourishing by each others SWOTs. We are empowered to step into a greater ability to Respond to needs and challenges of the Network Community and many children, families, Elders we serve. BEing Together illuminated our hearts with clearer paths to the Brighter tomorrows, 

that just A month ago seemed ever elusive, perhaps even Out of our reach. We are weaving our core desires into renewed beliefs that fuel infinite possibilities. 

Divine Directives

After nearly three years of remote work, the opportunity to breathe together, share food and fire together and consider the potential of our collective experiences and energy was, well, priceless.  I am most inspired by the shared understanding that was revealed in our time together; of the essential need to tend relationship across difference.

I am deeply grateful for our 4-days together as a Shared Leadership Team.  This was the first time that some of us had met each other in person.  Having the time together helped me get to know each person much better and more deeply appreciate the gifts and experience of each member of the team.  The time also allowed for a deep dive and wrestling with our different perspectives around many challenging issues and coming to new understandings and cohesiveness as a group.  My prayer is that more clusters of NCN can have these deep in-person dives and relationship building addressing the many challenges facing us all as we seek to live more consciously into a more Life-affirming, supportive way of Being a part of the larger Web of Life.

The impact the retreat weekend had on me is feeling stronger together, deeper trust and understanding, greater sense of cohesion around our work and what the heavy lifts ahead are - in other words, being in solidarity with each other as we advance toward midwifing a community that seeks to uplift the well-being of all. 

At the core of our work, in my view, is respect – the willingness to look again at one another, deeply listen, and correct our understanding of one another from our own perceptions to what is really being said and done by the other, seeing one another more fully all of the time. Especially and including the parts of ourselves we worry will not be received well. This includes trusting that we are receiving as well as giving this grace of deep listening to look again.

There is just some work that needs to be done in person, where we can have a tough conversation, then break to eat, sit by the fire together, wake up the next morning and try again. I experienced what is possible when one speaks the scary thing and people don’t leave the room, when we stay through it and work through the discomfort & fear together. And seeing the trust that is built as a result, which wasn’t possible before. I learned so much from how members of our group put themselves out there in real and vulnerable ways, stayed present through it, and we all were changed by the outcome. It demonstrated the importance of process (in addition to content) because we might ultimately reach the same decision but by honoring the process, we can now show up more fully in solidarity behind that decision.

When we dare look within our collective shadows, dare be impacted and receptive, when we dare step into the chasms most spend their entire lives only walking alongside - this is what I experienced at our retreat. I witnessed Spirit. I witnessed possibility that is only possible to feel with presence, only possible through the power of returning, only possible to feel when doing the work our ancestors beg to be made right. From this came; nourishment, healing, and loosening of what is held suspended and trapped in the past. An affirmation… 

when we move at the speed of trust, we can heal.