Hello Friends! Well, it’s been a long, long lockdown and to help us transition into life with covid – since it looks like we can’t banish it from our shores this time – I thought it might be good to start our return to gathering with some stories.
Yesterday, I read The Thin book of Trust, and it offered some very helpful insights into how we make assessment of risk and how that perception affects the way we approach uncertainty.
If you feel safe with a person, then you also feel confident that you can handle whatever happens, and you can respond to them with openness and hope, generosity and care.
If you don’t feel safe, you’re likely to feel like you can’t handle what might happen next, that you need to protect yourself – and that might look like resistance, avoiding, blaming, complaining, judging, justifying, keeping your ideas to yourself.
I suspect that the global pandemic has pushed many of us into ‘distrust’ ways of being. This ‘not safe’ assessment is a long term situation. It’s still painful to me, even after nearly two years, that I have to walk down the street considering the people around me as threats to my health.
We want to move forward with a smart level of caution, and also open, curious, listening, sharing, and looking for the best. I hope our stories can show us the way…
Looking back: What story tells about the most painful aspect of your own lockdown experience? Is there a story about something you missed or miss still?
Looking ahead: What are you looking forward to and are eager to enjoy again – what story connects you with that? What are you afraid of as we return to a communal life – what story connects you with that?
Let there be Gathering!
an unusual book club 