Last week, for the first time, ever in my life, I experienced a work call where women were given the floor to speak while the men listened -- that is to say, the men fully witnessed the women as we shifted the tone, style, rhythm and nature of the conversation. From my earliest corporate experiences over 30 years ago, I have regularly been a witness to men's discussions. Never have I felt the reverse. It felt restorative, and a bit precarious too.
I have spent much time reflecting on this since. The best summary I have so far for what is emerging from this experience is captured in a feeling of ... a sort of release... a "finally"... a maybe it is finally time... maybe now the worlds will meet... the duality won't be so pronounced and the best expression of my feminine energy will be celebrated and followed by the best within the masculine energy.
Maybe now... finally... the experience of dismissiveness that has been a persistent companion to my super powers of the unseen deep listening, collaboration, weaving and sensemaking will ease, so that the need to counter others' resistance won't require my insistence. Maybe now the fruits of those labors will be just as valuable in the rooms where decisions are made as the skills that help me produce the easy-to-see documents, tools, or plans but which don't provide me with as much joy or meaning in their making.
We are at this crossroads, this invitation, this burgeoning possibility for the best of all our human ingenuity to find a space, for our whole selves to be present. For the emergent solutions to meet the worlds' greatest needs. Yes, planning will need to take a backseat while connection drives the bus for a while, and we will all be the richer for it; because the abundance of riches isn't in coins at our feet, but in the world we can create, already know how to create, that is being created. Now. With you. And we all get to be witnesses to it!
I am humbled to be able to speak this deep truth arising from me this week to you, here, coming from the need to find freedom for these parts of me that are being called into a more full expression. I am in service and honored to be traveling this journey of potential with you, each person reading this, from whom and with whom the impossible feels not only possible, but already here. Finally, finally, here. And yet this is only the beginning.
Please, let's stay in this sandbox of emergence! It is such a rich experience, a well from which we don't drink often enough and from which we will gain much wisdom for our journey. And while this process is not for everyone, I know there are many of us who like to play here! So, for those who also feel this particular calling forward, we have a lot of "work to do", in the "being." And now, I'll be reflecting on this and waiting for the next steps to emerge.
Maybe through you... Do you sense what the next steps are?