"Open cup or closed cup?" Hilary opens a phone call with these words, and I can hear her grinning. I've confessed to Hilary that she's my favorite processing partner, and it's mostly due to prompts like these that invite me to try out the words of my own story.
One of Na'la's superpowers is in the fine art of the check-in. When Na'la and I sit down to talk, time loses all relevance. We've become so absorbed in conversation that she has literally missed flights.
When I hear the word compassion, my first thoughts dance around the act of offering it: offering someone compassion. There's always an object, a recipient of the compassionate act. And how rare it is that I am the object of my own compassion . . .
What prevents me from being creative? Why do I struggle so mightily-- usually with the voices in my own head-- over naming myself creative?
When I lay all seven Touchstones out, side-by-side, Circle is smack-dab in the center. In an ideal world, we would be able to have our shit figured out before we sit in Circle, and yet we wake up there, messy, in media res.
I honestly don't know what I'd do without the friendship of these women, who have comforted me, left me wheezing from laughter, and educated me on the proper way to insert a zipper into a dress.
The guidelines of a Circle are spoken and unspoken, practical and esoteric, commonsense and altogether mysterious. I count myself lucky that so many of the women invited into the Enrichment Project arrived with a background in circling.
Baraka's work in the world, her counseling practices that emphasize the power of the Circle, have crystallized much of The Enrichment Project. She has authored several books on creativity and leads a year-long investigation into creativity called Birthing Ourselves into Being.
Are you masterminding an event or planning a retreat? Looking to spark innovation in the workplace? Or maybe you're seeking to celebrate life's transitions-- from coming of age, to an engagement, to a family reunion.
These women are glamorous, articulate, and opinionated. They're dancers, musicians, visual artists, aerialists, and circus performers who capture my very imagination.
