What unlimited possibilities we have for connection when we can meet across time-zones and geographies, and then have transcripts and archives available so we can visit these spaces again and again. It is actually the technology provided by MaestroConferencing that inspired us to develop this larger community. Meeting voice to voice has long been possible, now those voices take on real identities. We show up with names, can meet each other one-on-one or in small groups, raise our hands, voice our opinions, break out according to specific issues and areas anything that is possible in conversation circles is possible here.
We invite you to her the words of Rachel Naomi Remen (MP3). Even when we listen to them many times in a day, they gladden our hearts while challenging our minds. This call to being whole, being exactly who we are: whole women, truly does lift the limits off of how we are living this precious life of ours. And when we women come together wholly, connecting and overlapping the fullness of who we already are – now here’s the strength, the power, the joy, the love…! What’s not possible when we show up to each other in this way?
We invite you to put your picture in the center of this circle of possibility. This was created by our inspiring friend Karen Jandorff, to vividly express what is possible when we show up grounded in the center of our many gifts and tools and graces. Yes, it’s powerful when we can experience ourselves living fully all the ways we feel most alive, and…
We invite you to now picture this circle filled not only with you (already pretty awesome), but also with the many others who can connect with you here. What we are opening here is the most hospitable of spaces, the most gracious of communities. Our favorite definition of hospitality comes from the philosopher Henri Nouwen, who calls us all to wherever we gather, create spaces where the stranger can enter and be a friend. In this spacious environment, there is room for her to change – or not to change. In this environment, the stranger can find and share herself.
Isn’t it always the way? When we find ourselves welcomed into a loving, nurturing space, welcomed just for who we are, change naturally begins to happen. Change as in the transformation of base metals to gold. Change as in ripening, opening, stretching. Coming together, we transform, becoming even more like ourselves in each other’s company. As we connect with each other, we form something so much more interesting than 1+1 would ever lead us to expect. The combinations equal much more than the simple sums of our parts. So with this invitation to enter and be friends and welcome others as hospitably, it will evolve that…
We invite you to change your world. We just know what will happen when we women circle around the issues that are most important to us. We know the power of dreaming together and then encouraging each other to act on those dreams. And of course, changing the world doesn’t happen from the top down: that’s been tried for millennia and seems not to working so well. It happens from the inside out. It happens, in the words of Margaret Mead, when a small group of committed persons focuses on what is most meaningful to them.