We don't do this because it's easy. We do it because it means something.
Because it matters.

Because we have a deep belief in the capacity for healing and genuine community and expanded transformation.

We do it because we can't imagine life without it — because when we're in flow — the feeling is pure aliveness. And when it lands — the impact causes a cascade of inspiration and action that ripples out far beyond our reach.

Our work is a radical act.

Sometimes impractical, risky, overwhelming, isolating, terrifying — but always true.
Always rooted.
Always holding fast to potential and possibility — to hope.

"Active Hope is waking up to the beauty of life on whose behalf we can act. We belong to this world."
—Joanna Macy

Folks tell me all the time that they are afraid to hold space because they don’t know if they can hold the mess, the potential conflict, and the unknown and uncontrollable elements of gathering.

Yet convening brave, transformative spaces often means creating space for difference, for discomfort, for disagreement, for loving accountability, and for repair.

I like to view conflict as an invitation — to clarify our values, to cultivate compassion, and to go deeper together. I believe that with some core tools and practices, conflict can be generative.

In moments of discord or challenge, we get to come back to the groundwork we’ve done. Many of the practices we’ve been exploring these last weeks will support us when we find ourselves in conflict or messy spaces in our groups. This week we’ll be expanding our toolkit so that we feel even more resourced when conflict occurs. We’ll build upon the Justice Lens and Self + Other Awareness content from our last teaching, and talk through ways to engage in a range of conflict scenarios.

This week’s video includes:

1. Explorations of both Organic/Spontaneous Conflict and Intentionally Introduced Conflict

2. Overarching tools for conflict work

3. Approaches to navigate specific conflict/challenging dynamics

Before you watch the video, please complete the Facilitating Through + With Conflict prompts in the Workbook.

▷ Click the arrow below to watch.

Holding Space for Ourselves

With this breath let’s root more deeply into our sense of belonging.

Let's trust that our work is worthy.

Let's remember that even when our voices shake, our message still comes through.

Let's affirm that it’s okay to ask for help — that it’s essential.

With this breath, let’s lay the path for a legacy we are proud of. Let’s spend our days in the dance of joy and curiosity, tending to our world while simultaneously tending to ourselves. Let’s feel more and more at home in our own capacity.

With this breath, let's say yes to the moments that set us free.

With this breath. With this breath.

……

An Ode to Imperfection

Let’s give ourselves and our groups full permission to be imperfect, to be evolving, to be complex and real. Let’s rescript any notion of “perfection” — and instead celebrate experimentation paired with intentionality, risk with responsiveness.

This week, I invite you to write an Ode to Imperfection — a love letter to all of the ways that imperfection enhances our capacity, allows us to find freedom, and supports vibrant and meaningful space holding.

You can write this Ode about yourself, about your gatherings, about your work. Where do you feel trapped in the grip of perfectionism? Where might it be helpful and healing to release some of that? There’s a page in your workbook where you can explore this process.

Remember, this is not a concession to imperfection, it’s a celebration of it!

>>> Do you feel like sharing your Ode!? Head over to the Community Platform and share the first sentence or your writing in its entirety! Let’s celebrate imperfection collectively.

This week’s Audio Love Note comes from Kirin Bhatti of Brownswell Healing. Kirin is a potent healer and teacher and is also a graduate of the Catalyst Leadership Immersion. She’s guiding us this week through a visualization to help us stay rooted in our bodies in the midst of challenge, conflict, or stress.

Just click below to play.

Making Learning Come Alive

In your workbook this week, you’ll find several practices to explore around listening and utilizing questions to guide our gatherings. As facilitators, we want to stay present and open, curious and engaged — not assuming specific outcomes or impact but hearing how things actually land for our participants. Listening is one of our foundational facilitation tools as it allows us to be reflective and responsive.

We can listen out — but we also must listen in. Being present in our listening requires us to clear our own minds and hearts to make room to really hear what is being said (and what is not being said).

Listening to ourselves first — to our intuition, and emotion, and desire, and gut — allows us to truly listen to the people in the room.

Especially in the mess, the conflict, and the challenge, it is essential to be able to tune into ourselves and to connect with our intuition. To allow for silence.  To make space for quiet.  To listen to our own truth.

Can you dedicate 15 minutes every day this week — maybe even 30? Maybe just five? — to sit with no distractions, no obligations, no outcomes, and let yourself ground into the quiet? With your breath as a guide, allow yourself to be embraced by silence.

What do you notice? What do you hear? How does it feel?

“You are worth the quiet moment. You are worth the deeper breath. You are worth the time it takes to slow down, be still, and rest.”
—Morgan Harper Nichols

Expanding Our Learning Community

Meet Kaya, Flora, and Shanthi! Notice where you see yourself and your practices (desired or existing) in these interviews — What resonates? What surprises you? What are you already doing? What might you want to try?

“Fighting for our deepest convictions requires relinquishing control and accepting messy uncertainties. It demands working as well as we can at efforts that feel morally right, and then having faith that our labors will bear fruit, perhaps in our time, or perhaps down the line, for somebody else.”

—Paul Rogat Loeb