By: Dylan Branson on November 9, 2020
The boat gently bumps into the shore, waking me from my slumber. I sit up, the fog not as thick as it once was. A smile creeps on my face as I disembark onto the shore, seeing a rough path ahead of me. It isn’t easy going, but I find that it doesn’t bother me.…
By: Greg Reich on November 9, 2020
When was the last time you just let your mind wander? When was the last time you took the time to wander around while driving, just to see a part of the city you never saw before? Sometimes it pays to wander. My wife and I normally take an annual road trip to Texas to…
By: Shawn Cramer on November 9, 2020
Nostrils filled with stench demand creative resolve. This summer, I battled a skunk at my in-law’s cabin. Each weekend greeted me with the miasma of failure of the previous week’s attempts. The putrid problem gripped me, consumed me, and I found my creativity invigorated around the disposal of this creature. Each breath reminded me of…
By: Chris Pollock on November 9, 2020
Fire is life. Fire moves and breathes. Fire is alive. Fire is warmth. Fire purifies. Fire burns. Making fire is magical; a sacred experience that requires much practise and patience. In the process of teaching my daughter to build a fire, I continue to learn from the fire as to how it is to be…
By: Jer Swigart on November 4, 2020
There is a fine line between “strategic” and “controlling.” Years ago, in my days of leading a church in the San Francisco Bay Area, we found ourselves in the process of strategic planning. We sensed that a new season was dawning for our faith community so we invited groups of community members to join our…
By: Greg Reich on November 3, 2020
As I sat in front of my desk, pen in hand, I began to write out a check for my son. It wasn’t the first time I wrote a check to assist one of my children. For some reason this one was different. Why was I struggling so much with writing this check and not…
By: Shawn Cramer on November 3, 2020
When asked how to prepare children for the exponential progress of technology, iconoclastic economist Nassim Taleb answered, “Read the classics” (Antifragile, 320). He goes on to posit, “The future is in the past.” The best innovations, then, have an intimate understanding of the past, are doggedly present to the immediate moment, and have an imaginative…
By: Darcy Hansen on November 3, 2020
How long, O Lord, will you forget us? How long will you turn your face away? How long will your silence be deafening; Your presence imperceivable? We are wasting away consumed by corruption, manipulation, greed, and partisan politics. Democrats sit crouched, ready to pounce on Republicans. Republicans stand armed ready to shoot whoever…
By: Dylan Branson on November 2, 2020
Regret hits me as soon as I let go of the rope. The current of the river is too much as it drags me and pulls me every which way. I desperately scrounge around the bottom of the boat, looking for an oar or a paddle or something I can use to correct my poor…
By: Chris Pollock on October 27, 2020
This morning, the first thing that happened to me was that I woke up. I wake up every morning. One day, this won’t happen. One day there will not be anything to wake up to, perhaps. Until then, I’m happy to dream of a less destructive way of coming to life every morning than an…
By: Greg Reich on October 27, 2020
Life is full of idioms! Phrases that aren’t intended to be taken literally but do have a specific meaning for the hearer. I highly doubt that any of us stop in mid-sentence or mid-thought to realize that we just used or heard an idiom that expresses ourselves. Comments like: “It’s time to go back to…
By: Shawn Cramer on October 27, 2020
“I like this innovative summary,” my co-worker told me, “but I’ve never since this word, ‘generative,’ before.” Furthermore, my word processor won’t recognize the noun form, “generativity.” Unapologetically, this piece is a call to engender “generative” to the normal vernacular of a leader. As an artist and thought leader who resists the utilitarian pragmatism of…
By: Jer Swigart on October 26, 2020
One of the outcomes of my Design Session was a new moniker for my target audience: The Precipice Dweller. She is a pilgrim who has dared to journey into a liminal space between “What I’m running from.” to “What I’m running toward.” She’s a sojourner whose rebellious spirit has taken her to the precipice and…
By: Dylan Branson on October 26, 2020
I stand on the bank of the raging river outside of Knowing’s Edge, watching the stream rush by before me. The gurgling of the water flowing before is both enticing and terrifying. I’m not entirely sure how long I’ve been at the inn – it feels like a long time, and yet not long at…
By: Darcy Hansen on October 26, 2020
Every July or August, for the past nine years, I have spent weeks packing and preparing to make my way to the small, East African country of Rwanda. I distinctly remember returning from my first mission trip in 2011 and my husband asking me what my big takeaway was. I told him, “In Rwanda I…
By: Chris Pollock on October 24, 2020
I wonder what the first thing I knew was? What also tweaks my curiosity is what the first thing was, that I had learned and realised as true. Could it have been ‘love’? I’d like to think so but, I don’t know. Love is the best thing that I have known in my life, it…
By: Jer Swigart on October 22, 2020
My team just finished up a three-day, in-person on-site retreat. It was the first time we’ve been in the same room since March and it was life-giving. So much has changed since we last were together. During our convening in March, we were set to move into a future that would have scaled up our…
By: Shawn Cramer on October 21, 2020
If we were to journey into the fray with family therapist and organizational thought-leader, Edwin Friedman, we would likely move with the cadence of the word “self.” Self-differentiation from the surrounding emotional processes. Self-determination of one’s values. Exposing one’s self to vulnerability. Self-regulation of emotions. Leadership in liminality demands a proper sense of self. Frederick…
By: Dylan Branson on October 19, 2020
The inside of Knowing’s Edge is unlike anything I have ever seen. Thick, overstuffed armchairs dot the room and eclectic artwork lines the walls. Long wooden tables with dinner’s remains await to be cleaned, but no one actively makes their way to do so. The room itself is dimly lit with a thin haze of…
By: Darcy Hansen on October 19, 2020
Words flew through the air like bullets on a battlefield, leaving deep, gaping wounds. Not the best way to begin a Saturday morning. Still, there we were, once again, in an emotionally explosive situation with no real hope in sight. For months, the darkness had been settling in as circumstances with our daughter went from…
