Who has the answer for these times? YOU do!

The answer to everything. Isn't that what we're all hoping for right now? We're hoping someone else has the answer to whatever mess we find ourselves in. And that longing for the end to the turbulence has us grasping for whatever solution offers itself -- the easier, the better!

Whether it's the top five AI tools everyone needs to have, to the latest ways to quickly maximise your time, to wrinkle cream or fitness trends, it's tempting to fall into the expediency trap. We forget that all good things take time.

Like the fabulous beefsteak tomatoes my Dad used to grow -- if you want the flavour, you have to allow them to ripen. So...

Actually I think YOU have the answer! Or rather you have at least half the answer. 

Build our own inner ground first. 

Turbulence isn't going to go away. Just like the ocean changes every day when you're sailing, you need to be able to face whatever comes. That means you need to trust your own inner resources.

Decide first: Who you want to be?

What are the qualities and attributes of the person you want to show up as? What are the micro skills that would underpin these qualities and attributes? What are the first steps to anchor these inside you? 

We all want the giant leap, the heady promise of the consumer society that problems can be solved instantly. But anyone facing the mountain knows that you climb it step by step, otherwise it is not sustainable -- or repeatable -- achievement.

These are the times to decide what your practice is and to keep practicing your practice (and by practice, I mean those habits you continue to work with until they become ingrained in who you are and how you offer your work in the world).

The second part of the answer comes from knowing who to practice with. 

Relationship is key for these times. When we don't see the pathway forward, going into the unknown together strengthens our courage and capacity.

In the Art of Hosting community we have often spoken about the space between order and chaos - you might say between order and disruption -- as the place where participatory practice serves innovation to thrive.

Now we are being pulled more and more into the space between chaos and chamos -- you might say between disruption and fundamental breakdown -- that edgy place where the old is not yet gone, but the new has also not yet come.

When we work together across diversity and difference we have more capacity to find new and innovative answers. We can see and be more together.

This is what the people in Minnesota are demonstrating for (and being a demonstration of) right now. If we lean towards benefitting only one part of a system then we create mono-culture. And like mono agriculture, this means the ecology slowly dies. 

The longing for intimacy and real conversation

On Friday my story colleagues David Hutchens, David Drake and I offered the first in a series of conversations for story practitioners around the question: "What is most present for you as a story practitioner as you sit with what's happening in the world?"

We had invited our colleagues to show up around fire together without an agenda and without needing to solve anything. We asked for them to simply be with what is and speak from the heart.

Some of the threads they spoke might also resonate with you:

• The belief in change, progress and higher purpose is feeling obtuse now
• Feeling like we are navigating around the shards of exacerbated trauma and fear 
• Sadness and frustration that those of us who have had to carry the negative story for so long have not been listened to or that their experience has not been allowed to help change what is happening now
• The relief to be in a safe space for sharing and relationship, feeling courage rise
• What is ours to do and speak as humans who are also storytellers?

There is a deep longing for authentic conversation in spaces that invite us to breathe together, take stock of what is and support us to find our courage to be the change we want to see in the world. This energy for finding each other gives me hope

What do you see cooking beneath the surface that gives you hope?