Once the World Was Perfect

Posted on Published by Eugene Eric Kim

Read this beautiful poem by Joy Harjo courtesy the good folks at Poetry Flash. It’s from her book, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, and it pretty much sums up where we seem to be in the world and why I do what I do:

Once the world was perfect, and we were happy
in that world.
Then we took it for granted.
Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.
Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head.
And once Doubt ruptured the web,
All manner of demon thoughts
Jumped through —
We destroyed the world we had been given
For inspiration, for life —
Each stone of jealousy, each stone
Of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light.
No one was without a stone in his or her hand.
There we were,
Right back where we had started.
We were bumping into each other
In the dark.
And now we had no place to live, since we
didn’t know
How to live with each other.
Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another
And shared a blanket.
A spark of kindness made a light.
The light made an opening in the darkness.
Everyone worked together to make a ladder.
A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the
next world,
And then the other clans, the children of those
clans, their children,
And their children, all the way through time —
To now, into this morning light to you.

Good Things Jar and the Art(ifact) of Remembering

Posted on Published by Eugene Eric Kim

Earlier this week, Mozart Guerrier retweeted this cool New Year’s idea:

What struck me about the idea were the jar and the end-of-the-year instruction. It’s not just about the regular practice of positive reflection. It’s about encouraging reflection in a very simple way. Even if you don’t read the notes at the end of the year, the jar full of colorful notes will serve as a constant reminder of the good that’s happening in your life.

Most of us tend to use artifacts mostly as a real-time tool. When I write something down, it helps me and potentially others get clear in the moment. That’s a good thing. But if you don’t find a way to revisit the artifact later, you’re wasting your artifact. The trick is to find ways to support remembrance. The jar is a simple, wonderful hack.

A few years ago, I picked up a simple hack from Rachel Weidinger that I now use with my teams. When her teams come up with a set of agreements (an excellent practice), she asks each member of her team to print them out, post them at their working space so he or she can always see them, and share a photo so that everyone else on the team knows that it’s up. It acts as a symbolic signature, but it also assures that everyone is constantly reminded of those agreements. Bonus: It works with distributed and face-to-face teams!