Intentional Society: Facing the gap
Last chance in 2023: Click here to register for our next orientation video call on Saturday, December 16th at 1:00-1:55pm Pacific Time (4pm Eastern, 9pm UTC).
In the last few weeks I've been feeling into deeper contact with the achingly beautiful vision of thriving humanity that motivates using "society" in the name of IS. This was prompted by the end of the season coming up — a good feature of having a lifecycle to prompt us, just as the December holidays and New Year remind us to become more aware of things we pay less attention to at other times of the year.
Pre-titling this "Season of Change" (season 12, completing our 3rd year of IS) was a declaration of intention, and I hoped there would be a self-fulfilling prophecy type of effect as well. Looking back, I can see the gap between my intentions and outcomes. This is an inevitable gap in one sense, and also it seems larger than I like, as it relates to my actions. I can retroactively see a way I shrank back a bit mid-season after the zone tour, some "do the safe thing" without full object-holding of that movement.
The advance of development and progress hasn't stopped at any point — but the rate of change hasn't been what I dreamed of at the start of the season. I hoped for more "aha we got it!" and encountered more "okay we learned some things to not do, some to build on, and uncovered some more puzzle pieces" phenomenon.
I'm asking myself, to what degree was I (as a leader, or even we collectively) able, in the counterfactual past, to have learned more, moved faster, landed more change? I think the answer connects to the ability to answer the question, "Where is the edge right now?" That edge of excitement and risk, comfort and discomfort — it is that metaphorical edge that is the thing that moves, when one is changing/transforming. If you don't know where the edge is, you're very unlikely to be advancing it.
No shame need be attached to counterfactuals and past desires: we practice acceptance of the past and present, as the possibilities of the future continually transmute into the "what is"-ness of present reality. Losing and finding the edge can serve the skill of edge sensitivity/awareness. And when I don't need to console myself with a list of "but what about the good" (vs badness), I find myself able to acknowledge readily my appreciation for the many ways we have progressed from last season.
As we wrap up our recent arc on desire, self-sensing, expressing, and leadership, I have deep appreciation and gratitude for the engaged members of IS and how they've been stepping up, playing with their edges, leading in new ways, in some cases showing me my stumbles in the dance of leadership, followership, and intertwined leader-ful-ness.
So the change in this season, then, is (roughly, metaphorically) not that of dancing a new dance that we've mastered, but one of learning a few new steps, and some learning about the learning process itself. The potential for more change, more new integrity, more alignment, more clarity and resonance, these all still hover in our desire, waiting for us to step into them and find the beauty that wants to express itself through our dance.
What moves will we land soon? How far can I step out into my edge as a leader? There's a lot more that feels so close... and yet reality will continue to unfold in messy and complex ways, which I and others will have various feelings about, as we dance down the path of discovery.
Cheers,
James