Living Love

One way to see burnout is that “something is wrong with me” but in this podcast, we look at the deeper sources in the cultural norms that make it hard to say no and toxic workplace cultures. Jennice Chewlin of The Chewlin Group and Lori Hanau of Global Round Table Leadership talk with Beth Tener about turning to kinship and community in times of burnout. Listen and get inspired about how we can shift our workplace cultures to encourage authenticity, shared leadership, and well being. 

Resources and links: 

Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Check out this web site to learn about Beth Tener’s work, focused on designing for connection in groups and communities of all kinds. You can join the newsletter here.

Jennice Chewlin is Founder/CEO of Chewlin Group which focuses on leveraging public health principles and positive psychology models to help you and your organization manage stress, prevent burnout, and return to joy. You can join her newsletter here.

Lori Hanau is Founder/CEO of Global Round Table Leadership, (GRTL) a virtual training company and leadership consultants who support group vitality, business model innovation, and creative collaboration.

GRTL offers Foundations of Shared Leadership Program is a 10-week team learning journey.

Self-Silencing is Making Women Sick - This Time Magazine article highlights the costs of not saying no to allow self-care and balance. “It seems that the very virtues our culture rewards in women—agreeability, extreme selflessness, and suppression of anger—may predispose us to chronic illness and disease.”

Transcript is available at the Kinship web site

Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives

This first episode of Season 2 explores how we navigate the change when we are called to leave the status quo. Sometimes the need to change arises from exhaustion or heartache, other times it’s your choice. Katherine Golub of the Center for Callings and Courage and Nancy Gabriel talk with Beth Tener about the tensions of making the decision to make a big change, the big callings and the little gates of small steps, and listening to your inner guidance amidst the waters of self-doubt.

Resources and links: 

Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative.  You can sign up for her newsletter here.

Beth Tener and Nancy Gabriel work with New Directions Collaborative. Nancy also works with the New Hampshire/Vermont Schweitzer Fellows Program. 

Katherine Golub is a coach with the Center for Callings and Courage. She works with changemakers and has a podcast called Radical Discernment. You can sign up for her newsletter here.

The Natural Step - The teachings in this approach were one of the sparks for Beth’s calling to focus on an innovation-oriented approach to sustainability.

Study circles offered by EcoChallenge are a great way to create a small group learning experience, to get inspired to take action. Examples are Choices for Sustainable Living and Living Simply in a Complex World. 

Cobb Hill Cohousing - This is a link to learn about the co-housing community in Vermont, co-founded by Donella Meadows.   

Donella Meadows - Learn about the work of Donella Meadows here. She wrote over 700 newspaper columns, books, and inspired many.

Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey - Here is a graphic of the phases of the hero’s journey.

This is the quote from William H. Murray that Beth mentioned: 

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!”  ― William H. Murray

Peter Senge - Here’s a quote on the creative tension between current reality and your vision. 

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle - Excellent book Katherine mentions by Emily Nagoski, PhD and Amelia Nagoski, DMA

Transcript available at: KinshipHub web site

Audio

Welcome back to Season 2 of the Living Love Podcast! 

In Season 1, we talked about the spaces where we come together. In Season 2, we'll be exploring kinship through life transitions. I wrote a memoir, and this season, we'll be tracking the arc of those stories in conversations. 

I look forward to exploring how we navigate life with the support of friends and community. See you later in October when the first episode drops.

Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Beth Tener, Living Love’s podcast host, invites people to explore how to create a resource-rich culture of peer support and healthy collaboration within our communities. 

Join Beth and Nancy Gabriel as they reflect on highlights and learning from the podcast episodes 6 through 9. They explore themes of how to create conferences which create transformational moments, the power of intergenerational collaboration, generosity, and how we can weave the arts into how we gather and work together. In this final episode for Season 1 on The Spaces Where We Come Together, they reflect on highlights of the podcasting experience.

Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Through initiative, Beth Tener, Living Love’s podcast host, invites people to explore how to create resource-rich culture of peer support and healthy collaboration within our communities.   

Beth Tener and Nancy Gabriel work with New Directions Collaborative. Nancy also works with the New Hampshire/Vermont Schweitzer Fellows Program. 

This Resource page has many of our ‘go to’ tools and methods for hosting gatherings and creating spaces where groups can connect, co-create, and learn together.

This link has more information on the SeaCHANGE conference held at Green Acre Bahai Center of Learning.

Transcript: See kinshiphub.net/podcast

Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives

Spirit Matters were a series of gatherings, held in Toronto, that created circles where Indigenous wisdom keepers from many places connected with social justice leaders, students, artists, and healers. In this episode, I talk with Eimear O’Neill about how she and her late husband Ed O’Sullivan convened these gatherings, working in partnership with indigenous peoples to restore connections with land, people, spirit, and ancestors. We follow the story of how Hazel Bell Koski, a young artist, found her way to this home for her spirit that she had been hungry for. Hazel shares how the mentorship of Ed and Eimear and the Spirit Matter experiences inspired her to create PrayerStream, a community art project.

Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: Through initiative, Beth Tener, Living Love’s podcast host, invites people to explore how to create resource-rich culture of peer support and healthy collaboration within our communities.   

Hazel Bell Koski’s web site

PrayerStream is a community art project and collection of handmade spirit flags, created by Hazel Bell Koski. You can see photos of the prayer flags in the forest.

Resonant Earth - Eimear O’Neill’s writings on Substack

Indigeneyez offers leadership and facilitation training—rooted in Indigenous ways of being—that help strengthen communities to restore the circle and cultivate hope. Hazel works with them now.

Hazel also mentions: Partners for Youth which offers adults who work with youth the capacity to lead transformative programs that promote equity, creativity, emotional intelligence, and community engagement. 

Soul of the Mother - “Kahontakwas Diane Longboat, MEd is a member of the Turtle Clan and Mohawk Nation at Six Nations Grand River Territory, Canada. She is a ceremonial leader, traditional teacher, and healer.”

Transcript: See kinshiphub.net/podcast

Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives

Imagine a conference where people are still talking about some of the conversations and experiences a year later, using words like ‘magic’ and ‘transformational’. At the SeaCHANGE Conference, we created a space where people of different identities, races, and ages could get into deep conversations that generated mutual understanding. Artists who attended said they felt regal, in how they were honored and appreciated; young people of color said, that for one of the first times, they really felt seen and heard. We wove the arts throughout. In this episode, Victoria Carrington, Robert Sapiro, and Beth Tener explore how we created the conditions for the magic that unfolded and the ripple effects since.

The SeaCHANGE Conference web site has information on this year’s event and a video, photos, and quotes from the 2022 gathering.

The three SeaCHANGE Conference hosts were:

Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative (with logo designed by Victoria Carrington.) Her facilitation work can be found at this web site: New Directions Collaborative. It includes blogs and a Resource page on the processes used to design and host the SeaChange Conference.

Green Acre Bahai School of Learning - You can learn more about Green Acre and see photos of the campus, where Robert Sapiro is the Executive Director.

Theater for the People - Najee Brown is Founder and Artistic Director of this BIPOC-produced, touring theater company based in New England.

Victoria Carrington’s graphic design firm is Lilac & Aspen, focused on web site design and branding.

The painting Unbound  by Arya Badiyan can be seen on her web site.

Here are some resources on the conference methods we used:

Conversations Connect Across Silos

Making Large Events Participatory

Time to Rethink Brainstorming - overview of the 1-2-4-All conversation approach we used. 

Open Space

The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations that Matter

Liberating Structures - great toolbox of methods to bring life to your gatherings

Transcript: See Kinship web site 

Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives

This episode takes the three stories we heard from Belvie Rooks in Part 1 and shows how those became seeds for inspiration, growth, and meaningful work in others lives. We explore the synchronicity of meeting people who change the course of our lives and the power of intergenerational collaboration. Liz Miller and Matt Davis of the Pseads Institute share how the legacy and example of Belvie and Dedan Gills’ work has infused the learning experiences they have offered over 29,000 students. Fran Grace of Inner Pathways shares how meeting them offered her a fuller understanding of how to transcend suffering to live in love.  May 11, 2023

Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative. 

Pseads Institute - Learn about the work of Elizabeth Miller and Matthew Davis in this  education and design institute.

Growing a Global Heart - Learn more about how Belvie and Dedan’s vision and lived example of learning, healing and intergenerational collaboration served as an inspiration for Pseads Institute.   

I Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart: A Poetic Love Song - a book of poems and stories co-authored by Belvie Rooks and Dedan Gills. This book written by Fran Grace, features a chapter on their story: The Power of Love: A Transformed Heart Changes the World.

Paradigms of Healing and Wholeness course: An on-line course taught by Fran Grace that features the Power of Love book.

The Movement Made Us, a memoir that Belvie referred to about the Civil Rights movement.

The Art of Eldering - a course Belvie Rooks co-taught at UC Berkeley - Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Transcript: See kinshiphub.net/podcast

Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives

What does it mean to commit to love and life, even when facing some of the hardest historic and current struggles? Beth invites Belvie Rooks, an author, activist, and educator, to share how meeting Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a youth planted seeds that grew over decades. We learn about an educational program she developed for young people dealing with urban violence to expand their sense of identity and purpose by seeing themselves within the larger story of the universe’ evolution. Belvie shares how she and her husband Dedan confronted the reality of what their enslaved African ancestors endured led to the powerful question of "What would healing look like?"

This conversation continues in Part 2 where we see how the stories shared here affected the lives of three people. Episode is linked here.

Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative. These Ways of Kinship videos highlight some of the themes of this podcast conversation.

Growing a Global Heart - Learn more about Belvie and Dedan’s vision to inspire the ceremonial planting of millions of trees to honor the forgotten souls of our past and as a solution to climate change. 

Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart: A Poetic Love Song - a book of poems and stories co-authored by Belvie Rooks and Dedan Gills. And this book features a chapter on their story: The Power of Love: A Transformed Heart Changes the World.

Hearts in Tandem - A video of Belvie and Dedan.

How To Look At a Brownfield and See a Flower Garden | Article by Belvie Rooks in Reimagine! about the curriculum she developed inspired by the Universe Story.

The Tree of Life - One Zoom has created this interactive visual of the entire tree of life of over 2 million species.

The Universe Story - Check out this documentary, Journey of the Universe, with Brianne Swimme, that shares how “over the course of 14.5 years hydrogen transformed itself into mountains, butterflies, the music of Bach, and you and me.” Or these books.

Transcript available at: kinshiphub.net/podcast

Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives

Join Beth and Nancy Gabriel as they reflect on highlights and learning from the first four podcast conversations. They explore themes such as the time it takes to build trust, how to draw out the gifts already there in communities, and what can unfold when we listen rather than start by promoting our answers. Plus, Beth shares some questions and a format you can use for hosting your own learning and reflection conversations.

Resources and links:  

Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative. These Ways of Kinship videos highlight some of the themes of this podcast conversation.

Beth Tener and Nancy Gabriel work with New Directions Collaborative. Nancy also works with the New Hampshire/Vermont Schweitzer Fellows Program. 

Needs met and gifts received - This is a great prompt question to invite people to reflect on a group experience or someone’s talk or offering, in a way that builds more human connection and resonance. From Sarah Peyton.

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in the World is Restoring Grace, Justice and Beauty to the World - book by Paul Hawken. In this video clip, around 2:00 minutes, a list begins of over 130,000 organizations globally working toward social and environmental justice.

Collective Impact at Community Scale - A blog by Beth Tener about inviting a community to identify gifts and assets that could be better connected and utilized.

U Process: Learn more about this process Nancy mentioned for how to work with groups in ways that generate deep insight and innovative solutions.

Transcript available at Kinship web site. 

Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives

In US culture, the values of individualism, mobility, and leaving home are prized; yet, this can also lead to social isolation and a lack of connection to communities that care for each other. How do we recreate the village? This conversation with Kile Adumene, who experienced a village culture growing up in Nigeria and then lived in the US for 24 years, explores how we can grow that sense of care and belonging. We learn about her community work creating space for people to connect as part of a village, within a city.

Resources and links:  

Kinship: A Hub to Amplify the Power of Community: This is Beth Tener’s current initiative. These Ways of Kinship videos highlight some of the themes of this podcast conversation.

Kile Adumene works with Manchester Community Action Coalition (MCAC.) Here is their website

This article features a tutoring project that MCAC developed: Grassroots Tutoring Initiative Serves Black, Immigrant Students.

The Loneliness Pandemic: The psychology and social costs of isolation in modern life - Article by Jacob Sweet, including quotes about loneliness mentioned in the podcast from Jeremy Nobel.

From Rugged Individualism to Self-Organized Connected Communities - this blog by Beth Tener encourages a shift from focusing on projects and individual leaders to focusing on building the capacity of a community to self-organize and find their own solutions.

Transcript available at: Kinship web site

Audio editing by: Podcasting for Creatives