Last week, we talked about symbols (statues, flags, etc.) and how they shape us. This week, let's talk about spaces. Much like the symbols we surround ourselves with, the spaces we create are formative. They speak silently, teaching us and informing our behavior, often with us realizing. 

-----------------

What is an Attention Collection? 

We've created this FREE ebook to help you understand the things that shape you and what you can do to take hold of your own formation! 

Flags. Statues. And the Golden Arches.

Symbols tell stories. And these stories have the power to shape our perception of ourselves and the world around us. 

-----------------

What is an Attention Collection? 

We've created this FREE ebook to help you understand the things that shape you and what you can do to take hold of your own formation! 

With all our social and political unrest, stress is mounting. Opinions are legion. People are dying. The racial divide is ever-widening. And few of us seem to agree on the way forward.

There are so many ways to be offended, which is problematic. But what if there’s actually a benefit to being offended?

In 1977, the United States launched two robotic probes into space. These probes are known as Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They’re still out there, and though their mission has been altered a few times, the most interesting detail about their presence in space isn’t what these probes are meant to capture, but what they carry onboard. 

This episode is about a golden message-in-a-bottle drifting through space, what it says about who we are, and, more importantly, who we hope to be. 

Silence is a very important part of the human experience. In our lives, it can communicate indifference, or respect, or even wisdom. 

In this episode, we walk through three different kinds of silence that we employ in almost every area of our lives. We can operate from these silences knowingly or unknowingly, but if we pay close attention to how we use them, they will make all the difference in our relationships and the way we impact the world around us. 

Segments of every single generation look back on history and long for yesteryear, the good-old-days before things got out of hand. But one person’s good-old-days is someone else’s dark ages. We have a fuzzy relationship with history, and this moment in culture is exposing that yet again. 

This episode is about our perpetual relationship with cultural amnesia.

The "United" States is on fire right now, literally and metaphorically. We have seen, yet again, Black men and women murdered at the hands of police and white supremacists. Protests are taking place all over the nation, and people are looking for ways to express their opinions and vent their frustrations. 

What is the way forward? There are no easy answers, but one thing seems obvious: we have to address one thing that has been in the water since America's inception.

This episode is about hidden bias and the invisible messages that shape us, divide us, and even harm us. 

When it comes to memory, there are things we would pay good money to forget, and there are things we would very much like to hold onto, but it seems we have no choice in the matter. Some stuff sticks, other stuff fades away. So can anything be done about this? And what does it mean to remember?

Featured:

To Remember, the Brain Must Actively Forget

You’ve created entire worlds in the space between lights out and snooze button that you never could have imagined awake. Why do we discount how remarkable that is? And what can we do to harness that ability while we're awake?

This episode is all about creativity.

This week I got the chance to sit down (via Zoom) with Jillian Richardson, a community builder, founder of The Joy List NYC, facilitator, cuddle party organizer, and author of Unlonely Planet: How Healthy Congregations Can Change the World.

At the Attention Collection, we talk a lot about how we don’t become ourselves by ourselves; we are shaped and formed by our connections with other people. Jillian's work really captures that, as I think you'll hear in this conversation!

Connect with Jillian:

Jillian's Website

The Joy List NYC

Unlonely Planet: How Healthy Congregations Can Change the World