What gifts and longings are alive through you?

As 2022 is drawing to a close, here's a practice to help guide your efforts and imagination in 2023 and far beyond.

I recently saw a post on LinkedIn advising people to swap ‘we’ for I’ during job interviews; to say ‘I delivered a project' instead of ‘We delivered a project’. This was, as explained, to ‘own achievements’ and give clarity on ‘individual contributions’. This is apt advice when searching for jobs in the current system built for domination, with a myth of separation at its core.

However, the ‘self’ is a mesh of experiences, relationships & reactions. Our bodies are hosts to trillions of microorganisms, our nervous systems co-regulate, our thoughts are expressions of the lives lived by our ancestors, teachers, loved & dear ones, human and more-than-human. Nothing can be subtracted from the larger web of life without severing intricate webs of connection.

What’s more, when we choose to make ourselves permeable to the idea of a complex, enmeshed, co-created self, we don’t absolve our unique potential. Instead, we create space for becoming fuller expressions of that which we carry within us, for nurturing our capacity to participate in the emergence of more beautiful, equitable futures. 

I write this through the lens of collective inquiry, as we’re just about to wrap up the first cohort of our 5-week (un)learning adventure called Community Solo during which we explored our interconnectedness to places we call home, to each other as crew and to the individual gifts & longings that are alive through us. 

The individual gifts & longings that are alive through us. No, it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as ‘find your unique gift’ but in times of great mystery, some concepts long to be made complicated again. As part of our exploration and many practices we experimented with together, the question of what gifts & longings are alive through us has guided our becoming; steering us towards how might we continue to step into service to life on earth. 

As 2022 is drawing to a close, often a time for taking stock and goal setting, I feel moved to share this practice as something to help guide our efforts and imagination as we look to the futures ahead; next year but also distant generations far beyond. 

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What gifts and/or longings are alive through you in these dimensions? 

The practice is inspired by Joanna Macy’s 4 Questions of Preparation, with deep gratitude for her work. We chose to intentionally offer the lenses of gifts and longings because our gifts are often found in the grief of that which we long for. 

Gifts- what you feel called/resourced to share in service to life

Longings- What you ache to see/experience in the world

Part A- doodle or journal around each of the 4 dimensions. I’d usually suggest setting a timer for about 20 minutes to keep the momentum and not overthink the process. Then leave it for a day or two and come back to reflect some more.

Part B- look back at what you doodled/wrote- are there any themes emerging from the words/ images that may form a seedling of an intention/question to take with you into 2023? Experiment with setting a timer for 2 minutes to express an imperfect one. Speak it and see how it feels.

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Join the next Community Solo starting the 12th of January’23

a 5-week online adventure to tune into what’s within you, connect deeply to a community of practice, and deepen your belonging to the natural world in a place you call home.