Words of EnCOURAGEment #13
A Note From CCR Board Chair Gayle Williams
Following an extensive national search, we are delighted to announce that Terry Chadsey has been selected as our Executive Director. Terry brings the talent and experience, as well as the continuity and change, as we transition from Marcy and Rick Jackson's founding leadership. Terry has been a strong visionary leader as our Co-Director for the past year. As a skilled Circle of Trust facilitator since 2003, he embodies the values, principles and practices at the heart of our work.
The Pain and Promise of Politics and Transition
by Terry Chadsey, Executive Director
Earlier in my career, I spent 22 years teaching in public schools. Each summer brings me a stronger sense of ending and beginning than the turn of the calendar year in December. I imagine all of us who spent years in school as students have lingering feelings established in that childhood cycle. For those who go on and teach, this complex mixture of endings and beginnings is that much more deeply etched.
Good classrooms become deeply connected communities in a year. Relationships are built, we develop and grow, and challenges and conflicts knock us back or linger unresolved. And then we say goodbye. As a teacher, my experience of these transitions was a complex force field of loss and celebration, grief and joy, endings and beginnings.
This particular summer, I find myself in another time of transition--of endings and of beginnings. On July 1 I stepped into the role of Executive Director of the Center, succeeding the founders, Marcy and Rick Jackson, who’ve so ably built this good work and this strong organization over the past fifteen years. For many of us close to the Center, this is a complex time of grief and joy, endings and beginnings, loss and celebration.
Looking back, there is indeed much for which I am grateful. And yet, given the nature of this transition for me, my energy is drawn to looking forward to this next phase in the development of the Center and to the new ways we will bring our approach to the world.
A few weeks ago, Parker Palmer collaborated with the Center to offer The Politics of the Brokenhearted: A Reflective Conference on Habits of the Heart and the Future of American Democracy. Parker is currently working on a new book on this topic. We created this program at the convergence of the growing edge of Parker’s reflections on democracy and our particular approach to personal and professional integrity. Seventy-five participants spent four rich days engaging with Parker’s ideas, with our own experiences of civic engagement and democracy, and with one another.
Change and Continuity, Continuity and Change
by Senior Fellows, Marcy Jackson and Rick Jackson
There is a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
—William Stafford, excerpt from “The Way It Is”
In the long way that we take in, in our growing up, in the vicissitudes of life by which we are led into its meaning and mystery, there are established for us, for each one of us, certain landmarks. They represent discoveries sometimes symbolizing the moment when we became aware of the purpose of our lives; they may establish for us our membership in the human frailty; they may be certain words that were spoken into a stillness within us the sound thereof singing forever through all the corridors of our being as landmarks; yes, each one of us has our own…
—Howard Thurman, The Inward Journey
William Stafford’s lovely little poem “The Way It Is” speaks of the threads we follow in our lives and work, how they change and how they stay the same. Howard Thurman reminds us that there are landmarks that irrevocably mark the chapters of our lives, giving us a sense of purpose and trajectory. We are on the threshold of one of those landmarks that has both deep personal meaning as well as being a significant demarcation in the Center’s organizational life.
On July 1, following an eight month national search process, Terry Chadsey became the next Executive Director of the Center for Courage & Renewal. A round of exuberant applause please! As the Center’s founding co-directors since 1997, you might imagine that we have a lot invested in this decision and you’re right! That said, from the time we began discussing leadership succession three years ago, the CCR board stepped up wholeheartedly to what is arguably one of the most challenging of organizational passages—moving from the founding era into the next chapter. We witnessed a board and search process held with great care, intentionality and integrity for all concerned. Having worked with Terry over the past five years we can attest to his strong vision for the future, his demonstrated capabilities as a leader, and his gifts for being in relationship with others and for instilling confidence in all of us for what is possible. We’re also proud that CCR is in sound financial health and well-situated to build on the significant work of 150 Circle of Trust facilitators prepared through the Center, as well as on CCR programs, and research and publications created over the past thirteen years.
Reflection, Renewal, and Connection Online
by Circle of Trust® Facilitator Sally Z. Hare
Our mission is to help people nurture personal identity and professional integrity and the courage to act on it. We've been doing that in person by creating safe spaces for face-to-face conversations, mostly in retreats, where people can say what they fear and what they hope, and do so in a way that honors their inner teacher - without judgment or criticism, and with an opportunity to hear the stories and honest open questions of others.
We want now to create an online conversation that has those same qualities. We hope you'll join us here. What you will meet with in this space is honest open statements from others, questions that will help all of us grow, and a collective effort to make a better world.
If you've been to one of our retreats or programs, you'll find groups where you can reconnect with that experience and share how it has impacted your work and life. If you're considering attending a retreat, you may get a taste here for what it might be like. If you've never attended a retreat, we hope you'll find here a welcoming place where you might have a chance to "reconnect who you are with what you do" by listening, connecting, and learning.
We hope to see you there.
Summer Fulfillment
by Circle of Trust Facilitator Paul Michalec
When planning a Circle of Trust ® retreat for teachers, leaders, clergy, or healthcare professionals, I rely on two organizing principles: a theme or paradox that is common to the work life of professionals, and connections to the natural world. For instance, a productive summer theme is honoring work projects that have to come to fruition after much hard labor, in much the same way that flowers or trees come into the fullness of their being after the dormancy of winter and the frenzied growth of spring.
Another important element of the retreat experience is inviting participants to consider the ways that a carefully selected poem, story, or musical selection (what we call a “third thing” in our work) can open new understandings into the heart of the theme we are exploring. One poem I find particularly helpful for a summer retreat is Marge Piercy’s “Seven of Pentacles.” The following line seems particularly rich with images linking the working life of a professional to harvesting the rewards of hard but fulfilling tasks: “for every gardener knows that after the digging, after the planting, after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.”
I hear in this selection an acknowledgement (evident even more in the full poem) of the need for professionals to consciously "tend" to the work, in part because that is what professionals do. And I also hear Piercy’s reminder of the importance of taking time to gather in the rewards and benefits of work well done. I encourage read the poem and ask yourself the following questions:
- What are you hoping to harvest this summer from the long year of your work?
- What kind of garden do you like to plant, tend, and grow in your professional life?
- Is the excess production from your labor a blessing because it enriches the lives of others, or is it a curse because giving it away becomes one more task to accomplish and a distraction from relaxing into summer’s gift of rest?
Courage & Light: Exploring Passion, Renewal, and Creativity
with Ji
m Brandenberg and Parker Palmer
As individuals and organizations how do we tap into the sources of our creativity more effectively?
How can we retain the passion and enthusiasm for our work?
How do we renew the spirit and energy that helps us attain our goals?
We are happy to spread the news about Courage & Light ™, which provides a method and process for uncovering answers to those questions and more, and draws on a rich filmed dialog between nationally acclaimed writer and educator, Parker J. Palmer, and National Geographic photographer, Jim Brandenburg. Courage & Light explores a life-changing project undertaken by Brandenburg when he was at the peak of his career, yet feeling drained of creativity and passion for his work. This innovative resource combines engaging video elements with powerful group activities guided by a detailed facilitator's guidebook. The program's modular design provides a powerful, flexible structure that allows for the adaptation of content to address specific concerns, professional and organizational development and different kinds of groups and time requirements.
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