L&C

Beauty has the allure to draw the other world

Kirsten Clacey Avatar

How is your work beautiful?

What does it take to reconnect with its essence?

As I prepare to facilitate or coach, sometimes I find myself rediscovering wonder, inspiration, and maybe even beauty as a way for these containers to keep their fragrant essence.

Especially for the things I do more than once.

The more I hold the same spaces, the more I sense the deadening potential of repetition. They risk feeling tired, rehashed, repeated.

And so a big part of doing the work is rediscovering and reconnecting to the beauty and mystery of each container for myself. It is then that the container has the potential “to draw the other world” for participants. (Credit to Francis Weller for this phrasing).

That which we create for ourselves is something that then infuses the experience for participants.

Responses

  1. Lance Willett

    This writing (the L&C blog) is a powerful invitation for me to draw out the fragrance for my own practice — just by reading a post it reignites the flow. Thank you for “executing out loud” in this public space.

    Reply
    1. Kirsten Clacey

      Thank you Lance!
      “Draw out the fragrance for my own practice” – this is exactly what I’m after too.

      Reply
  2. Steve

    I love the word “beauty” in this sentence: “the beauty and mystery of each container”

    I’ve been wondering about an “aesthetics of leadership,” which naturally invites beauty into the conversation. I’m curious about how aesthetics—as a discipline, coming as it does with the notion that “aesthetic talk” is about something inherently difficult, if not impossible, to talk about—might shift how we talk about “leadership.”

    Aesthetics is a “talking container” for that which is experiential. I like how an “aesthetics of leadership” might shift focus from “talking problems” to “being beautiful.”

    Maybe both the container and the experience can be beautiful and mysterious?

    Reply
    1. Kirsten Clacey

      Wow, thanks for deepening this idea Steve!

      “Maybe both the container and the experience can be beautiful and mysterious?” –> I believe the container infuses the experience, and as the experience unfolds, the container changes in response to the experience. In this way I see the container and the experience as being in relationship with one another, and possibly even one?

      Reply
  3. Mya

    “[T]he deadening potential of repetition” – that really is a thing. Thanks for the reminder to be aware of it and seek to go beyond it.

    Reply
  4. Mark_Kilby

    A powerful concept in a short written piece. It’s sparked many ideas.

    I’m thinking about the gardens of experience I’ve planted. But it’s not really me, it’s with a community brought together in the moment.

    I think about some of the leaders I’ve met that are also planters. They don’t think “resource” but instead embrace “harvest” as their key driving factor for growing an organization.

    Thanks for this gift of spark.

    Reply

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