I had to giggle - so I made this

Our friends recently went to Bali for a few days, so we looked after their tiny, tiny pet Chihuahua, "Mouse". She was the runt of the litter, apparently, is over a year old and will not get bigger.

For such a small hound,, she had a huge, erm, appetite.

During one afternoon, I whipped out my phone camera and recorded the linked footage, for your viewing pleasure. It is under 3 minutes long, so you do have time. I wish you all a beautiful day!

Click this link or click the title and enjoy

On Leading, Availability and Love

Human love, in its purest form, is quite simply making your whole self available to the growth of another human. In order to notice the human needs of another, you must first notice and acknowledge the human need in your self; in other words make yourself available to be loved and love yourself.

Loving has nothing to do with being "hard" or "soft", "weak" or "strong". Nor is it connected with giving everything away, including your wealth or your power, although we often make up that it is. We can still be hard on someone yet see them kindly and want for them their biggest, most beautiful self. The impact and eventual outcome of such an interaction is affected by the way the one sees the other and by how the other feels seen, mutually.

It takes courage to love; courage to BE different. To love is a radical act. To love is to invest, where the risk is insignificant in reality, if not in your imagination; the cost is only in terms of your fear of losing control, and the yield is very high. Increasing staff and client retention challenges and issues of loyalty and sickness all tell me there is a strong case for love in business. If you think your organisation is slow to adapt or seems timid or ossified, there is a strong case for seeding love there. Being a leader in these cases is about being the first to break the mold, the first to BE out-of-the-box, the first to create movement.

YOU and I are both responsible: lead by example.

On Ghosted Wing

I came across this scribble in an old notebook and thought I'd share it.  I wrote this as I noticed my feelings towards meeting an old friend for the first time, someone with whom I'd become Certified as a Professional Co-Active Coach and only met on the telephone.  I was in the approach to San Francisco on a connecting flight out of Seattle:

On Ghosted Wing:

Mid air turbulance,

Opera in one ear,

Suzanne and William,

Flying through dark,

Gently descending.

Let others streak and amble,

ghost wing flickering

A man comes,

On ghost wing grinding,

To a place of trees and gulls,

And magic,

Salt and twig and feather,

Brazen stone and white Hart's play,

And mermaid's song,

There renewed.

On ghosted wing

Pale spirit comes.

Phil Durnford, Calgary, November 2005

Recipe for Borrowing Love, Breathing Love - an offered practice

On Breathing, a recipe:

Allow stillness,

Allow quiteness,

Allow commitment,

Breathe forgivingly and notice,

Wait,

When readiness happens,

Commit to breathe out every last breath of air in your lungs,

As if the life of the World depends upon it,

Pivot gently about your lower gut and gladly give back your last air to the Universe,

Know that it is returning to nature,

As the river blends with the ocean,

And feel the gratitude for its gift

Upon giving it up, make a choice;

Your next breath will be an inhalation of Love,

With an accepting heart,

Breathe Love through fresh and willing nostrils,

Notice and enjoy the emotion of wanting,

Open the doors of your heart's hall wide at each end,

And allow the Love to pass through,

Lighting hearth and bringing laughter,

Bring the Breath Love into your swelling belly,

Until you can take no more,

Decide to stop,

Be still,

Take delight,

Notice your intentions for the World,

For nature, 

For people known and unknown,

Allow Gratitude,

Allow Forgiveness,

Allow what's wanting to happen

Allow commitment,

Allow stillness,

Allow readiness,

Wait,

When readiness happens,

Breathe Love with your intentional commitment,

Back to the Universe

repeat the cycle.

Repeat until you are repleat.

try it, post what you experience.

Love and peace

P

Reflection: Love is on Loan

The Universe provides us with free, unlimited access to its lending library of Love.  As it happens, we are all already members.  Only thing is, many of us threw out the reminder notice with the junk mail.

Love is the meta knowledge that feeds our curiosity, learning, application and, ultimately, human progress.  So what do we do with the meta knowledge that we borrow from the Universal meta library? We nourish our soul and we excrete our agonies and ecstacies.  Nourishment fills us with possibilities for human interconnection, co-creativity, procreation and growth.  Excretion lays the foundation for the development of humankind and for the planet, as would a river delta lay down silt on the continental shelf, without any design on the wonderous landscapes or ocean features that silt will become, possibly eons into the future, possibly during the next storm.

Jumping out of the sedimentological metaphor back to excretion, and asking a rhetorical question: who keeps their poo?

So our opportunity, people, is to borrow Love, nourish ourselves, share an apply the meta knowledge and, upon returning the Love back to the Universe, lay down our agonies and ecstacies, knowing that they contribute to the evolution of the planet and of humankind.

I love mixing metaphors, or rather I love blending them.

Have a beautiful day!

P