Archive for the Letting go category

Does Aid Need a 12-Step Program?

Friday, May 11th, 2012

“Let go and let God.” It’s a mantra of the self-help group, Alcoholics Anonymous. After spending a couple of weeks in Afghanistan, I’m wondering if it’s time for the international aid community to adopt the same approach.

Tags: 12 step program, accountability, aid effectiveness, aid innovation, aid workers, Alcoholics Anonymous, capacity building, CBODN, Chesapeake Bay Organizational Development Network, community ownership, community participation, community-based organizations, country ownership, donors, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grassroots organizations, InterAction, InterAction Forum, international aid, international development, local leaders, MIDEGO, organizational development, philanthropy, social enterprise, USAID, volunteers
Posted in Development, Doing good, Letting go | No Comments »

Passion, practice and the water table of talent.

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

When I wrote ‘your passion is not enough’ I knew I was beginning to say something, not finishing. I was opening a conversation with myself and with you. Today I was walking home from a visit with a friend, listening to Zen Howl, by Natalie Goldberg. Natalie said, “Talent is like a water table under [...]

Posted in Buddhism, Letting go, Writing | 1 Comment »

The Wisdom of a Broken Heart

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

At the most painful, confusing time of my life – in those months after the killings in Afghanistan that I referred to in my last post – I found the teachings of Pema Chodron who gently encouraged me to relax and lean in towards my own heartbreak, seeing it as a state of presence and [...]

Tags: eqnz, healing, loss, meditation, recovery, trauma
Posted in Buddhism, Letting go, Sitting still | 4 Comments »

The thing about space…

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

…is that life will sometimes just expand to fill it. I decided not to go to South Africa because I knew I needed more space in my life. Every time I sat still long enough to really notice what was going on in my body last year I got the same message: I need more [...]

Posted in Letting go | 16 Comments »

Why I’m not going to South Africa

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

Remember how I decided to try to raise US$20,000 for HIV/AIDs projects in South Africa? How that was about the same amount that I earned in 2009? How the whole idea scared the sh#t out of me because I didn’t know if I could do it, and because I hate trying something, especially publicly, and [...]

Tags: seva, south africa
Posted in Being the change, Letting go, Ways to help | 22 Comments »

The crack that lets the light in

Saturday, November 6th, 2010

This is the second in a short series of lessons I’ve learned while living lately… (the title to this one comes with loving thanks to Mr Leonard Cohen, who sang me to the moon and back when I saw him live in concert this week) Messing up is sometimes the crack the lets the light [...]

Posted in Letting go | 8 Comments »

Discombobulation and clarity

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

It’s been a full few weeks. I haven’t been here much, but I’ve picked up a few lessons along the way. Not neatly packaged, just messy enough to lead me to suspect they might be real. So I’m going to share a few of them over the next few days because I figure that if [...]

Posted in Letting go | 11 Comments »

Live the life you haven’t imagined

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

The wonderful Helen Heath published an interview this week with New Zealand’s best loved literary couple, Elizabeth Knox and Fergus Barrowman. Of course, Elizabeth, the author, is loved with less conditions than than Fergus, the publisher. That appears to be the fate of publishers. I highly recommend that you go over and read the entire [...]

Posted in Buddhism, Letting go, Writing | 3 Comments »

Experimenting with overwhelm

Friday, June 11th, 2010

I’ve been experimenting lately. I’ve been experimenting with saying yes more often and allowing my life to fill to the brim again. I say ‘again’ because there was a time, before Afghanistan, when my life was full to the brim all the time. By ‘full’ I mean packed rather than abundant, although sometimes they are [...]

Posted in Letting go, Sitting still | 25 Comments »

What courage looks like on an ordinary day

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

People think I’m brave because I lived in Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip. I am brave. Superhero brave, like anyone living life honestly. But this is what courage really looks like, on an ordinary day.

Tags: brave, courage
Posted in Letting go | 25 Comments »