by Becky Keigan
I’ve been thinking a lot about the act of caring for one another. What does that mean? What does that require? I believe it’s connection. Every day we have opportunities to connect with people we know and those who are passing through our world in that particular moment. Connection is a choice. Sometimes easy, sometimes difficult, and foundational to our health and well-being.
Over the next two months our network will focus on our Connection core value which is defined as: “We create intentional spaces to give and receive support, build capacity, and imagine possibilities together.” I love this value and its underpinnings to our other values of equity, integrity, leadership development, and belonging. I look forward to how we collectively explore, learn, and lean into this value.
To help us get there, I want to share a couple of resources with you that I’ve reflected upon this past week as I’ve grappled with the tragedy in Boulder and other national events. The Turning To One Another poem by Margaret Wheatly is spot on for encouraging and challenging us to lean into this value. Also, I recently re-listened to the June 9, 2020 Unlocking Us podcast with Brene Brown and Austin Channing Brown entitled, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, and found the following quotes so impactful:
“The work of anti-racism is the work of becoming a better human to other humans, we’re becoming better humans so we can treat other humans better.”
“Have you built the capacity to care more about others than you care about your own ego?”
-Austin Channing Brown
“I’m here to get it right, not to be right. If I have to get it right, I have to listen and learn. If I have to be right, I have to use my niceness and my decency to defend my behavior.”
-Brene Brown
In connection,
Becky Keigan (4)