Inspiration

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there."

Rumi

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

African Proverb

"Vulnerability is the birthplace of creativity, innovation and change."

Brene Brown

"We judge others by their behaviour. We judge ourselves by our intentions."

Ian Percy

"Good questions work on us, we don't work on them. They are not a project to be completed but a doorway opening onto greater depth of understanding, actions that will take us into being more fully alive."

Peter Block

"It’s people not like us who help us grow."

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

"What’s wrong with technology is that it’s not connected with matters of the spirit and of the heart."

Robert Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."

Carl Jung

"Patience is also a form of action."

Auguste Rodin

"There will always be resistance to the unknown. You just have to break the rules creatively."

Martha in Movie Amnesia

"It’s the action, not the fruit of the action that is important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result."

Mahatma Gandhi

"You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right."

Rosa Parks

Community Economic Development

A Comprehensive Toolkit for Locanomics, Community Organizing, Indigenomics, Leadership, Social Innovation, Cooperatives and more I completed the Simon Fraser University’s Community Economic Development Program in 2015 and it gave me a language for my intuition and experiences in India and in rural Canada. In India, I took street vendors, with their diversity and sense of…

Systems Thinking, Collaboration and Shared Leadership

Systems thinking, articulated well by Peter Senge, allows us to zoom out and look at all the contributing components or stakeholders in a system. Collaboration, relationship building and shared leadership naturally follow. Starhawk’s book The Empowerment Manual, The Circle Way by Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea as well as Peter Block’s book Community: The Structure…

Intention and Decision Making

Simon Sinek gives a simple formula for success. Start with why i.e. the motivation for your actions. It’s a great tool for decision-making and to help with visioning. Ari Wallach invites us to use the ‘long path’ practice when we make decisions. It allows us to break out of sandbag strategies and instead create lasting…

Vulnerability to Empowerment

Both Brene Brown and Amy Cuddy articulate the need to acknowledge our vulnerable selves and work from that place to owning our power and place. Brene’s advice – Vulnerability is the birthplace of creativity, innovation and change. Amy Cuddy’s journey – Fake it till you become it.

Community Engagement through Creativity and Planning

Architect Candy Chang transformed the way I look at art (as did Banksy). It inspires me to use creativity as a means for Community Engagement and Activism. Charles Montgomery is a cool Canadian who has correlated urban design (as a tool to build community) with being happier. We, in rural communities, take for granted the…

Activism, Nonviolence, Community Organizing and Spiritual Inquiry

Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. are two of my foremost gurus, if you will. They remained steadfast to activism and advocated human rights without steering off their spiritual path or their strong belief that nonviolence is the only way. They are both great examples of community organizing and dreaming big. I particularly value…

Balance and Pace

Jill Bolte Taylor’s book My Stroke of Insight is a great resource for understanding how the right and left sides of our brain influence our behaviour and why it’s important to balance them. Nipun Mehta in a 2012 University of Pennsylvania commencement speech illustrated this using the example of walking. “When one foot walks, the…

Nonviolent / Compassionate Communication

My encounter and study with Marshall Rosenberg’s work on Nonviolent Communication has led me not only to seek to understand and communicate better with others but also work at knowing myself and what I need. My ongoing learning from NVC trainer Miki Kashtan offers me inspiring ways to apply Marshall’s ideas in a natural way such…

Be Present

Buddhist nun Pema Chodron teaches the value of a grounding practice like meditation to help to slow down, be present and be a good listener. Her writing and talks are inspirational, compassionate and funny. More recently, I get to practise being present through my weekly (or bi-weekly) childcare commitment. To be attentive to a child’s…

MY APPROACH