Tribal Connections - One World, One People

Someone just asked me what I would like to talk about. In that moment I had no answer.  I am testing out ScribeFire, which will allow me to post in different places at the same time. This is thrilling to me and I wonder why. Investigating that thrill leads me to many trails.

One trail is that I love the idea that I will no longer be cut-and-pasting from different sites to get my words to there...and there....and there....I think you get the idea! More ease and more choice for me of how I spend my time....and still facilitating the sharing of my words with my different online communities. The thrill is around community and connection. I want to let you know what is going on for me and I want to hear from you as well.

The only place I will not add this to is my Tiny Letter, as what I share there is unique...and Shorter than my other blogs. It's  mostly a line or two of comment and then a link to something I find inspirational, beautiful or illuminating and I want to share it. :-) If that interests you, you can sign up at  http://tinyletter.com/HeartofEmpathy.

Another trail is that I LOVE to contribute to others, and as I explore the use of this method of posting and share my experience, I'm hoping it will contribute to your life. Hey-I can make mistakes and then report to you so that you don't! :-)  Or have fun and report that!

Another trail is that idea, you may have heard, that there are only 3 (or 5 or 7) degrees of separation between 2 people. I would like to use different words for this. My experience, and the reported experience of countless (LOL) others is that within 10 or 15 minutes of speaking with someone, you identify someone you know in common. So I would say not degrees of separation, but degrees of connection !

This weekend I stayed at a house in Mendocino County. In the morning my friend went out to walk with neighbors who had moved away from Mendocino County to Oakland, in the SF Bay Area, and had just recently returned. Did I mention that I lived in Mendocino County, Northern California for several decades? And that I have just moved to Oakland? My friend's friend came in after the walk. She is the daughter of my sister's close friend. My sister had attended her wedding. No, my sister does not live in Mendocino County...or Oakland.

Add to this about a month ago when this woman was moving back to Mendocino County, she stopped in to her local market-in Oakland- and I was there in the market wondering how I was going to find a way home from the market as I did not have my car-and we met at the counter! I was in process of moving to Oakland as she was in process of moving away and we met at Farmer Joe's market! You might say the chances of these events are just preposterous, or that there are only two chances (one "fat" and one "slim"). LOL I exerienced just one more example of our interconnectedness, which is way close to interdependence in my book!

I say to someone at a party that I am hoping to be sharing Nonviolent Communication in Ethiopia, and he replies that he has a friend who has written 5 nonfiction books on Ethiopian history/culture. What are the chances? Fat or Slim? Or just the universe operating business-as-usual?
The flap of a butterfly wing changes worldwide weather patterns. I want to create more consciousness in me as to how I am "flapping" in the world. Because from my view there are no independent acts, only interdependence, so what I do/say/think/believe changes worldwide patterns of action/speech/thoughts/beliefs! LOL Again! This just delights me. Maybe it attends to the place in me that really wants to matter and contribute.

I bet YOU have a story where you experienced a connection between you and another person which seemed just so improbable...and yet occurred. Want to tell us about it? I invite you to add that comment or any other comment you would like to share with this Tribe of ours (the human family).