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brigidrussell51.bsky.social
All about working relationally, learning, listening, & coaching. Exploring how working collaboratively & leadership can develop in practice. What does it mean and what does it take to be alongside? #SpacesForListening
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Posts 28 Comments 22

What is heard in the silence in between the words depends on if and how there's space and readiness to listen. It can take (and mean) a lot to be in this space and stay there. How often is the cost of not listening considered?

submitted 6 hours ago • 1 comment

There's only so much I can do to explain my perspective to you. Just saying it over and over again won't make it clearer. You'll still have your own perspective. We can't help but see the world from where we are. But we can be more curious, and listen with more care and understanding.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Good morning

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

The seasonal lives of trees somehow bring me hope, humility, and reassurance. The cycle from starkly beautiful wintry branches, to leaves slowly but surely reappearing, to full foliage, and back again to leaves falling. Simply a gentle reminder of our fleeting smallness.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

It's heartbreaking to find this tree so battered by the recent storm. A tree so special to me. Yet something tells me that such a hardy tree will survive this latest storm as no doubt it's survived many storms in the course of its life on this windswept and beautiful hillside.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

When there's no time left in a working week to pause, reflect, and think, and each day's packed full with tasks, surely that's actually counter-productive? Truly getting the work done also depends on space to think, time to be there for each other, and connecting as human beings.

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

We tend to put the effort into devising agendas of 'what's to be done' for meetings and into formulating 'learning objectives' for development events. What if we paid a little more attention to how we're feeling and how we'd like to feel in the precious time we spend together?

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

When we feel trusted and equal parts of a trusting group, then we're freely able to express our curiosity, confusion, disagreements as well as affirmations. We nurture such trust with care in our unfolding relationships and in every conversation. It can't be assumed or contrived.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

"Love allows understanding to dawn, and understanding is precious. Where you are understood, you are at home. Understanding nourishes belonging." John O'Donohue, Anam Cara

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

biancawylie.medium.com/tech-isnt-th...

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

How to cope with the creeping grip of doom? It is overwhelming, and I can feel hopeless. And I can remember there are lots of other people feeling overwhelm too. People gently finding ways to stay connected, and hopeful, with slow, spacious, deliberate determination, and love.

submitted 10 days ago • 7 comments

In those moments when we avoid something uncomfortable, feedback that doesn't fit the mould, a person who says things we find a bit awkward, and rush on supposedly "in the interests of getting stuff done"... who are we kidding? There's a big part of the work, and we're missing it.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

There are clues in the very words we use. When we try to 'capture' the essence of a community or design a process for 'making connections', maybe we miss the point. Lose the very things we're 'searching' for. Things which happen naturally, unfold messily, without force or design.

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

Those "difficult" moments of misunderstanding, different experiences, alternative perspectives. We rush past them for fear of awkwardness, hurt, or conflict. Ironically that's what we leave behind. Surely better to pause in those moments, surface them, make efforts to understand?

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

An affirming conversation over coffee and cake, a random exchange about a favourite tv programme, the quiet sense of solidarity through feeling heard... Maybe we can't quantify all these small moments of relational connection, but they are surely invaluable to being human together.

submitted 14 days ago • 2 comments

People who condemn well-intentioned approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion out of hand are presuming their so-called "meritocracy" operates on a level playing-field. Such an argument entirely misses the point that prevailing sources of money, power, and privilege dominate.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

So much gets broadcast with such certainty, and all I need to do is "follow" because "this way works". In such a view, there's little time for context or listening to each other. It may feel messier, but I'd rather sit with uncertainty and find some mutual understanding between us.

submitted 18 days ago • 2 comments

Maybe the 'problem' can't be fixed in neatly defined steps, and the 'answer' doesn't conform to someone else's prescription. That doesn't mean we have to face problems all alone. It does mean we help each other most by being alongside, listening & gently understanding with care.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Laughter can be wonderfully connecting, relieving, and humanly affirming. Laughter alongside freely flowing tears, when both are truly heard and understood and shared, can be the truest and most meaningful expression of grief and love.

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

In this still moment, I listen to your voice. The songs you sang with such heartfelt meaning. I hear your words. They are here still, as are you, in my heart and living memories. Five years. Love lives on.

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

Thankful for the small things like a clear morning sky and the daylight arriving earlier each day.

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

Bluff and bluster sets out to confuse and divide. It works by distracting us. By putting us in danger of giving up hope and becoming cynical. Seeing behind and beyond it is vital. Staying connected, listening to and caring about each other, is what really matters in these times.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Each day is longer, little by little welcome bit of joyful light.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

Back then was a busy time. Days filled with work. Things to do and places to be. Years pass. Yet friendship remains. All those small moments of angst, joy, and laughter shared. A day to celebrate friends, love, and connection. And the gradual unfolding of spring returning.

submitted 26 days ago • 1 comment

The older I get, the more I feel how learning happens gradually, suddenly, surprisingly, and incrementally in all sorts of spaces, alongside many different people, in and from many beautiful and unexpected moments. If I can be humble, gentle, and inquiring enough to notice.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

In contemplation and in shadows gently held illumination.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

To have the time to pause and notice. It may seem like a luxury, even a privilege... Yet, really, it is an essential part of how we move through the world alongside each other. In gentle curiosity and care and mutual generosity.

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

What makes this person "worth" listening to, while "the other" is ignored? What assumptions are made about what's credible? Unheard voices don't get to be heard just because "we" invite "them" in. It takes owning uncomfortable truths about assumptions, privilege, & power. And changing them.

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment