Welcome to the first official blog of the More To Life program. I am delighted (and a little apprehensive!) to be venturing into the blogging world. My hope is that this forum becomes one of the key ways of communicating to and with our students around the world.
Goodness knows there is a lot to communicate! I’m sure some of you are aware that we are in the middle of implementing some important and exciting strategic initiatives that have been planned and agreed upon by many leaders within the organization over the last couple of years. It’s a busy and burgeoning time.
But let me back up and introduce myself. I’m sure I’ve met many of you who will come to this blog, but the likelihood is great that there will be many more whom I have never met. As a senior trainer for More To Life since 1989, it’s been one of the great honors of my life to be out in the field training. However, that’s slowed down for me the past couple of years due to the responsibilities of the executive director position that I now hold. Connecting with many of our students in a different way is also very fulfilling, as is being on the leading edge of our organization.
I think I’ll start by telling you a story.
About a month ago, I spent a few days in Bozeman, Montana where I visited with several of our students there. We had an impromptu community campfire and grill-out one evening that was fun, connecting and nourishing in every way! I had several one-on-one talks and meetings. My friends and colleagues talked, I listened. I talked, they listened. We hit a few “bumps in the road” (you know about that, don’t you?), we practiced Noticing, Truth-telling, Choosing, Creating and we expressed a whole lot of Gratitude for one another and for our program. Overall, it was a lovely, lovely time.
On my way home back to Knoxville, Tennessee, I traveled on three different airplanes. (It’s not an easy trip from Bozeman to Knoxville!) On the longest leg of my journey, I got out my processing journal and started doing some process work. About an hour later I was back in touch with my highest purposes and intentions and feeling really opened up. I started spontaneously writing a long communication to our students that I had been intending to write for quite some time – about our strategic projects, our finances, our results so far this year, etc. The letter just flowed out of me and into my journal!
To my great dismay when I got home, I couldn’t find my journal. My chest clutched! My mind raced! Where was my journal?!? And then I remembered that I had accidentally left it in the seatback in front of me when I finished writing and took a short nap. I'm sure you can imagine my angst.
But here I am now with the intention to write that "letter" and let you in on what's happening but in a different (and a little more spread out time-wise) way. I hope you’ll find it informative and connecting. That’s certainly my intention.
That’s it for now. More to come!
Much love,
Peggy
12 comments:
I am so delighted that you have begun this way of communicating with us Peggy. I appreciated the personal contact with you by phone this evening and would like more of this,recognising that with so much that you are holding, supporting and initiating this is likely not a viable option as a regular event.
This is the first time I have posted anything on a blog and I required assistance from my son to get to this place - I'm thrlled to find I am the first to post a comment!
Following on from the 'Out of the Box' Day in London I personally questioned whether the new proposed
initiatives would in fact be put into practice or whether they might
fall by the wayside despite a big fundraising initiative to financially support the work involved. After speaking to you Peggy I have much more of an informed picture of the bigger vision and also the individual projects and the energy and expertise that is behind these to bring them into reality.
I would appreciate and follow with interest not only how the projects themselves are progressing (or not as the case may be )but also how those who are working on these projects are finding themselves with these - your wins,your losses
your challenges ,your personal edges. Something I value so much in the MTL programme is the ethos of being 'a human being who's doing' rather than being 'a human doing'!
Thank you Peggy for all your work.
Do take care of your precious self
and continue to keep in touch with us
Love from Colette Stevens (UK)
Peggy I am delighted to see you and others in the MTL program incorporate blogging into your marketing and communication efforts. I feel certain The "More to Life" and Kairos Foundations will find many new opportunities for growth as a result. Blogging is about talking, listening and increasing our knowledge of ourselves and life through conversation.
All the best
Tom Parish
Peg, this is delightful and it sounds just like you! I'm excited for you, for the Foundation, for all who will be coming to this space over the coming months and years.
I'm looking forward to hearing more from you and from other trainers, etc.
Ah, a breath of fresh air!
Jenny
This is great.........health issues have me out of the mainstream right now.........now I can visit this website daily and stay up-to-date on the happenings of my most cherished organization! Thank you, dear friend Peggy (and all others who worked to get this set up and working)!
"Oh goodie".........hi Peg, Jen and others to come. I am delighted at this opportunity to hear from you and about the program. I moved from Atlanta to near Phoenix, AZ and we have no community here and I have missed that terribly. I love this way to reconnect and hear news.
Jean Higgins
I was delighted to receive the link-- what a wonderful post.
Well, here we are in the fast lane zooming in to the future. :-)
I am very much looking forward to "reading" you regularly, there's something about the blog format that helps me know that I am connected to what's going on in the foundation right here-- right now-
Hopefully eventually all of us will have a place to chat/blog with others in the world wide Kairos Foundation.
Bravo for us.
Cindy LeBow
I love blogging. I do it out of pure enjoyment. And I look forward to hearing stories from the "more to life" group.
Miss being so close to the Houston branch. But life has led me here. And I am enjoying it immensely.
Thank you for taking time to do this.
How exciting. Great photo Peg!
More to Life and More to Come!
warren kahn
Can't wait to see where this takes us! I hope it improves communication not only with students but with the whole world!
Hey Ann, Thanks for getting the momentum going on the Coaching program. I'm looking forward to participating in it.
Jenny Meadows
Austin Texas
Peggy,
hi and welcome to the world of blogging! Your first post was just lovely and I am looking forward to the next...
It's exciting to finally see MTL come into this media form and as someone else has already said, I certainly hope that online forums where members can chat will be next!
Yay!
Ajira
Dear More To Life community, It is great to see the adoption of this "technology". It certainly won't replace our day-to-day and in-person connections, however, it will be an amazing way to quickly share our work to many of you who are not where I am (New Zealand).
A quick share from me: I recently completed the Effective Parenting course in Tauranga, NZ and got out of it the different demands I place on people and how effectively I can listen without an agenda.
Two weeks ago, I got mad at a student (in my Health class) who I thought was up to his "old" tricks and wrongly accused him of starting a fight, when in fact, he was doing just the opposite. He stormed off and I yelled at him some reactive advice. I told the class, who had been kept behind during lunch, that I wanted to get to the truth about all of this and that I would deal with this boy later. The boy came back after about 20 minutes and then I invited another 20 or so students into the classroom who had been heckling my class from outside. Everyone sat down in the room in a silent circle. I appologized to this student in front of them and told them I was sorry for assuming the worst. One boy put his hand up and said "Sir, that takes a lot of guts to say when you are wrong" and then the whole class errupted into applause. I then let the accused student tell his truth and he said "I will beat the crap out of anyone who tries to wrong my friend". At this point I re-iterated as a health teacher, it is my job to listen and educate and not give advice on what to do in life. The whole room errupted into applause again (I felt like I was part of a More to Life weekend). We parted with new knowledge that the relationship between teacher and student can be different. I am SO grateful to be a part of this amazing learning and community. I say YES again to life!
Chris Lewis
Whangarei, New Zealand
sportyguy1@gmail.com
Post a Comment