Early February 2013 I was forwarded an invitation. No text involved, a simple forward, of an invitation to a train-the-trainer session of an NGO that, until then, I had actually never heard of… and instantly I knew I would attend the session. Not because of the content of the flyer, not because of the date or the location, but because of the person who had forwarded it to me.
All of us must have folks in our networks – be they very close friends or mere passers-by that cross our path every so often – that when they suggest something to us or give us advice we know we better heed it. Almost a decade ago I started ‘experimenting’ with this wisdom and his opened up completely new worlds to me that have enriched me and helped me become more and more the person I aspire to be.
What makes that listening to these ‘guidances’ so often in hindsight makes proper sense? I haven’t put that much thought in that yet. Maybe because on our own we can only capture that much of the world? Maybe because others can also see what’s alive in us and makes us tick? Maybe because when we open ourselves up to what others have to offer to us we allow our worlds to expand a bit more?
When I looked up the mission of this NGO called Perspectivity I learned it is to foster wisdom, passion and creativity. In service of sustainable development… in the context of complexity… and recognizing as a means the principles and practices of dialogue. Dialogue…
So when I showed up at this training I was not surprised by the diversity of people that were there. And when I attended my first network event I was not surprised by the willingness to learn of the people that I met. And when I contributed as a game leader at an event with well over 20 gametables I was not surprised by the commitment of the all the other gameleaders that were hosting.
In Perspectivity I have found a network of dedicated people, that take their own development and responsibility toward others seriously, and that as a whole manages to create a safe space for nurturing the quality that dialogue has to offer, empowering me to bring more and more of that into my daily life.