coherence as an exploration

challenging the assumptions that create our reality…identifying the fears that undermine our relationships…relating & creating across difference…telling the truth to ourselves & to each other…expanding the aperture of our perception…architecting new world views

The old story I could tell about myself is the ‘school of hard knocks’ version. Grew up in a rowhouse in a working class Baltimore neighborhood. An only child of a single mom determined to put a roof over our heads as one of those rare female photographers making a living in the 1970s. A scholarship kid privileged with a prep school and university education determined to find ‘success’ and a stable purchase on the chaotic thing called her life.  

Married and divorced too young. Breast cancer at 31. Birth of a son at 34. Another failed relationship at 41. Became the independent single mom I’d hoped never to be. Along the way, always a dogged persistence to apply talents—innate and cultivated—to society’s many challenges through the world of politics, non-profits, consulting businesses, relationships.

Yet the more interesting stories are the ones I have only started telling lately…

…Like the one about a woman traversing her 50s with a tool box full of life lessons and a mainline dose of humility.

…Or the one about a human of the 21st century enjoying a reconciliation between ‘assertive masculine’ and ‘receptive feminine’ such that her gender, and all that it connotes, matters less and less.

…Or the entrepreneur who listened to a soul calling after a brush with death, left the secure world of a government job, and birthed a beautiful expression and named her Arts Corps.

…Or that same entrepreneur devoted to that same soul, who left the secure world of traditional family structure and financial support, and created another expression of service and named her Creative Ground.

Dropping conventional names and labels, this soul of myself, finally found the through line to it all and, in this moment, brings the gift of listening for and facilitating coherence—in individuals called to wander their own inner wilderness and in teams called to speak more truth to each other.

With coherence comes a higher intelligence aligned to the heart, providing a wholeness not possible through artificial intelligence (AI).

And with coherence also comes stable ground which is what’s required to stay centered during this time of great chaos and dramatically accelerating change.

Yes, I have a traditional resume, CV, whatever we need to call it. Yes, I’ve deliberately traced my lineage of validating experiences as proof of my street cred. If this kind of information would be helpful, you can find it here (Linkedin Profile).

Yet for this next round of transformation, I’m shedding the conditioned world that measures everything and living with fewer metaphorical clothes and coverings. I intend to live from a confidence that my skills facilitating coherence in individuals and teams is both my superpower and my purpose.

I trust that this power can carry me into new worlds of experience and creative expression, support me to feed and house myself and my dependents, and inspire more expression of the unique gifts in all of us.

I am also convinced that our way forward in this time of chaos invites many more of us to offer our true gifts, our indigenous superpowers, as service without the weight of minimizing caveats or excessive credentialing.

So that’s one way to tell my story and I’m sticking with it…just for now.

Vision

I see the potentials in my fellow humans. In a team, in an organization, in the collective. I see what is hidden from view, what’s hiding and wants out. I see innate creative expression. I see a multitude of trajectories. I see the seeds of new life.

Courage

I have traversed my own, sometimes terrifying inner wilderness. I have learned to sit with fear long enough to navigate in the dark without lights. I have stepped off cliffs into the unknown and survived enough times to know how to fashion impromptu handrails.

Confidence

I will go with you, or your group, to places uncharted without a map. I am confident in our collective intelligence. I am secure in knowing there is no ‘wrong’ way, just more things to learn. I trust the non-linear path to a new vision, a new endeavor, a new you. 

Love

I have learned a devotion to love. A love of other people’s tenderness and complexity. A love of ‘what is.’ A love of the hardest truths, the keenest challenges and a love of paradox, for there is great danger in a ‘single story.’ And most of all, a love of what’s possible when we do it together.