Jan 3Build with those who are ready: 2023 intentionsIn setting last year’s intentions, I focused on four content buckets: ideas and concepts I wanted to explore and advance. While that helped structure my priorities for the year, in retrospect it made it difficult to measure progress for my own transformation. So this year I want to keep the…Belonging9 min readBelonging9 min read
May 18, 2022Boundaries, limits, needs, desires, and wants: seeking interdependenceI hold a core life commitment to live without domination or coercion. This means I strive in all my relationships to build from a foundation of mutual consent… and ideally to orient toward desire (a higher and in my view more enticing threshold than consent). For adults socialized under systems…Nonmonogamy8 min readNonmonogamy8 min read
Published inBuilding Belonging·May 4, 2022What do we mean by “community”?Since the inception of Building Belonging, we’ve wrestled internally with this question: what are we? On our homepage we say we are: A home for people committed to building a world where everyone belongs… We are a community of people working toward transformation and liberation: of ourselves, our societies, and…Systems Change5 min readSystems Change5 min read
Dec 31, 2021Intentions for 2022: what you pay attention to, growsI love the new year: it’s the most universal “holiday” we have as a species (even if many traditions follow a lunar or seasonal calendar, at least the idea of a new year). …8 min read8 min read
Nov 18, 2021Power beyond supplicant politics: building the “parallel polis”In the wake of COP26 and the manifest failure of the world’s elites to do anything close to what’s necessary in the face of the climate crisis (not to mention inequality, racial violence, authoritarianism, etc), it seems more important than ever to have not just a coherent theory of change…Politics8 min readPolitics8 min read
Published inBuilding Belonging·Oct 21, 2021Building Belonging: an intentional “future dojo”Over the last few months inside Building Belonging an interim “Stewardship Circle” formed to take up a core series of questions relating to building out the minimum viable infrastructure to support our emergent community. One of the questions that remains most challenging is that primary starting point: purpose and values…Belonging9 min readBelonging9 min read
Published inBuilding Belonging·Aug 7, 2021Reflections on scale and responsibilityOne of my personal intentions is, to the extent possible, to think out loud in public, so that others can contribute to the conversation. Building Belonging has a closed Mighty Network space where we tee up conversations and connect with each other; we’re currently in practice around how to share…Belonging5 min readBelonging5 min read
Published inBuilding Belonging·May 21, 2021Building Belonging: one-year reflectionsOne year ago, Building Belonging was born. Our inaugural co-design cohort gathered last April around a radically simple question: can we create an ‘us’ without a ‘them’? We used the Mighty Networks platform as a place to gather, and practice: how do we build an experience of belonging in a…Belonging7 min readBelonging7 min read
Published inBuilding Belonging·Nov 19, 2020Reflections: Power, Post-Oppositionality, & BelongingBringing people I like together to meet each other is one of my favorite things in the world. Perhaps it’s the middle-child in me. There’s always anticipation, and a bit of nervousness: will they gel? Will they see in each other what I see in them? …Power5 min readPower5 min read
Published inBuilding Belonging·Sep 27, 2020Reflections: (Re)Parenting & BelongingWhooee this one was 🔥. We resumed our Conversations on Tranformation by stepping right into it: talking about the art of “re-parenting” in the context of belonging. First myth to bust: this isn’t just for those of us who have children (biological or otherwise). …Parenting5 min readParenting5 min read
