The Tribe Experiment Day 9

The Conversion of Conversation

Hi. My name’s Angi. I’m your friendly neighborhood muse and shameless tribal ring leader.

I just wanted to check in with you, those who have been with me for the past 9 days and those who may be new.

Let’s pretend we’re all in my living room. Sit on the red velvet couch. Prop your feet up on the Emu. Have some chai or limoncello or fireball whiskey. We’re gonna play some Bohemian Rhapsody. And let’s talk.

This TRIBE EXPERIMENT? It started because I was curious about connection: how we share it over social media, what possibilities there are for depth and authenticity, and where we might be able to take it, as in “let’s take this show on the road.”

What I didn’t realize, when I invited you to join me in this experiment, was that really? At the heart of it? Is a profound need for conversation. Good ole fashion call and response. We all want to know we’re not alone. We all want to know we belong. And while we’re inundated by constant interaction in our lives, we very rarely connect. And our souls are starving.

Conversation can be wordless. It can occur through music, laughter, touch, art, symbol, but there must be a call and response for both people to connect.

I looked up “conversation” in the dictionary today. Among other definitions, I found

1) association or social intercourse; intimate acquaintance.
2) close familiarity; as from constant use or study.

And the word “conversion” which shares the same root, reads:

1) change of attitude, emotion, or viewpoint from one of indifference, disbelief, or antagonism to one of acceptance, faith, or enthusiastic support…
2) a physical transformation from one material or state to another:
conversion of coal, water, and air into nylon.
3) the act of obtaining equivalent value, as of money or units of measurement, in an exchange or calculation:

Striking to me, that these two words contain in their meaning the ideas of exchange, mutual value, intimacy and sharing, which then can create change and transformation.

Are you seeing what Im seeing? Just the act of showing up, of engaging, of call and response (no matter which end you’re on) can stimulate transformation, and inspire an exchange of the intimacy we’re all craving.

Just this. Right here. On Facebook.

A question, an answer.

A call, a response. A sharing.

And then, holy cow: change, transformation, value.

Like two elements on the periodic table very rarely get together and end up unchanged, so, too, we mix ourselves into the great cauldron of soul and what happens? Alchemy.

Conversation + Conversion = Alchemy.

I’m digging this, people. And I want to thank you for YOUR part. To have a conversation, to be a part of transformational conversion, you have to show up. We started this experiment with the SHOW UP challenge. It takes bravery and truth and enthusiasm. But it also takes dedication. We have to show up, intentionally. Just like I’ve committed to host for 30 days, you’ve committed to participate. You can’t just wait for the posts to appear in your FB feed, because sometimes they just don’t. To really be a part of the conversation, you have to intentionally seek out the center of the circle, your tribe, every day.

Every day.

Which means I’m waiting, daily, for each of you to take your place in the circle. And I’ll be seeing you unless I’m in jail, attacked by a plague of locusts or caught under something large and heavy, like a fallen bookcase or a rhinoceros.

Which is really REALLY weird for me. I’m like a will-o-the-wisp: here, then gone. Showing up? Not my thing. But dang, people, I can feel that just in these 9 short days, something alchemical is happening. Perhaps it really is just a matter of attention. We live with the extraordinary every day, but we see it as ordinary, until we really BEHOLD it. In 2009 I was trying like mad to get rid of mice in my house, and now they’re special and magical to me because I spent a year of my life raising and loving the orphaned baby Zeus the Mouse. I knew his every nuance, whisker and whim, and in the attention we gave each other, both of us were transformed.

Remember the above definition of conversation? “Close familiarity; as from constant use or study.” Yes. Zeus and I were engaged in a soul conversation.

Facebook and the Internet are full of these stories. People having a “conversation” with a tree, a horse, a dog, a piece of land, and the process is conversional to their lives because of their focused attention. Our relationships are transformative when we take the time to really SEE the extraordinary pulsing – right there – beneath the surface of the ordinary. This is called the conversation of soul.

And it’s is what I’m looking for in you. This is what you’re looking for in me, and in each other. The EXTRAORDINARY rises to the surface when we give each other the gift of our attention, through conversation.

Call
Response
Simple
Abundant
Conversation
Conversion
Transformation
You
Me
Melting
into
the
Alchemy
of
the
Extraordinary
Ordinary