Burning an eternal flame ?

[François Thunus]

It is only fair that this post echoed the title of the previous one. After all, it was the root cause of a funny happening.

But i'm getting ahead of myself.

I'm just back from a two days gathering in Bruxelles, bringing together some 70-80 practionners from across the EU Commission and then some. The external practionners were mostly people who have been accompanying the process at the Commission (the usual suspects: Ria, Tatiana, Maria S. from Greece, etc) or have a link with the Commission for some reason (Namaste Natasha - Danke Bertram).

Needless to say this was intense. There was a lot of sharing, a lot of emotion, a lot of soul searching.

It was fantastic to re-unite with people I hadn't seen in a while (Hi Maria, Olga, Anita, Andrea, kai ta lipa) to meet some I knew by mail/yammer /whatever, and finally it was great to hear from colleagues I didn't kow, and discover their practice (Jim, Claudio, Adam, Frans,....)

So rich, so amazingly cool - bursting all over the place with ideas.

Great fun too.

witness this:

This is when you realize that you are not alone - you are part of a greater community. Things that you may forget when you're just ploughing along, trying to get the good shit done (Hi Mary-Alice and Toke :-)

A huge sense of belonging, a sharing of practice and practical tips, a new outlook on old problems - what  beautiful gifts !

But where is the funny happening, I hear you say ? Ok :-)

Somehow at some point in a triad, the conversation landed on momentum, and tipping point. So I couldn't help mentionning my previous post here, about how many people are needed to make a change. And then Claudio (Hi Claudio :-) suddenly says:

What's your name ?

François ?

No, I mean your family name ?

Thunus ?

That's you ! I follow you on twitter ! you posted this !

Guilty as charged my Lord :-)

Talk about a community and friends you haven't met yet !

Here is the pic he tweeted after the event :

The pic is the final run between the open space and the convergence.

So there it is.

All of you who are doing this, and reading this post: you're not alone !

There is a whole community out there -people sharing the practice. They are the friends you haven't met yet.

Some day you will, and they will tell you how much what you have done has been an inspiration for them - and you didn't even know they existed (Kudos to Bertam for his witnessing).

What you are doing does make a difference.

If you ever get discouraged (and don't we all sometimes ?) or feel all alone (we are with you Natasha) think about this:

the world is full of friends you haven't met.

Yet.

even on twitter :-)

Namaste to you all

[Katrin]

Thank you for this sharing ... it's encouraging to read.

[Amanda Fenton]

This is a cool story - thanks for sharing!!

[Natasha Dalmia]

thanks for the capture Francois and sharing of the links to learn more of the community via mail - indeed, a journey is meaningful when we make friends we did not know of when we started ...