Welcome to NonOrdinary!
This orientation call is hosted by Mari Budlong, our Community Culture Cultivator; she’ll invite and answer questions about NonOrdinary and our platform/website, as well as share our understandings and agreements for being in community together.
Mari’s take on how we can best enjoy and learn from each other and grapple and build together in community:
Meet everyone as though they are a future collaborator or co-conspirator…
Assume goodwill
- Attempt curiosity – both in self and in the other
- What does this person mean?
- What can I learn from this person?
- How did this person come to this point in their lives?
- Discover what you can do together
- Welcome difference – variety is the spice of life, and a bunch of ‘you’ working on the project would yield you your own results
Take care of yourself while remaining in relationship —
- We will get triggered – that’s ok
- If you pause, lean in, or step away, do so with heart
- Come back to it in a timely manner
- Remember the potential for beauty on the other side of the struggle
Recognize the humanity and infinite spark of life in the other
- Reframe perceived mistakes and disagreements as tangles that, when unraveled, contribute to each person getting what they want
- Ask for what you want
- Remember that kindness isn’t necessarily easy – it’s a practice, a muscle to develop, both toward self and others – and sometimes it means saying difficult things
Embrace paradox
- Swim in uncertainty while knowing in your bones something beautiful is possible
- Use polarity like a battery to energize (rather than as a battleground, primed for a fight)
- Consider that surrendering (to life) might be the thing that allows for the emergence of what wants to happen