“Let me see the world through your eyes, hear the world as you hear it.
Let us teach each other, support each other, inspire each other, and heal each other.
Let us make visible to ourselves, and then to the world, how much we care.”
Charles Garfield
Sedonia Cahil
One of my favorite books on Wisdom Circles was written by Charles Garfield,
Cindy Spring, and Sedonna Cahil.
They have captured the heart of 'how to' create and maintain a Circle.
Their vision seems to have been to write a book that serves as a guide to anyone interested in learning how to develop a Wisdom Circle of their own.
They speak about 'teaching each other' by sharing how we each see the world, hear the world and feel the world.
It is by sharing our unique experiences that we broaden our world view.
By opening ourselves to the way others view life, work, fun, adventure, we come to a larger sense of what is possible.
We may also sense a deeper meaning to life, an alternate pathway of thinking, a new approach to dealing with challenges.
We can increase our learning from others' experiences rather than having to experience everything ourselves.
There are some real advantages to this.
Inspiring each other is another natural outgrowth of a Wisdom Circle.
It is our experience that you cannot share a Circle with other folk week after week, month after month, year after year, without finding great inspiration from other lives well lived.
When someone goes through a traumatic event and shares their story, all are blessed from the experience of sensing and learning from the events second hand.
When someone shares their joy, fear, 'leaps of faith', we can 'live it' through them.
We can capture the emotion of joy or peace or hope.
We can remember what it 'feels' like and then make the transfer into our own lives.
We have also found that the lessons we each learn within the Wisdom Circle we are able to 'bridge' into our daily lives.
We can carry forward wisdom from the Circle, and make applications to our work, to our families, to our personal spiritual journeys.
The Circle serves as a microcosm of the world.
As we learn to love more deeply within the Circle, we can love more deeply anywhere.
As we learn to live more fully within the Circle, we can live more fully anywhere.
As we learn to trust more completely within the Circle, we can trust more completely anywhere.
As we learn to surrender the total essence of who we are within the Circle, we can experience the freedom of full surrender anywhere.
