Back in November, I visited Muir Woods, a natural monument of coastal redwood trees near San Francisco, CA. The trophy I brought back with me was a giant sequoia tree in a can: a germination kit with starter soil, potting polystyrene, a plastic mini-greenhouse, and about seven seeds. Two seeds sprouted and grew about two […]
Leadership means accepting authority
Look at the relationship between the English words authority and author. It’s almost as if this language conspired to remind us that authority is about intrinsic power to write one’s way into new realities, interpretations, and ways of being. What I didn’t know until recently is that there’s also an etymological relationship between author and authentic. To be authentic means to be real and […]
Planting Paradise
Every time I see a box of Bible story felts, I remember the garden. I hear those stories, stories I learned and repeated. I remember childhood safe places and I remember “In the beginning.” With time I’ve learned to hear those stories in new ways. I can note the silences in each history now: the missing characters in […]
Engagement and Apathy
Sometimes we don’t care because we don’t have to care. At other times we care not because we wish to, but because questions sprang up around us and our lives were pre-enrolled as evidence; because if we do not speak our own words, who can speak them? It’s a privilege to participate in a constructive […]
From the Archives: Spring Cleaning
This article was first published around the March equinox four years ago. Winter 2014 has been long here in Maryland. The clocks have sprung forward and the sunset sprawls wide in the evening—but yesterday it was only 43°F and we’re not yet sure whether spring is here to stay. “Spring Cleaning” surfaced when I reviewed […]
Thanks, Twitter (2013 ed.)—Part 2
This is the second of three Twitter-compilation posts for 2013 (Part 1: Seeing the Real | Part 3: Changing the World). Evolving Deliberately includes tweets on growing up, self-evaluating, improving, and moving beyond one’s personal status quo. 2. Evolving Deliberately Stop asking for permission from gatekeepers to create. Make your own gate. — ann daramola […]
