Incubator of compassionate action.

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Dear Friends,

Recently, a child's simple remark stopped us in our tracks. "My teacher didn't show up today," Daniel's son said. "Really?" "Well, his body was present, but his mind was absent." His words mirror our world today -- one shaped by transactions and extractive systems that amplify absence. They leave us hollow, barely skimming the surface of life, with our eight-second attention span fractured between pings and pixels. But what if we choose to lead with presence? What if presence became relationship, relationship became regeneration, and regeneration became a rising tide -- a collective emergence that nurtures the whole?

Last month in India, we sat together in deep inquiry -- leaders, thinkers, and seekers from across the world -- exploring what it means to design for such gifts of emergence. And starting March 2nd, we're hosting a 21-day virtual Pod to build on that dialogue with change-makers from 30+ countries: Join Laddership Pod

The retreat surfaced powerful questions that will also shape our Pod. A renowned author asked, "Why does a circle of five souls here feel deeper than a stage of 15 million?" sparking a conversation on broadcast vs. deepcast. A Howard Thurman scholar spoke of shifting from organizations to organisms -- what nutrients allow them to thrive? A corporate chairman with 300K+ employees, eyes wet with revelation, said, "I've had it all wrong. Instead of asking what to grow, we must ask -- what grows here?" An entrepreneur paused before a quote: "He who keeps more than he needs is a thief." Where does accumulation end, and circulation begin? And as AI reshapes our world, Gandhi's dictum came to mind: Will it be powered by multiplications of wants or fulfillment of needs? What architectures of presence will regenerate our life force?

In a time of peak polarization, we need a new way of being together -- one that untangles us from competing narratives. Instead of meeting with our absence, what if my presence met yours, and we learned to cultivate the emergence of that sacred connection?

To hold such questions together with a global group next month: Join Laddership Pod

In one of those luminous moments at the retreat, 300 of us stood under the open sky, stories and songs still humming in our bones. Then, like murmuring starlings, we moved -- unplanned, unspoken -- into a great spiral, a living, breathing mandala of kinship.

Thank you, all, for weaving a murmuration.

 

 

 

P.S. FEW GLIMPSES FROM GANDHI 3.0 ...

... “To change an existing paradigm, don’t struggle to change the problematic model. Create a new model and make the old one obsolete.” (Bucky Fuller) How do we throw a better party? Retreat Video (and the pre-retreat Immersion), made live at the retreat itself!

... “What would a tree do if someone comes at it with an axe? Nothing. It just witnesses.” Founder of an orphanage in a warring region, Adhik Kadam in conversation with Trupti: Witnessing

... “Intelligence and capability aren’t enough.” Acumen founder, Jacqueline Novogratz, on: Uplifting the Vulnerable With Business

... Peacemaking mystic Orland Bishop recounts an experience with a young boy: I'm Sorry

… After learning Arabic, working in Jordan for six years, she spoke tearfully: “What do we do with a mandala? We let it go, let it be swept up.” Author Shaylyn Romney Garrett on the Courage in Endings

... UK’s Lord Rumi shares an unforgettable moment on the streets of Japan: When a Stranger Bowed to a Stranger

... “Having just experienced the most heart-expanding nine days of my life, I was flying home to my country erupting in turmoil.” Zoe's post: What Gandhi Can Teach America

... Rachelle’s stilling musical offering: I am Free



"You thought you were a candle in the rain, But truly you are the sun coming out again." --James O'dea




 

 

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