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what's trying to happen?


The unknowns seem to multiply by the day and the questions outnumber the answers. It's an interesting time to be alive! I just finished up a staff meeting via Zoom where we continue to discuss possibilities for the future of our little school, our classes and our community. This "great pause" and the gradual transition back toward movement and activity is giving us an opportunity to rethink how we really want to do things and envision new possibilities.

There are many ideas and opinions but as we often ask here at Ananda, what's trying to happen? It's a deep question that gets tossed about a lot but how do we really go about answering it? First, we have to take our opinions, our expectations, our likes and dislikes out of the mix, which is harder than it sounds. Or perhaps just as hard as it sounds! 

We have to be willing to put those things aside, to consider that there is a bigger picture beyond simply what we currently see or have known. We have to expand beyond ourselves and our own unique perspective to consider the situation from different view points. What is needed? By whom?

We must pay attention to where the energy is already flowing. Look for what is working, look for the strengths in a situation. In observing we must be receptive to all possibilities, to the fact that the answer could come from anywhere, even in some unexpected, seemingly illogical way.

"What's trying to happen?" is asking, what's the highest good for all involved? How can we grow and expand? It's a call to solution consciousness; not only what is possible, which can be endless, but more specifically what is needed now, what is the next right step being called forth by this situation. 

As I write this I see this is the same way that we create our curriculum and nurture and attune to the unique development of each of our students. We get ourselves out of the way, we observe and pay attention to energy, we work with strengths, we invite the unexpected and we take the next step. 

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