For the past two weeks I have been facilitating topic 2 – Openness and Sharing – with my partner. I am trying to spin the swirling threads into some cohesive meaning.

In my work, I approach projects with a need to tie them up with a bow. My work begins with an anticipated arrival, it must have a fulfilled purpose. I struggle with the for-its-own-sake, the in-between, the messy middle, the journey – and to be fair, the system I live within doesn’t allow this space. In this topic, I gained a lot from the facilitator role, and the creative courage of my partner – permission to let ideas grow and give up control.

We must feel safe to step forward into darkness. I wonder how perceived safety, through childhood upbringing or experience, affects imaginative thinking. Anecdotally it is the opposite – the troubled artist trope – or strange connections at the intersection of creativity and mental instability.

Amongst moments that felt like uncomfortable risks, I had a lot of fun and felt free in the process. I learned a lot about a topic that I knew little about – I moved from the oblivious crowd to rattle the gate a little.

I was surprised to hear the perspectives of my fellow learners, who sound more restricted than I – the GDPR seems stricter and more powerful than whatever we have here in Canada. In Canada I think we just accept that everyone lives in a digitally American world, and we work around it. My most interesting realization was the ways we all became gatekeepers ourselves – colonized by the systems of giants. Where we feel unsupported, our defences go up and we turn our backs. In such circumstances, how do we stay open and attentive to emergent realities? How do we participate in the co-creation of our future landscape?