I had a delightful meeting today with a business associate.
Our surface reason for meeting was creating a strategy for working together to help one of her clients.
Our real reason was that we like each other. A lot. And we always come away richer when we’ve spent time together. At least, I know I do.
(Leslie is one of the principles at Elements Partnership and contributes to their always insightful and inspiring BLOG – read it!)
When two people who like each other, and enrich each other’s lives, get together the conversation gets real. Very real. One of tags you’ll find on the Elements Partnership website is “People are hungry for real conversation.” Leslie is one of those people who fills that hunger for me.
In the course of our conversation we discussed a leading “guru” we’ve both encountered, and I asked her feedback. She said, “I think ____________ has a brilliant mind, and a big heart… But not a lot of soul.”
I knew immediately what she meant. Not that this person didn’t have a soul. Or that their soul wasn’t as infinite as hers or mine. But that it didn’t show up, it wasn’t available for connection, it wasn’t present in the interaction.
For some people that feels safe. If the other person isn’t making themselves spiritually accessible then they need not interact on that level either.
For me, it’s like trying to use sign language with a blind man.
People are hungry for real conversation. And a real conversation only happens between people who are fully present, and that, to me, means body, mind AND spirit.
It clarified in a simple, immediate, and profound way, a question I have been wrestling with for more than a year – a question that has kept more than half of what I have written since finishing Just Blow It Up languishing on my hard drive or in my journal.
“Is it okay for me to talk about the importance of spirit in our interactions, in business, in life?”
I don’t mean is it okay for me to talk about it in conversations with people like Leslie.
I mean is it okay for me to talk about it here. To talk about it in front of an audience. To talk about it as part of my brand.
And today I realized that, if I don’t talk about it, I’m holding myself back from the conversation. I’m waving my hands in front of blind men and hoping to be heard.
Because the conversation - about our work or our play, our dreams or our realities, our today or our tomorrows – is about life. And life isn’t based in the body or the mind, but in the spirit.
So I’m going to pull out my journals, open up my computer files, and start sharing some conversation that you haven’t ever seen.
Because you aren’t blind, and I’m not dumb, and we have the opportunity to be fully present together in this space – body, mind, and spirit.
(image credit http://www.wallsfeed.com)
I adore this with all my being! I adore and appreciate you! I love your ability to always keep it real and even more so now.
Thank you honey, you know I consider myself blessed to have you and Nick as friends and clients BECAUSE you’re so real!
Love this Dixie – an holistic approach to life encompasses all these things. Thanks for guiding us to that life.
It’s a funny thing, but in the medical field (from my “navy blue suit” consulting days) “holistic” has gotten a bad rap. But how else should we treat anyone or any situation? If it isn’t “whole” it’s “half – a$$ed” right? LOL Oh dear, do you suppose I could get away with that language in a blog post? Because that’s exactly how I feel about it!
Dixie,
What a refreshing post. So many of us in business want to be more open and authentic but the culture that many grew up in (you eat what you kill) feel uncomfortable with that sharing for fear of the vulnerability. Yet, if we all step back and think of our closest friends it is the ones we opened up to and that we barred our soul to.
Thanks for the reminder
That culture is shifting, and we’re part of the shift. We are slowly learning that passion and compassion both have value!
Now we’re cooking Dixie. With all our emphasis on business and financial success, it’s easy to miss what I believe to be the biggest picture. Hunger is the perfect word to describe that hole that I get in my gut when I detach from the personal. Nothing fills that hole and believe me I’ve tried. True value comes when I show up for others, stay present in the now and share all of myself, warts and all. Being fully connected to others is the ultimate service. Can’t wait to see what nuggets come in your upcoming posts. Thank you Dixie.
YES! Everything else is “empty calories” and it doesn’t matter how much food you have on the table if it doesn’t feed your soul! It is a value equation and the connection we create – spirit to spirit – is like gold.
Connecting from our essence in all ways, I love it
bring it on lady :~)
I think truly connecting is being who you are in all situations
it makes life richer and easier
Thank you, June. My life is certainly richer for the spirit level connections I have made.
Dixie, I LOVE that our conversation sparked this for you! I was equally inspired in our conversation and grateful for our connection. Thank you! Much love and gratitude to you.
Our conversation sparked a lot more! I still have that “blog in the bathroom to post.” 🙂
Because . . .
I am so glad Tom Ruwitch mentioned this blog yesterday. Thank you Dixie for pointing me towards Leslie’s blog as well, and to Leslie for suggesting that there might be quantities of soul . . . and of course to Dixie for qualifying that remark (Perhaps all quantification could be qualified, but that would increase the work of an accountant by many many values . . .
I digress.
Dixie, I am so glad you are doing it now. I feel sure we are being welcomed to a unique differentiation of spirit, soul and heart.
Here is my expression of because:
Esse
I write because I have cause to be,
essentially unidentified,
and while I am without a reason
words support my curiosity.
Because I write the reeds can grow;
as yet unwritten, still they know
what reading is required
and though the scripture is silent
I sit upon a lily frond
uplifted by the depths beyond
connections evident to me
by mystery inspired.
I write because it is my realm of light
to plumb the depths I know because I write.
© Katrina Plumb
Here is a case for the community we discussed – that you met Tom because of me, he was the one who suggested this post to you, which took you to Leslie’s blog, and I met Les through Tom. And that is the ESSE nce of community, isn’t it?
Dixie,
Great blog posting. When you have a deeper level connection with a strategic partner, client, prospect or friend, you are able to offer so much more value. You also create more value together. When you develop a true connection with someone, you develop a fantastic relationship on many different levels.
Pete
Exactly, I read an article (in INC no less!) that said “no one cares about your passion. And I about threw up! Because it is your passion, the spirit you have for the people you serve and the service you provide, that makes you immeasurably more valuable that the “technician” who does a “good enough” job but only has passion for his hobbies.