Perhaps it’s the mystery inherent in new life. Or maybe it’s the persistent nagging on my conscience that my money still isn’t creating the world I believe is possible. Either way, I’m trying to attend more deeply to a sense of wonder.
I want to pause and notice… to appreciate and be in awe more moments of my day.
My offering for you today is this:
What does it look like for you to cultivate one additional moment of wonder today?
Perhaps it’s a moment to be curious and in awe of yourself… or others, or the world.
A question: Am I open to what this moment is trying to tell me?
Here’s my journalling.
A reflection on wonder and awe — and trying to take a few minutes to pause and notice.
Birth, New Life
- A month ago, my third child was born. The midwife actually helped me catch the baby – and the surge of emotion that I got from that experience was unmatched.
- I’m now carrying him / wearing him several hours of the day… and just to hear and feel his breathing so close – also inspires wonder. The mystery of life. Our separateness, yet one-ness with each other – and the greater Whole is something I’m finding myself more curious about this time around.
- Yesterday, my daughter stopped us on our morning run to appreciate the moon. It was just setting and had that special near-the-horizon glow. We could glimpse it from the top of the hill and as we walked down, we watched it set and I was so surprised how that small moment felt like it helped me hold my day in a bit more mystery and wonder.
In Awe of the Growing Conversation on Shared Ownership
- Smitha Das wrote a wonderful piece in Impact Alpha about shared ownership’s role racial justice and the wealth gap.
- Transform Finance published a great report cataloguing and comparing different models of employee ownership, cooperative ownership, steward ownership and more.
- The contribution I feel like it makes is providing a nomenclature and visual taxonomy for understanding different types of governance, ownership, control, profit sharing, decision-making structures. It’s so helpful to see this library – some certainly more widely in circulation – like the ESOP with 2000+ enterprises in the US and others that are quite new with just a couple early pioneers.
- I couldn’t be more grateful to Alissa – who helped launch and has maintained P6 Capital over the course of the past year – and bring a tangible project forward out of the Cooperative Capital Dialogues & New Economy Lab.
- I’m also in awe around the landscape analysis, problem statement framing, and pre-conversations that happened leading up to the New Economy Capital Partnership in Washington DC in October. While I wasn’t able to join in person, I found the slide deck, Landscape Analysis and Problem Statement as well as the conversations with Alissa Orlando, Alex Darby, Allison Lingane, Julie Mentor leading up to the gathering to be extraordinarily hope-filled.
Cartoons + Re-thinking Retirement
Finally, I’ve renewed my sense of awe and affection for cartoonist and lawyer Janelle Orsi.
- I came across this slide deck – take a look – are you not in awe of her cartooning abilities?
- Janelle shared this as part of a podcast she did “Questioning the Assumptions Retirement Investing is Based On” – which is a big subject. Her Harvard Law Review piece here which goes into ERISA.
- As a dues-paying member of The Next Egg in 2021, I had vaguely read and followed the conversation about how they were shifting directions. They began questioning the underlying assumptions of retirement.
- At the time it was just too much for me. I was just trying to take more pro-active control over my own retirement savings – and invest in things that felt like they embodied my values of solidarity and justice. I was feeling invigorated as an angel investor and exhilarated by my expanding awareness of the field of impact investing – ranging from community investing, community development finance, local investing, slow money, minority economic development, community real estate, community wealth-building, private equity, development finance, micro-finance – and how the ecologies fit together (or in many cases often do not).
- Once again, this Fall, I find myself reading Janelle’s work – but turning away from it. It feels like too much to really wrap my head and heart around. I have a hunch that I think she’s right. The problem is – it is just such a significant departure from the way I have been living my life – and the way so many (professional-class folks) around me have been trained to think / believe / strive. It helps me appreciate just how deeply seeded these assumptions are in our psyche, communities, sense of ourselves and how we’re “supposed to live”.
- Thanks to Resource Generation – I had begun a line of inquiry about my future that was asking the question: What does it mean to be a “Good Ancestor”?
- I realize this is probably an important question for me to start asking again. It’s not easy to re-conceptualize how the dominant narrative tells us we need to think about “retirement” age – but in the past 40 years – conventional finance / personal finance has seeped in deep – shaping the dominant notion of “the good life”.
- I want to challenge this for myself – but also for the communities I’m around and that have the faith, belief, hope that’s strong enough to embody and live an alternative way.
The good news is – we have lots of inspiring examples.
- First off, the Franciscan Sisters of Mary who made the extraordinarily hard set of decisions to pivot their set of assumptions about their future. Instead of imagining perpetuity, they made the decision to wind down and formally combine their order with other congregations and give all of their money back to the communities it came from. IMAGINE THAT! It’s so crazy and revolutionary.
- Then we have the wonderful New Monastic movement from Shane Claiborne to dozens of other wonderful pioneers. They live this lifestyle of mutual care – and they have a prophetic way that would be good to reconnect with and tap into. For about 5 years The Simple Way published this wonderful Conspire Magazine — here was the final issue:
- Then, of course the Catholic Worker movement. So many inspiring communities, houses, leaders – these folks are a powerful witness. They continue to show how we can live Matthew 25. They practice the works of mercy. This will resonate with a different view of how we structure our lives in our older years.
For now, I’m going to be grateful for this wondering – this awe – these inspiring examples.