TEND introduction — Read transcript
Automatically transcribed from the recording; some words may need correction.
Most things I want to create don't begin as a plan. They begin as a feeling. An idea I can't stop thinking about. Something that keeps pulling my attention back. Before Tend, I had two ways of dealing with that. I'd either act immediately or do nothing and eventually lose it. Tend gave me another possibility. Stay with it. The journey begins with signal. What is actually moving in me? Not what should I make. Not whether it's a good idea. Just, what's here? Then stay asks me not to rush away from it. That can be surprisingly difficult, because the initial excitement changes. Doubt appears. Other ideas arrive. But instead of assuming the signal has disappeared, I keep returning. I listen. And gradually I begin to understand what this thing is actually asking for. Then comes choose. Do I want to carry this? Because wanting something and committing to it aren't quite the same. If I choose it, I give it form. A project. A practice. A conversation. Something real enough to begin working with. Then I tend it. And this is probably where most of the development happens. Coming back when I'm inspired and when I'm not. Learning what the work needs. Learning what I need to keep carrying it. Eventually, something crosses a threshold. Manifest. What was once only an internal movement now exists in the world. But tend doesn't end there. There's integrate. What happened? What did I learn? What changed in the thing I created? And what changed in me through creating it? Then eventually, another signal appears. That's what I've come to understand about tend. It's not really a system for getting more things done. It's a practice of building from the inside. Signal. Stay. Listen. Choose. Form. Tend. Manifest. Integrate. Again and again, I'm learning how to notice what matters. Stay in relationship with it. And develop the capacity to carry it into the world. And when I feel ready, I don't have to do that alone. I can explore this process with other people. We gather in small groups around the hearth, each of us tending something of our own. We share where we are, what is moving, what we're struggling to stay with, what is beginning to take form. Nobody has to tell somebody else what they should create. Instead, we become mirrors for one another. Sometimes another person sees the spark I've stopped seeing. Sometimes hearing their journey helps me recognize something in mine. And over time, something grows between us too. A small creative field. A place where we can return, bring what we're carrying, and keep the fire alive. Alone, I learn to tend what moves through me. Together, we tend the creative fire.