Gathering Ourselves

Hey friends,

Building anything over a long enough stretch of time has its seasons.

There are seasons of sprawl, when the thing grows outward in every direction — new projects, new people, new rooms added on because they were needed and because they were possible. And there are seasons of gathering, when the growing slows and the work becomes drawing everything back into relationship with itself.

It's a kind of breathing, really. An ebb and a flow. You can't keep inhaling forever.

After several years of growing outward, Grokkist is in a season of coherence. An exhale. Less reaching for the new, more tending to what's already here.

I notice I keep returning to that word, because coherence is also the thing I most love helping people find.

Here's how I think about it.

Most people already have all the pieces of themselves. They're not missing anything. What they're missing is an arrangement. It's as if everything is laid out on a table, and the work is simply moving the pieces around — patiently, without forcing it — until you land on the arrangement that feels both pleasing and powerful. The one that lets energy run through the whole thing again.

Sometimes that energy is a person's own sense of purpose finally clicking into place. Sometimes it's more practical than that: arranging how you put your offerings into the world so that resources can actually find you, and flow.

That, more than anything, is what I find myself doing in my one-to-one groksmithing work — helping people gather themselves into a stronger arrangement, whether the aim is personal clarity or something more commercial.

I mention it only because I suspect that, with so much else going on around here, some of you assume I'm permanently full up. I'm not. I have a little capacity for new engagements at the moment, so if working together directly appeals, you can find me here.

The same is true of an ecosystem. Right now, much of the energy here is gathering around book publishing, so that's where we're focussed on building capacity — helping that part of the Grokkist ecosystem become more legible, more itself (books.grokk.ist).

It's part of a slow, unfolding refresh you'll keep noticing in small ways: a fresh welcome page that's been gathering such kind feedback (thank you, truly), and new events artwork starting to appear across the Network.

A lot of that look and feel — and a good deal of the momentum behind our events lately — comes from the Elves, especially Lars (my boyfriend, as many of you know) and Jane, who've been pouring real care into helping the whole thing feel of a piece.

Coherence isn't only something that happens within us, though. It's also about letting energy flow between us.

One of the loveliest forms coherence takes is when more people feel ready to step forward and offer something, and we have enough settledness as a team to help them do it well.

A few new monthly gatherings are joining the rhythm in exactly that spirit.

Two of them come from Margarita Steinberg, whose Dance of Lead+Follow letters in the Press so many of you have loved.

Tea with Margarita extends that writing into conversational space — gentle, companionable, and still genuinely deep work; think of it as the warm opposite of "coaching".

Draw with Margarita reaches the same depth from another angle: a monthly NeuroGraphica practice that uses drawing as a kind of third object, a way to the subconscious sideways. No artistic talent required.

There's also a new Human Peer Support Space, an informal, non-hierarchical drop-in circle held by Al Brown, Chrissy Green and Mike Green. No sage on a stage, just a grounded, caring place to arrive as your full self, be heard rather than "fixed," and walk alongside others through whatever season you happen to be in. Free and open to everyone.

Then there's Revenue Café, hosted by Bo Alroe. This one has been in the works for a while. So many of us here have organised our lives around meaning, purpose, curiosity and care, and stepped away from the old extractive ways of working. Which is wonderful — and which often leaves us with a complicated relationship to money.

For a lot of us, the very idea of making money is a thorn in the paw.

But we all want to make a livelihood as custodians of our gifts. And money, looked at plainly, is simply a resource like any other: something that flows, and responds to how things are arranged. Revenue Café is a warm, practical, judgement-free place to look at that flow together. Bo runs it as a live "fishbowl," and we're looking for a few brave souls willing to bring a real project to the table. If something in you just leaned forward — that's you.

One more, and then I'll let you go. Jane's Reimagine Music workshop series begins in early July, and I would dearly love to see it well attended for its very first run. There is a ticket price on this one — but please don't let that be the thing that decides it. If it feels like it's for you, our Forget About the Price Tag policy exists for precisely this moment. The best way we can support Jane in offering something new is with our resources, or simply with our presence and participation. So don't be shy.

A more personal note to close.

My travels are still carrying me around the UK, and the best part remains meeting grokkists in the flesh. I spent a whole week with Margarita and came away with a head full of neurographica, among other things — we even did some filming for a little neurographica mini-documentary, which will surface in due course.

I caught up with Theresa ("T") Sansome in the Cotswolds to further our groksmithing work on Future Self Now in person, and am currently with Gwyn Jones (of Association of Sustainability Practitioners fame) in Dorset.

There's something about meeting online friends in person that gathers the whole thing together — one more piece sliding into its pleasing, powerful place.

Until next time, follow the breadcrumbs that catch your attention.

With curiosity and care,
Danu

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