Question: While every Circle is self-contained and hence, can create its own timetable and process, what ‘best practice’ advice can you provide?
1. Leadership helps. If you have invited eleven others to join a Circle, maybe you are the facilitator. You might contact Farther On if you want to contract additional help, guidance, and outside facilitation. But self-direction is the most powerful ‘force’ of all.
2. Make sure that everyone has the mailing address, phone number, and e-mail for each person in the Circle. And of course, each person’s most critical communication will be with the person who sends to them and the person to whom they send.
3. One of the great pleasures of an Elder Circle is everyone having a whole month with the theme. So it is important to emphasize being faithful to your contract and for simplicity sake, view the 1st of each month as the date the journal should arrive.
4. There are no right or wrong ways to approach your month with your journal. As the Italians say, ‘hasten slowly’. The questions and prompts are meant to get your thoughts flowing, your feelings rising, and your spirits untethered. Where you take them is totally up to you. Don’t be surprised to be surprised.
5. There are no rules beyond the promise to pass the journals on time. Some participants avoid reading the previous entrees in the journal so that they can better find their unique voice.
6. Some people draw in the journals, some hand write their entrees, some add their own poetry; find your own way. Remember, you are drawing, noodling, thinking, and writing for yourself--not to impress, not for a grade. The 12 Farther On themes are big. The themes pose questions that have no one answer. Even when you have answered the questions, you will learn that the questions refuse to simply go away.
7. Before you send your journal, everyone should make a digital copy of their entry. That way, should you inadvertently lose a journal in the mail, the group could order a new journal and collect the previous, lost entrees.
8. Whether you ship by the U. S. postal service, FedEx, UPS, or DHL, package the journal carefully and make sure to get a tracking number. When you have shipped it, e-mail your colleague, let them know that the journal is on its way, and pass on the tracking number. When the new journal is received, notify the sender and let them know that the journal is in your safe hands.
1. Leadership helps. If you have invited eleven others to join a Circle, maybe you are the facilitator. You might contact Farther On if you want to contract additional help, guidance, and outside facilitation. But self-direction is the most powerful ‘force’ of all.
2. Make sure that everyone has the mailing address, phone number, and e-mail for each person in the Circle. And of course, each person’s most critical communication will be with the person who sends to them and the person to whom they send.
3. One of the great pleasures of an Elder Circle is everyone having a whole month with the theme. So it is important to emphasize being faithful to your contract and for simplicity sake, view the 1st of each month as the date the journal should arrive.
4. There are no right or wrong ways to approach your month with your journal. As the Italians say, ‘hasten slowly’. The questions and prompts are meant to get your thoughts flowing, your feelings rising, and your spirits untethered. Where you take them is totally up to you. Don’t be surprised to be surprised.
5. There are no rules beyond the promise to pass the journals on time. Some participants avoid reading the previous entrees in the journal so that they can better find their unique voice.
6. Some people draw in the journals, some hand write their entrees, some add their own poetry; find your own way. Remember, you are drawing, noodling, thinking, and writing for yourself--not to impress, not for a grade. The 12 Farther On themes are big. The themes pose questions that have no one answer. Even when you have answered the questions, you will learn that the questions refuse to simply go away.
7. Before you send your journal, everyone should make a digital copy of their entry. That way, should you inadvertently lose a journal in the mail, the group could order a new journal and collect the previous, lost entrees.
8. Whether you ship by the U. S. postal service, FedEx, UPS, or DHL, package the journal carefully and make sure to get a tracking number. When you have shipped it, e-mail your colleague, let them know that the journal is on its way, and pass on the tracking number. When the new journal is received, notify the sender and let them know that the journal is in your safe hands.