Today was a 14 hour day teaching people across all strata of a regional community here in Ohio how to have conversations that create a future different from the past. Unlike the usual civic marathons of shadow conversations (about what's wrong, what we lack, and who's to blame), people left each of the several gatherings feeling energized from the new conversations about dreams, gifts, small acts, and invitation that George Nemeth and I presented in the book we produced this summer, "Instructions from the Cook."
One of the more salient moments of the day was at the close of one of the gatherings where civic leaders were engaged, a woman there said, "We see each other all the time because we're all on the same committees and boards, and now I realize that we actually never talk with each other." She was one of many who discovered the startling magic and simplicity in conversations that have power.
