Published monthly by Sharon Eakes, Hope Unlimited, LLC
*********************************************************** FOCUS: Fresh Views
Disciplines: Systems Thinking, Mental Models.

"Not just new vistas, but new eyes."
Unknown

THOUGHTS:

We just spent a remarkable week in Puerto Rico. Hal and I felt small in the midst of enormous complexity, sitting on a rock in the middle of a huge waterfall. Rivulets and great gushes moved from laminar flow to turbulence to whirlpool in twenty places at the same time. Rhythms and shadows, soft, then splashy, loud and ceaseless...such a wonder. We were high in El Yunque, the rainforest, surrounded by lush greens and brilliant flowers that took my breath away.

On the coast there was the inimitable blue-green water of the Caribbean and the smell and taste of roadside stands selling delicious fresh, whole snapper and fried sweet plantain.

It was serendipity that put us in Ponce on the first night of Carnaval, where people of all sizes streamed to the town square, dressed in elaborate, flowing costumes, with whimsical paper mache masks. People were dancing, bonking each other playfully with balloon-like things, having a heart-felt good time. We stayed in the middle of it, then returned to our hotel room where we watched from our Spanish balcony, seeing now patterns, a different view.

Everywhere there was the sound of fast, melodious Spanish. Everywhere kind people explained things to us, gave us directions, suggested places to go.

Ironically, being in another culture often makes my culture visible to me. I see other ways to live, think, celebrate, solve problems.

Once, when I'd been struggling for months with a problem in a health care system, a visit to a GM Assembly plant gave me the idea for a solution.

COACHING TIP:

If you want or need:
* renewed energy
* perspective
* creative solutions to problems
go to a different culture and get new eyes, fresh views.

INVITATION:

Please join me in a telegathering Tuesday, February 26, at 12:00 noon EDT (11 a.m. CDT, 10 a.m. MT, 9 a.m. PDT) to explore ways to get "fresh views" in your life.
(702) 558-4398 No need to register....just call at that time! Reach me: 1-888-769-3494 or e-mail sharon@hopellc.com

Each month FRESH VIEWS focuses on a single topic, relates it to one of the five disciplines of a learning community, and offers a coaching tip and a follow-up telegathering. Please forward it to friends and colleagues. My purpose in writing FRESH VIEWS is to nurture, prod and encourage readers to think and talk about these topics with their families, friends and colleagues. Mine is only one view. Multiple conversations may deliver us to insights only hinted at here. Such a process sustains the vitality of learning relationships, learning families, learning organizations and learning communities.