A Personal Update
Happy holidays.......
[Passatelli made with my grandfather’s home-made press]
Happy holidays everyone.
November was a crazy month, wasn’t it? Here in the US, we began the month with a big question mark hanging over the next four years. That question was resolved, but of course now a million more questions open up.
The million open questions is the natural state of affairs; we were all just so captivated by the Big Question that we may have put them on the back burner.
In Zen practice we face the million open questions with the mind of not-knowing and bearing witness.
The month ended with Thanksgiving, a holiday that, despite it’s dubious provenance, is an opportunity to focus on our core relations with heart and integrity. It’s the Second Contract in my construction, and essential for whole self alignment. It’s a great opportunity to see our karma in action! To heal what needs to he healed and love what needs to be loved. To honor our ancestors and bequeath something (you choose what) to your descendants.
I had an active family holiday, with the five kids joined by two teenage friends. My brother Ray popped over to share his version of our Nonni’s antipasto, which I exchanged for my version of our other Grandmother’s passatelli.
(Passatelli is a simple but delicious soup made from parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs and eggs. As kids we called it “snake soup” and Grandmother made it only on special occasions, probably because, despite being simple, it is quite labor intensive, requiring the cook to press the “snakes” from compressed balls of cheese and bread. At some point (it must have been 60 years ago), my grandfather fabricated a press by drilling wholes into a piece of metal, shaping it, then attaching it to a two-by-four. I got the press from my parents a few months ago, and used it last week for the first time! The photo for this newsletter shows the device.)
Our grandparents were very present, “feeding” the next generation. We were just the hands.
Today I want to give some quick hits on what I’ve been up to professionally and vocationally. (If you are ever called to work with me in any of these capacities, you can follow the appropriate links.)
The Eon Zen Center has been in our Ango Peaceful Dwelling period, which wraps up with a retreat this weekend. I’ll be giving the Buddhist Vows to four students on Saturday and we’ll end Ango with a “Dharma Combat” ceremony on Sunday.
I’m re-focusing my Coaching practice on “in-the-seat” Executives, Founders and Entrepreneurs. This has been a major practice area for me for several years, but over the last year I have worked with many people in transition. While I will continue to work with those in transition, I feel called now to develop more long-term relationships with active leaders. If you have an interest in exploring this with me, let’s do a Discovery call. If we engage in December, I will offer December sessions for free and my 2024 rates for the first quarter next year.
I have started a Men’s Group that meets bi-weekly at my home in North Boulder. The purpose of the group is to help us (primarily men in the second half of life) show up fully for Self, Others and Work. The framework is based on the Three Contracts, and is informed by my experience and study of the Zen teachings of wisdom and compassion. I am piloting the group with 15 people in December, and the formal group will start in January. If you are in the Boulder area and interested in this group, email me directly at paul@zenatwork.org and I’ll get you into the pilot sessions to check it out. I intend to start an online version of this group in February…. if you are outside the area and have interest, email me and we can talk.
And now for something completely different (or is it?) …. my brother Ray (he of antipasto fame) has decided to re-start the tech consultancy we co-founded 25 years ago, now with an emphasis on AI solutions. I’ve been playing around with AI tools for a while, and I’m going to help out with some projects.
Everyone is probably in the thick of things coming back to work after last week, so I’m going to end here for now. I’ll send out the next essay newsletter in a few days.
Peace,
Paul