Hi there,
Yeah, so what's the sense-confirming train you ask?
(it's the subject line if you're like... uhh... what?)
The sense-confirming train is what I just now named the pattern of ending sentences with "... does that make sense?"
I am still rolling off the delicious fumes (good good fumes... so maybe it's more the scents of freshly baked cookies and salty ocean waves – two scents I love though maybe you're not into... conjure up your favorite scents right now if you can!)...
Anywho, I'm still riding the good waves (better analogy) of hosting my very first Creative Work Retreat with a dear friend and colleague.
Yes, it gets Capital Letters.
She flew from Arizona to my stomping ground in the Pacific Northwest.
We took a ferry to an island, rented an Airbnb and experienced an epic three days and nights together.
One of the many ahas that come to me is that I've ("finally") hopped off the sense-confirming train.
Finally is in parentheses and quotes as it's another word I'd like to release but I don't seem ready to yet.
It was the morning of Day 3 that I realized I hadn't said "...does that make sense?" at the end of any sentence all weekend long.
My wildly creative and creatively wild ideas had found a home as Creative Partner to my friend and colleague. Yes, that one gets Capital Letters, too. Since my ideas were not only welcome but encouraged and frankly, required during this retreat, saying "...does this make sense?" at the end of every idea no longer made sense.
Diona – the brilliant, prolific friend and colleague – was the one who proposed this creative partnership and then later, this retreat. My inner workings had determined that she understood me (and if she didn't, she'd tell me) so the protective habit of sense-confirming had been able to ease off my chest and be gently lowered into the summer-warmed soils to decompose.
It can be straightforward now: if someone doesn't understand what I'm saying, I can trust they'll ask.
I can trust I'm naturally doing my part to be understood by letting my mind and body choose the words that feel aligned to the thoughts and feelings I'm experiencing and to the ideas that are arising from within and from my surrounding environment.
Are there words or phrases that you've released recently or a long time ago?
Are there words or phrases you'd like to let go of but aren't ready to just yet?
I wrote about the word 'just' awhile back, read it here if you're grooving with releasing words from your everyday speech patterns.
Til next time,
Cassandra
P.S. Take a listen or a read through this 22 min podcast episode with Craig Constantine and me! Our conversation flowed with a lot of the elements of the collaborative experience with Diona.
craig