April 17: Relationship to Group

After breakfast, we all gathered in the 40' diametre yurt to discuss our group's ethics, values, and vision. We got out the markers and a long wide strip of paper. Every member added what they wanted to remain at the core of our group. Trust, acceptance, non-violent communication, spirit, growth, understanding, fun, health, etc. were spread all over the page. It was so wonderful because even though I've only known these souls for a few days, I trust that each one of use is consciously striving to maintain these ethics. I don't think any of us knew that relationships, community, inner-development, and conflict-resolution are some of the major skills and lessons that we are continuously going to be honing here. This is going to be such a life changing growth experience for all of us, through good times and challenges.

Next we listed our group agreements, things that we commit to throughout the program.
Here are our agreements to each other:
We commit our best effort to being here
We start with check in, daily intention, space/silence, and bow in
We do our best to communicate compassionately and honestly
We let people own their own problems and ask for help when needed.
We offer help respectfully
We commit to being aware and mindful
We let someone know if we leave the site (buddy system)
We know our limits
We regroup after lunch
We leave a clean site at the end of the day
We give our best
We end the day with debrief and next day preview followed by thanks giving and bow out
We work in a spirit of joyful accomplishment
We hold space for everyone’s voice to be heard and respect other’s requests
We welcome non-interns as peers

After dinner, two folks from Nanaimo lead us through team building games and exercises, which is what their small business is all about. It was unbelievable how much we learned about ourselves, each other and our group dynamics just using a little ball, a hoola hoop, and a string. Patterns start to show who is more loud and take-charge versus who is more of an observer. We saw group behaviour shift drastically when competition or time limits were imposed. We all have gifts to offer and things to work on but ultimately, we need to weave together in the most functional and fair way to accomplish our collective and individual goals this summer.