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What is your highest and deepest intention—as a leader, as a member of an organization or community, as a family member, as a friend? ​ And how does that intention shape your attention? To what, and to whom, do you give your heed? ​ The root of intention comes from the Old French entendre or intendre—to direct one’s attention. In modern French, it primarily means “to hear.” The root of attention, also from Old French (attencion), means to give heed to, to stretch toward. ​ In

Relational Integrity Changes the Field Jean and I were friends for decades. In graduate school, as I struggled to finish my dissertation, she gave me a gift I’ve never forgotten: “Don’t try to do your best work. Just get it done.” It freed me—and I finished. ​ Years later, we found ourselves living near each other again. I was thrilled. But over time, something shifted. In our conversations, I had become the “dedicated listener.” I valued that role—but I also longed to be hea

“My body? It’s just a garage for my brain,” a dear friend and colleague quipped years ago—and she meant it. I laughed, recognizing how often I inhabited that same field of perception. ​ Now I know better. ​ The body is not an empty structure in which to park anything. What we call brain, body, heart, and spirit are not separate parts—they are expressions of a single, dynamic field of living intelligence. To divide them is not just inaccurate—it limits what we can perceive and

Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933) dedicated her life and considerable talent to understanding and improving relationships among individuals, groups, organizations, and society as a whole. In the language we use today, she was cultivating field awareness—an ability to perceive, participate in, and shape the social fields that surround and include us. ​ Although Follett did not use the term, her life’s work reflects a deep sensitivity to the relational fields of energy and inform

Every day, I notice more conflict and polarization than at any other time in my long life. Much of it feels unnecessary—and deeply destructive. It blinds us to creative possibilities for addressing the accelerating ecological crises, rising social instability, the dehumanization of others—especially people of color and women—and the exponential growth of artificial intelligence. ​ Unnecessary conflicts arise from chaotic or poorly designed processes: free-for-all town meeting

It’s easy to say, “field awareness,” as Alan Briskin and I do in Space Is Not Empty. But when we pause to consider that the Irish language holds 32 distinct names for physical fields, those two words begin to open into something far richer. ​ 32 Names for Physical Fields ​ According to Manchán Magan in Emergence Magazine, geamhar is a field of corn grass, biorrach a marshy field, and buaile a field for holding cattle before milking. There are names for a field tilled with a n

I caught myself saying something a week or so ago that sounded…big: ​ “Expanding awareness of our inner space—along with the social and cosmic fields we’re embedded in—is key to human evolution.” ​ Grand? Maybe. True? I think so. ​ And I’m still discovering what I mean. ​ Here’s what I’m learning: ​ We often act from a crowded inner space—fear, urgency, judgment, reactivity. And yet, beneath that surface is something quieter. Slower. More trustworthy. ​ When I can “drop below

Leadership doesn’t just shape decisions. It shapes environments. In a recent session for a Youth Development Professional Certificate program at George Washington University, based on Space Is Not Empty, a participant captured it well: leadership is not only about what we do, but about the emotional and relational fields we create around others. Exactly. But here’s what we often miss: those environments are not just psychological. They are physiological. They live in the body

Among Jane Goodall’s final words was a simple, radical truth: your life matters—and every day, you make a difference. The only question is: what kind? ​ Two instructions live inside her message. ​ First: know you are already making a difference. Whether you intend to or not, you shape the world through your presence—your tone, your gestures, your attention, your silence. ​ Yet in the West, we’re trained to believe the opposite: that we’re separate, self-contained, largely inc

An African American male psychology graduate student at the University of Chicago was walking through the Hyde Park neighborhood, dressed casually like any other student. ​ He was used to people crossing to the other side of the street, couples tightening their grip on one another, or conversations falling silent as others stared straight ahead when he approached. One evening, feeling the familiar tension, he began whistling—popular tunes from the Beatles and even Vivaldi’s F

As I heard myself say this to a group last week, it sounded grandiose. “Expanding our awareness of our internal space, our personal field, along with the larger social and cosmic fields in which we are embedded, is key to our evolution as human beings.” ​ I admit to having said this without fully understanding what I was pointing to. As I said it last week in a workshop* I was co-leading with Alan Briskin, it resonated inside as clear as a bell. It is what I believe and is pa

Envision light from a lantern. What do you see? Perhaps a soft yellow light that feels warm and radiates into the nooks and crannies of the space you are in? Now envision the light from a spotlight. An intense, white light that feels hot and focuses on only a portion of the space. ​ Which might be more life-giving? ​ Think of the light from a lantern as awareness: pervasive, expansive, warm, and illuminating a large space. Think of attention as more like a spotlight: focused,

Here’s an interesting coincidence…maybe something to do with fields. Socrates (740-399 BCE) and Siddartha Gautama (Buddha) (563 or 480 BCE – 483 or 400 BCE) were contemporaries* living 3,581 miles apart. And, yet they landed on a similar truth about reality. They refused to split experience into opposites: good/bad, beautiful/ugly, certainty/uncertainty, wisdom/ignorance—binary thinking. They both embraced uncertainty, convinced of the dynamism and transitory nature of ever

Years before it was used as a filming location for the Star Wars saga, my husband, Roger James, and I braved the tumultuous seas off the rugged coast of County Kerry, Ireland, to visit the 6th-century monastic retreat on the island of Skellig Michael. ​ After climbing the majestic and daunting stone staircase to where the monks lived, I was drawn to sit inside one of the monks' stone beehive huts. Perched on the hard, cold sleeping bench, I shivered, trying to imagine spendin

How do we discern whether, what, or how to say something in situations, especially challenging ones? ​ Some of us take a cognitive approach, thinking through the pros and cons of what to say or do. Others decide based on their emotions. Still others simply follow their gut or their intuition. ​ The older I get the more I know that integrating all four approaches helps me discern what to say along with an essential fifth: being aware of the environment or field in which I am

What impact are you having on others? What impact do you want to have on others? We affect others through our words, tones of voice, gestures, and internal states. In Space Is Not Empty: How Hidden Fields Are Shaping Your Life and Our World , @Alan Briskin and I describe seven reasons why being aware of the fields of energy and information in which we are interacting matters. One of these reasons is to notice our impact on others. When we are aware of our internal state,

I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may never complete this last one, but I give myself to it . –Joanna Macy ​ On July 19, 2025, Joanna Macy died at the age of 96. She was an author, teacher, eco-philosopher, and Buddhist scholar and practitioner. I had the privilege of participating in a workshop with her in January 2000 and have read several of her books. Today, I write to honor her and all that I and so many others around the world learned

In my previous post, “ What Is Home ?,” I mentioned three centers of knowing as being central to being at home inside ourselves. Some of you might have been wondering what that means and how it might help you in the variety of roles you play: leader, colleague, neighbor, parent, grandparent, student. Let’s take a brief look into what three-centered knowing or three-centered awareness means and then how it might serve you. Throughout my investigations into the brain, Feldenkr

“Where do we come from? Where do we go? And what of politics, war, and love? And why? What is the sense of it all? Will we ever make it home? We all have the same questions, no matter our culture, country, generation, or age.” —Joy Harjo* in “Catching the Light” Such times we live in. A climate disaster in the making. Wars on five out of seven continents. Autocracies on the rise around the world. Democracy under threat here in the U.S. Asking will we ever make it home, opens

As many of you know Alan Briskin and I have been researching and writing about relational fields for several years. Our book, “Space is Not Empty: Harnessing the Power of Relational Fields to Impact our World” is nearly complete. Hooray! Thus, I have been MIA from my blog posts. I now have space inside and around me to begin writing posts again. I hope they inspire you and me to care more deeply and compassionately for one another during these very challenging times. It seem