A call to build community

January is the month when our thoughts fix on the immediate future. The symbolic flip of a calendar that persuades us that now is the time to start everything afresh. Much of the time, that’s in the form of resolutions or setting intentions for what we would like to achieve over the coming year.

The goals we choose to pursue tend to sit towards opposite ends of a spectrum. They are often either concrete, measurable, and strategic; or they are huge, complex, and world-changing. Either end of the extreme can leave us feeling overwhelmed and intimidated, even just a few weeks into a new year.

But, what if we raised our eyes towards the far horizon? What if we could untether our dreams from these tight 12-month timelines and instead see them as ever-evolving works in progress? What if we allowed ourselves to believe that our dreams could be expansive?and?uncomplicated? That’s what happened for me, when I experienced a vision of community so powerful, yet so simple, that it moved me to tears.

Over the past few months I’ve been in training to become a Playing Big Facilitator. The?book by Tara Mohr?that gives the course its name had a profound effect on me. It spoke to so many of the fears and behaviours that for so many years had been holding me back from my own version of ‘playing big’.

One of the modules is about identifying our callings and how they might manifest in our lives. A calling is one of those dreams that niggles away at us and demands our attention, prompted by a sense of injustice, an idea for how to make the world a better or more beautiful place, or a vague but powerful sense of vocation.

Like new year’s resolutions, it can be difficult to assess the scope of our callings. We assume they must be all-encompassing and challenging to be of value, and often dismiss them if they seem too small or straightforward. We assume there should be one big ‘proper’ calling that represents some overarching purpose to our life, rather than shifting and changing as we do. But here’s a wonderful thought experiment in the?Playing Big?syllabus that helped me to reframe how I think about my own callings, and I hope you might find it helpful too.

Imagine the 1,000 year-old version of what you think of as your calling. Stripped of present-day complexities and unobscured by the messiness of practicality, how would your vision manifest if it existed in the society of 1,000 years ago? What is its purest essence?

I’ve said before that I would love to live in the world that could be created by the awesome women I have the privilege of working with. When I applied this 1,000 year thought experiment to my own desire to support these women to step fully into their awesomeness and build these beautiful futures, a complete scene sprang instantaneously to my mind.

I was presented with the vision of a group of women sitting together around a campfire. There was laughter, smiling, tears, gentle nods of encouragement and comforting hands placed on shoulders. These women were sitting together and holding each other close, feeling the warmth from the fire on their faces, sharing stories and dreams for the future. Outside the circle of light and laughter were the dark desert dunes and a vast expanse of star-filled sky.

Where was I in this image? What did I bring to this communityof women holding mugs of hot tea that sent steam into the cool night air?

It was so deceptively simple.

My role was to light the fire, and to pass the cup.

The fire became a symbol of the power and purpose these women held, and the comfort they could offer each other. The stretches of sand beyond the circle stood for the world that so desperately needed the compassion they could carry with them out into the darkness like a torch. In that moment, I realised that building the fire that could attract these women and bring them together could be my way of changing the world.

While the technology may have been updated from a campfire to a computer, and the light shining on our faces as we hold each other in virtual space is more likely to come from an LCD monitor than a flaming log, the principle remains the same.

That’s why my intention for 2022 is all about building?community. Calling out into the darkness of these difficult times to those women who feel isolated and wearied by the work of trying to make the world a better place, and showing them that they are not alone.

There are always others gathered around the campfire waiting for them.

If you want to join me round the campfire,?get in touch?to find out more about the?Compassionate Women’s Collective?– a monthly membership for awesome women like you who want to celebrate, support and encourage each other to build a more compassionate world through culture

This article was first published on my website annettecorbett.com on 3 January 2022.