Yesterday evening I went to a monthly social meeting of the Exeter group of Couchsurfers. Couchsurfing is an international not-for-profit network that connects travellers with local communities they visit. A big part of it is about people 'hosting' travellers by giving them a place to stay. But that is just part of it. On a bigger scale it puts people together who would otherwise have never met; for cultural friendship, exchange and learning experiences. I have been a member for just a year and love it! It has expanded my thinking in all sorts of ways and I love the sense of common humanity it involves. But you don't have to travel vast distances to have experiences that have a big impact.
Last night, I met Steph again - a fellow CS in a different age group to me but whose approach to life-decisions I admire.
Steph travels around by hitchhiking, and travelling back to mid-devon from Exeter wasn't much of an option. Instead he put his trust in the Couchsurfing philosophy by asking if anyone at the gathering could give him somewhere to stay that night. It made me realise how little we live ourselves in that way - most of us don't leave anything to chance, but there is so much that comes from risking/trusting ourselves that we can gain from 'stepping out' without a 'definite' ahead.
This makes me think of situations where this is an underlying feature - for example the explorations found in improvisation, in therapy, in open travel. It is also one of Revans' principles of Action Learning - to 'start from a place of not knowing'. With a good facilitator who can hold the structure and create a safe and trusting space amongst participants, people can allow themselves to tackle problems by embracing a place of 'not knowing'.
It can be a scary place - to 'let go' of the side of the riverbank and trust that you will arrive somewhere safely. My own experience is that new expansion comes from trusting yourself and others - this is what mentoring and action learning encourages people to take part in.
Whether in Couchsurfing or in development opportunities in work with people, I know that this brings us (myself included) new encounters and new learning. It's something that Couchsurfing shows so often.
Last night, I met Steph again - a fellow CS in a different age group to me but whose approach to life-decisions I admire.
Steph travels around by hitchhiking, and travelling back to mid-devon from Exeter wasn't much of an option. Instead he put his trust in the Couchsurfing philosophy by asking if anyone at the gathering could give him somewhere to stay that night. It made me realise how little we live ourselves in that way - most of us don't leave anything to chance, but there is so much that comes from risking/trusting ourselves that we can gain from 'stepping out' without a 'definite' ahead.
This makes me think of situations where this is an underlying feature - for example the explorations found in improvisation, in therapy, in open travel. It is also one of Revans' principles of Action Learning - to 'start from a place of not knowing'. With a good facilitator who can hold the structure and create a safe and trusting space amongst participants, people can allow themselves to tackle problems by embracing a place of 'not knowing'.
It can be a scary place - to 'let go' of the side of the riverbank and trust that you will arrive somewhere safely. My own experience is that new expansion comes from trusting yourself and others - this is what mentoring and action learning encourages people to take part in.
Whether in Couchsurfing or in development opportunities in work with people, I know that this brings us (myself included) new encounters and new learning. It's something that Couchsurfing shows so often.
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