Halifax, Friday, 2:00pm

 Today is the last day of the ALIA Institute and as with all such endings, I am noticing the variety of feelings that I am experiencing as we complete our final module sections and move toward the closing session and evening banquet. 

 There is a part of me that is well ready to return home – home to the comforts and securities, habits really, of my daily life.  My own bed, my dog and of course my family, most especially my dear grandson, Dillon.  I have not gone this long without seeing him since he was born and I am missing him even more than I had expected. 

 What I am not anxious to return to are those parts of my life that have become mindless; you know the parts where you are not thinking and not feeling and just doing…just trying to get through the day.  And while I have been taking part in practices designed to support that not happening, I have realized while I am here that I need to dedicate myself much more seriously to developing a practice of mindfulness within the context of my work.  Eminent speakers such as Peter Senge and Margaret Wheatley shared with us their perspectives that mindfulness may be the most important leadership skill.  Yes, you read that correctly, the most important leadership skill.  I have much to learn about what a practice of mindfulness might mean for me, and my work, but I am terribly interested to be setting out on a path to find out.

I would not have had the good fortune to be here without the support of ECIC and I am grateful to work for an organization that understands the need for professional renewal and retreat.  I would also not be here were it not for the encouragement of my friend and colleague Jim Marsden, who by his example has taught me so much about what it means to live and work from the heart. He is my mentor for courage and what it means to be a more-hearted leader.

There are so many people whom I have met here that have touched me and awed me with their kindness, openness and curiosity.  I have met people from nearly every continent.  All are here looking for others on the same journey; the journey to do ones work (whatever that is) authentically – tacking between heart, head and will – as conditions dictate.  Each is sensing and moving toward that next right word, or step, or action.

I leave ALIA grounded in knowing, to the depth of my being, that we – humanity - have much to be hopeful about and a heck of a lot of work to do.  I will be carrying the learning, the sites, the sounds, the movements and the grace of ALIA with me as a touchstone in the weeks and months ahead.