I wrote this poem as I prepared to go to Bainbridge Island, WA. While there, I attended a leadership retreat offered by the Centre for Courage and Renewal based on the writing of Parker Palmer. As it was the second part of the process, I had a sense of how rewarding the process and journey were.
Like my time at Gonzaga, I found companions who I remain in touch with via social media and as I travel to various parts of Canada and the US. These companions complement the ones I have at home.
Companion and company come from an old French word (compagnie) meaning to break bread with others, usually on a journey. We accompany one another and share what we have, including conversation and care for one another.
Beloved community,
Inviting, one another,
Sharing more than a moment.
For alone,
Troubles weighing heavy us down
Each step, we struggle.
Gathering together,
Enlightening–
Feeding each other’s souls.
Backs straightening–
Shoulders squaring–
Holding heads higher.
Journeying, sharing, entrusting–
Becoming together,
Breaking bread.
I took this picture several years ago of Kathy just above and around the corner from some serious waterfalls on the Fraser River.
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About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
Good companions are gifts which makes the journey, if not better, bearable.
They are.
Great job.🌺
Thank you Laleh.
My pleasure.
Love the strength and resolve as one 💕
Companionships is being alone together.
I love Parker Palmer! Met him at Krista Tippett’s Gathering a few years ago!
He is the real deal. I met him about 5 years ago. He told me he reads my posts on Facebook and enjoyed my blog. We chatted about Thomas Merton who I did not know about until I read Parker. We both had the same question: “What would today’s Catholic Church think of Merton?”
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Good companions.. well worth having. I really like this post.
Pat
Thank you Pat.
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