Meaningful connection

• A description of third things from a workshop description:

One of the important elements we have learned to incorporate in these gatherings is the idea of a “third thing”. This comes from Parker Palmer’s work. Palmer eloquently describes the soul as a shy and wild thing that must be carefully coaxed out into the open. The use of a third thing is a way to allow a focus for the inward reflection. It may be a song, a story, a myth, a poem. The shy soul can attend to this story and respond without the harsh light of a directly revealing question. People can quietly share their experiences and truths in response to the “third”.

• still need to make this part more shareable

The bottom of page 16 to top of page 18 of the following PDF: http://www.kalliopeia.org/pdf/Parker%20J.%20Palmer-Keynote.pdf

Here's the full poem whose first part is used in the above PDF: http://allpoetry.com/poem/8590541-Now-I-Become-Myself-by-May_Sarton

• Parts of an excerpt about third things from A Hidden Wholeness by Parker Palmer. I'm glad I found the above description because I remember not finding what I hoped for in this excerpt when I found it in a search I did before. Here are a few pieces of it that aren't all that helpful but I feel compelled to include here:

... But soul truth is so powerful that we must allow ourselves to approach it, and it to approach us, indirectly. We must invite, not command, the soul to speak. We must allow, not force, ourselves to listen.

...

In such a moment, the facilitator must move gently — but quickly and firmly — to make everyone feel safe again, including, if possible, the person who made things unsafe. I recall saying something along these lines: 'What Sarton had in mind is certainly an interesting topic, but it is not our topic here. Our focus is on how this poem intersects our own lives and evokes our own experience. I invited all of you to speak about the poem in that spirit, and I invite you to continue to do so.'

...

... to be driven by the agenda of the soul than by the agendas of ego and intellect lurking in the room.

What T. S. Eliot said about poetry is true of all third things: '[Poetry] may make us . . . a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves.'