So I spent all last week at Rally (Rally!) and it was Rally #10, and it was marvelous.
And I thought it would be fun okay maybe not fun but useful? interesting? to take a bunch of notes about how it went and then share them with you.
In the spirit of the spangly Revue review.
Wait!
Except that as soon as I started, my fuzzball monsters went into Extreme Disapproval Mode because a) what if I bore people to death and b) all my good notes are at the Playground so I might forget all the important parts and then what’s the point!?!!?
So here’s the plan.
I’m writing up some thoughts to put here. And the monsters and I can have a little chat in the margins while I do this, just like we would at Rally. And maybe I’ll share some of that with you later, if they’re up for it.
In the meantime, REVUE! Let’s do it. In no particular order.
New traditions that showed up at this Rally.
Puffball fights in the hammock!
I’m not even sure what this means.
But there were puffballs. Neon puffballs. And a hammock. And somehow this turned into a thing.
I don’t know where this is going. Mud wrestling? Bubble wars? It’s hard to say.
Also the best part of this was that Chuck was at Rally! And she was the one who had sent us the hammock for the Refueling Station! Which she had never used! Awesome.
And a continuation of fairly recent traditions.
Extreme Fairy Door Play.
Like with all good traditions and customs, the Moving of the Fairy Door has gradually become more and more baroque.
It used to be that if you saw the fairy door, you’d put it somewhere else.
But now we’ve upped the ante and have been outdoing each other by placing it in the most hilarious, unusual and creative places.
Much of my time this Rally was spent cracking up every time I discovered the fairy door in another unlikely-to-ridiculous location. Or not being able to find it at all and having to go search for it. Fun!
The addition of evening Shiva Nata.
We started this at the last Rally. Not an official class. Just ten minutes of extra Shiva Nata.
And splitting things up so the morning class is more mind-bendy and the later one is just silly crazed flailing to music.
People can join in or just watch or do a little of both. As you wish.
I’ve been doing this after the old Turkish lady yoga and before the Chickening. And it’s absolutely amazing. Energizing and silly and really, really powerful, all at the same time.
Extra bonus superpowers.
During the chicken we do a thing called Schmurphling, during which we get to choose superpowers that we want (unless we decide to go all silent retreat, which is always an option).
And at the last Rally, people wanted extra bonus superpowers. And why not?
So this time I just included that in the schmurphling and we did extra bonus superpowers for anyone who wanted some. Love it. This is a keeper.
Some interesting things about Rally #10.
Lunch being more casual.
Fewer group lunches and more of people doing their own thing or going off in twos and threes.
More sharing of the Refueling Station.
At past rallies, sometimes you’d see someone napping and someone else on the bean bag chair blowing bubbles, but this time there was hanging out in the refueling station. That was new.
Skewing a bit older?
We usually get a pretty broad mix of ages. Anywhere from 25-65 is pretty normal, though we’ve had both younger and older as well.
This wasn’t a large rally so I don’t know if this is a thing or not, but half of our rallions were over fifty. And they all seemed to have more energy than me! Huh.
Some things we changed for this Rally.
Let’s see.
I did a lot of systems documentation.
We added new bulletin boards in the Galley, specifically for people to put up business cards. If you’ve been to a previous Rally or a Shiva Nata training and you want me to put up your card, just mail it to us!
And we took some video of me teaching Shiva Nata on the first day (just me, not the students), though I don’t know if I’m going to use it for anything.
Thoughts and ideas for future Rallies.
1. Something to do with qualities.
I pretty much constantly find myself invoking qualities of Rally and the Playground.
Things like:
Play. Creativity. Support. Spaciousness. Sovereignty. Flexibility. Agility. Adaptability. Harmony. Curiosity. Delight. Wonder. Reflection. Safety. Trust. Flow. Experimentation. Inclusivity. Light-heartedness. Love. Courage. Focus. Inspiration. Possibility.
So many! I think I might put them up on the wall of the Refueling Station on little cards.
2. Filling in the PLUM. Especially the foods section.
The Playground User Manual (aka the PLUM) is still my favorite thing ever.
I love walking into the Playground and seeing someone sprawled on the floor, poring over it. And then using stuff from it later, and having magical results.
There are still some sections that need a lot of work, and I think it’s time for the Section of Yum to get some love.
Especially with more people doing lunch on their own. Maybe I’ll write up some favorite places. Or ask other people to make pages for theirs.
Or make a short list of all the gluten-free stuff on the street. Stuff like that.
Stray observations.
We totally need a Talking Room. When we get a building, I’m going to make sure there’s a way to do that.
In the meantime, I think we’re going to have to make more use of the storage room closet in the hall for that.
What I worked on
My personal focus/theme/project/mission for this Rally ended up being called Revue and Revenue.
And it was all about learning about and tracking the connections. Asking slightly future me what happens in my business when I spend more time on Entry and Exit. More time documenting what happens as I work.
It was very interesting.
It turns out there are more connections than I’d thought, and that this process of Revue-ing and Reviewing is a really big deal not just for my business but for me, personally and for everything I do.
And that sharing the notes is important too.
Favorite part?
Oh so hard to decide!
The Wednesday evening wine and cheesening was absolutely lovely.
The fits of giggles were many.
The Adoration of the Butt-monsters was intense and hilarious.
And I always love that moment at the very end of Rally when the space is totally trashed, and everyone is exhausted, happy and blowing kisses towards the Playground as they make their goodbyes.
Play with me! And comment zen for today.
If you would like to do a Revue for something and you want a place to put it, go for it.
And if you have been to a Rally and want to share favorite memories, that’s welcome too.
And if you have interest in processing a thing which has happened or favorite rituals or things you want to try, that sounds good too.
As always, we remember that this is a process, and a process is really a tiny, sweet thing, so we tread gently.
We recognize our stuff, we let other people have their stuff, we take responsibility for our experience and we don’t tell each other what to do.
Love to the rallygators (past and future!), to the commenter mice, the Beloved Lurkers and everyone who reads.
Follow
Revue !
I loves the idea.
It’s lovely to hear more about the Rally and how it works and how much fun it is !!
I want a Revue for this presentation-building process.
1. what worked
– getting an insane amount of work done
– shutting out email and disruptions
– keeping track and writing down all the steps I took
– taking time with every step and sleeping on it when necessary
2. what did not work
– a lack of communication on the complexity of it all ( & getting yelled at for it)
– still getting so nervous and feeling it’s not enough
3. ideas for future work
– create lot’s and lot’s of time before presenting
– keep recording the complexities
– explain explain explain
– as much as is possible – do not take this too seriously & focus on other things when the frustration rises
It pleases me to think of myself as a future Rallygator.
This seems like a good time to think a little bit about Horde weekend, which is the annual party I mentioned in my VPA yesterday.
What was so horrible last year?
–I spent a lot of time washing dishes. A lot of time. A few people helped, now and then, when they felt like it. Did I ask for help? I think I did, but I don’t remember, so maybe I didn’t do a very good job at being clear about it.
–I felt as if no one was really there to spend time with me. They were more interested in being with X, Y, and/or Z.
–I was so cranky, all the time, I felt unlovable and unworthy.
–I kept wanting reassurance that Z still wanted to be with me at least as much as with our guests. I made myself crazy over it.
–I also made myself crazy trying to keep X, Y, and Z happy. Z got mad at X and Y, and possibly also at me; I don’t recall. X got mad at Z. I think Y got annoyed at Z at one point. I made all of this my responsibility. Craaaazy. Yes.
–There were guests who wanted me to do things with them that I didn’t really want to do, and I felt guilty about that. There were guests who wanted me to do things with them that I was perfectly happy to do, but there were all those dishes. Guilt guilt guilt.
–I did not have fun. Maybe a little fun. But not nearly enough fun.
–I felt lonely in the crowd.
–I didn’t have enough quiet time and space for myself.
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I contain multitudes. Hordes, even!
How can this year be better?
–Well, I began to look at that in my VPA yesterday. Also, I’m reflecting on all those beautiful, glorious Playground qualities, especially:
Play. Creativity. Support. Spaciousness. Sovereignty. Flexibility. Agility. Adaptability. Harmony. Curiosity. Delight. Wonder. Reflection. Safety. Trust. Flow. Experimentation. Inclusivity. Light-heartedness. Love. Courage. Focus. Inspiration. Possibility.
Oh, wait, that’s all of them. Well, yeah! Why not?
I think that as part of my preparation for this weekend, I’ll spend some time considering how each of these qualities can help me have a much better experience for this year’s Horde Weekend.
Ohhhhhh, Rally! It was so marvelous. I love hearing your thoughts about it, Havi. It was my first one, so I can’t compare. But I really loved the afternoon Shiva Nata with music.
And I do hope the puffball-fight-in-the-hammock tradition gets continued.
And I love love love the PLUM. So much wisdom in there, each bit magically what I needed at the time.
More older people = more desks being used??
And I love the music you use for Old Turkish Lady Yoga.
It would be great to have the Qualities on cards!
Rally is still coming home with me, slowly and in little pieces. A force field that worked when an unexpected shoe came at me. Deliberate expansiveness-transitioning. A beanie baby energetically holding down the pages of my freelance project. Little insights flitting around in my head.
Sigh….
I brought some of the Rally home with me in notes and some in my head and I find some of it here. I’m doing some things differently:
I’m pausing more to transition.
I remember to ask myself things related to the qualities of Rally and the Playground: How can I be loving? Can I make this playful? What are some delightful things about here and now?
Being curious.
Waving my magic wands over things: counterclockwise to undo the way things are and clockwise to redo them right. I have two: green for growth and pink for possibility.
Wearing my crown. And because it is made of paper and I don’t want it to get rained on or blown off my head, I have a picture of me wearing it that I take with me.
And I’m inspired by the PLUM to make some changes in the binder that is the Book of My Life Right Now, which also contains the Book of Me.
Oh, and I wanted to tell you that I printed out some of your posts about sovereignty and put them between pictures of some very effective rulers (sovereigns) and some very ineffective ones. “Like this, not that.”
Hmmmm. Revue-ing and Revenue-ing… Sounds faskinating!
Maybe putting up your revue notes will be another way to model your techniques, practices, and rituals etc, (and explore processes for coming up with ones that work just for “you”) and the links between destuckifying and biggifying will get even more clear.
It seems to be a pretty unusual “business development” (gah!) proposition but also a helluvalot more down to earth and workable-with than most biz/personal dvmt stuff (imho).
I like the sound of it, and really look forward to seeing seeing how you bring the links through!
xox
I love this! I was so interested in knowing how Rallies differ, what you get out of it and what you were scribbling in that yellow pad. 🙂
A talking room, yes! I enjoyed connecting with fellow Rallygoers*, but I was also concerned about not disturbing people immersed in their own thing. Designated space for this would be so useful.
* Kinda weird for me since I’m usually an own-thing-doer, but I guess that’s Rally magic for you…
I was a little sad not to experience the group lunch thing. The spontaneous side adventures were fun, though! We saw a free plastic kiddie pool during one of them and I was SO tempted to drag it back to the Playground for mudwrestling / puffball fights.
I’ve been thinking about the entry/exit thing since you mentioned it at Rally. Used it to great effect for my tech training session yesterday. And noticing ways I’ve been doing this already – like my nighttime pair of post-its ritual, one of Have Done and another of wishes for tomorrow. It is good, yes.
Also, thank you SO MUCH to me-of-last-Saturday who cleaned the apartment so thoroughly for my return. Oh that was fabulous to come home to. <3
Note for the future: the place I stayed was lovely, except for the musty air and heavily perfumed sheets. Next time bringing some sort of incense/spray would be helpful. (Stashing my newly acquired bath bombs in the bed for the day was a stroke of genius, though.)
Revue: My trip to Los Angeles
working: being here. finding people who support me as I work on myself. being encouraged in my purpose- a still-secret-not-broadcast purpose, that only one-on-one conversations hear about.
not working: having ten cents. literally. not knowing how to make the connection between providing value and getting paid, and being unwilling to put in time at something i don’t perceive as having value when it might pay me (ie. working at mcdonalds)
not working: not forgiving myself
working: learning this. baby hummingbirds and a course in miracles.
I thought of something the Pirate Ship needs: a plank! At my husband’s PT session I saw someone doing a balance exercise on a narrow board placed on two cushions, barely three inches off the ground. And I thought “walking the plank!”
I made one at home. It’s great for focusing on body movements — and therefore on movement with my prrrojects. Also for balance, physical and emotional. I wonder how it would be to do Shiva Nata on it?
Wow. Revue and reviewing. This is a bit creepy because last night’s board did not go well (understatement) and I finally got up at 2 a.m. and did a “review” of the past 12 months. It didn’t start like that but the question I was trying to answer was: why is now not like last year?
A year ago:
There was respect, encouragement, communication, brainstorming and expansion. There was hope and a dream, a sense of finding the path to my work home even though this did not pay.
Now (this year so far, but it’s been evolving over several months):
Communication is erratic and often incomplete or inaccurate (in general not just related to my area but affects my committee acutely), leading to late or inaccurate or unposted announcements.
Leadership is often absent or busy or out of town/state/country; and often fails to advise about availability or lack thereof.
Publicly upbraided in third-person about a complaint/concern/miscommunication without any one-to-one conversation about the issue in advance (happened again last night but I had evidence that they caused the problem and pointedly stated it instead of waiting to do it privately as previously but the response was the same “we’ll get together and make some changes in how ‘we’ do things”).
Things do not change and suggested meetings to look at what things aren’t working never happen.
What I realized was there was a pattern (like a motif; and didn’t somebody we all know write about that a time or three). It looked like a pattern of me being an outsider again and if I could just file down the rough edges and be more malleable, and learn “their” ways, and be less me, we’ll get over this hump and then I’ll start getting stuff accomplished (and I’ll be a member of the club – whatever that means).
But the real pattern was the taking on the assumption that I was the problem (as in the only problem) and that on my own I could fix it and make things work by making changes. All my time and energy was over time being more and more diverted to making it work and less to doing the work; and it was never working any better because none of the other parties would really look at their own ineffective patterns, it was easier for the problem to be “out there.”
It took realizing that I had defaulted to a survival mindset pattern that evolved in my former marriage when that voice from the past chimed in “if you just knuckle down and get over this hump you’ll be closer and start being really married” and at year 35 I realized it was a lie and was never going to happen because the other person wasn’t knuckling down or wanting to get closer or be really married; and this wasn’t going to happen either because the other parties are all talk and no commitment to working on the problems.
It is still sad. I will still participate in field work projects because I still believe in the cause and the mission but I can’t work with this officer corps on a corporate level; at least not as a committee chair and maybe not on the board at all.
Sorry, long comment.
i really like the new-ish comments guidance, so much more lovely and positive.
so thanks for that
🙂