The FireLight Wisdom Circle is a small group that meets in the backroom of Potter's House (1658 Columbia Rd NW) on the first Sunday of every month.  The time is usually from 2 pm to 3 pm, but it can vary slightly, so check this space before each meeting.  Like any creative community space, the group has had a variety of participants, between 6-9 at each meeting.  We ask a single question and and respond as in a "salon" format.

One person brings the question which participants have been asked to consider in advance.  There is an opportunity for a brief presentation of why the question was chosen by the questioner and what dimensions the answer might address.  The question is intentionally both personal and general, both specific and open-ended. Some examples have been:

  1. "What are the places and who are the people where you experience the deep belonging of home?   What differences has that made for you and your loved ones?"
  2. “How can we reveal and break down differences/conflict in ways that reveal our genuine selves."
  3. “What are the creative tensions in community?”
  4. “What are the specific stories of people who have embraced a way to live without private property?  or beyond the status quo?”
  5. “What is justice in the world?”
  6. “How do you personally use creativity to change your self, your relationships, or your world?”

We like Catherine Bateson's effort to define lived wisdom:         

“Wisdom is the most positive and acceptable trait of people who live long lives. The challenge is to stimulate imaginations to combine that wisdom with activity and social engagement to make it meaningful in one’s life and in the world.” - Anthropologist and Author Mary Catherine Bateson

Bateson captures both the creative and practical but wisdom-focused thrust of the group: a gathering whose center is located in the most open and responsive participants in our midst. Her definition also has something to do with imagination, endurance, integrity and what connects us to one another.  The connection is across generations, across old and new evolutions of the Church of the Saviour, and across the breach between our vision and our action in faith.  When we share about these questions, they invite us to live with new awareness of our shared potential and ultimate choice to be fully alive in our own and shared truths.  Chiefly, it informs the truth of how we recognize the wisdom and creativity of Jesus in our lives, our beings and our values choices.

If you have questions, please email Kent Beduhn, convener.