Pause with Josie – Episode 4

This is episode-4 of the calm conversation with Josie Gibson from The Catalyst Network, inspired by Robert Poynton’s book “Pause – You are not a To-Do list“. The approach is simple: we both read chapter-4 of the book and highlight three sentences, and mark the words that resonate most. These sentences and words are the triggers for a very slow-paced conversation on whatever comes our way.  No tricks, no gimmicks, just a gentle and calm wandering and meandering of minds.

Chapter-4 is about Design (of Pause)

Here are Josie’s three sentences:

Poynton’s colleague, Tracey Camilleri: ‘In such a week, “You are able to think long thoughts“‘

Defending the boundaries of empty space is important and it takes courage.

You could work with the seasons… The time for for tilling, sowing and harvesting feel very different. They have a different energy. Use that.

And here are my three sentences:

We think with our hands and our hearts, we think by moving, we think by making

Time is different here: baggy, generous: ambling, then dashing at the pace of light and landscape

If you tightly define what you want, and succeed, all you get is exactly what you expected. You are limited by your own goal.

We covered a wide range of topics from space & time, poetry and poetics, mental ecology, flaneurs, challenge our assumptions about others’ assumptions, having an opinion, be comfortable to be uncomfortable, and teasing out.

Some useful links mentioned in the conversation:

• Flaneur
• Steven Johnson et al on ‘adjacent possibilities‘
• Aboriginal seasons

Episode-1 is here. Episode-2 is here. Episode-3 is here.

These are very calm conversations; so best is to take a pause, install yourself in a quiet corner, and enjoy!

Peter & Josie