# invitation to conversation **URL:** \ **Category:** invitations\ **Tags:** complexity, interdependence, bodylife\ **Created:** [September 20, 2021, 11:49am UTC](https://community.underminingnormal.com/t/invitation-to-conversation/85 "2021-09-20T11:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 24
**Author:** ![alex](https://community.underminingnormal.com/user_avatar/community.underminingnormal.com/alex/32/24_2.png) [@alex](https://community.underminingnormal.com/u/alex)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 2:39am UTC](https://community.underminingnormal.com/t/invitation-to-conversation/85/24 "2022-01-28T02:39:56Z")
Both this week’s [winter love hangout](https://community.underminingnormal.com/t/next-up-at-underminingnormal/85/23) topic (a love ethic) and Monday’s living room picnic (embrace y/our complexity) in their own ways offer an opportunity to contemplate **interconnectedness** , in terms of the quality and nature of our connection (possibly love) and the active (vs reactive) experience of interconnection. ## love… - Is love an experience **within** you, something **passed between us**? — an exchange of energy, a kind of feedback loop? - Is it a **choice** , an act of **will** , a **practice**? What **guides** it? If you’re curious and available to hang out with these questions, on **Friday, 28-Jan, 5:30pm-6:15pm EST, [register here](https://lakefront.underminingnormal.com/products/winter-love-hangout)**. I’ll share a brief text, and we’ll let it take us where it does. Introverts and doodlers are welcome, as are bubbly extroverts and code-switching ambiverts. ## y/our complexity On a similar note, on Monday, 31-Jan, 7:30-8:30pm EST, we’ll welcome complexity, - internal (you are a universe, everyone is — I don’t expect sameness from you) - external (as we humans are endlessly networked with all beings living and non-living, present, past and future in ever-changing ways). **Complexity does not mean difficulty**. At least, it doesn’t have to. That’s why I’d like to [picnic](https://lakefront.underminingnormal.com/products/living-room-picnic) on it — and why I’m offering a series of four picnics on **how to embrace y/our complexity**. ## backstory What got me tuned into thinking about **y/our complexity** was a characterization of **interdependence as iterative** , that: “being interdependent is a series of small repetitive motions.” What a surprise! (interdependence is a process?) [heh]…so, for me, interdependence, while foundational and important to me, **was a concept**. It lived in the mind. While it is observable fact: everything, everyone is connected and necessarily so — what functions without relationship or interaction with something other than itself? Interdependent was just **how things are**. Which is a huge thing if you think about it — basically, **interdependence is the algorithm that generates reality**. But the way I had it: it was just a recipe written on paper, the unactivated alchemy of life, disconnected from the experience of living. I’m kind of stunned writing this, that I could have missed the is-ness of my own belief and engaged it only as a mental construct when it is inherently the most living, the most bodied of living truths. It is literally everywhere. But I did. miss it. ## which brings us to us — What would it be like, my perception, interactions, energy level, decision-making (experiences and outcomes), peace of mind — if I nudged it forward, if I nudged myself toward living interdependently? What is your relationship with interdependence? How do they relate to each other? **What if we iterated on that?** How would that affect you? us? everyone? > That’s where I’d like to picnic. Right there in that snuggly space of **what if…**. **embrace y/our complexity: be seen** is the first in a series of four living room picnics, where we’ll consider iteration, specifically these repetitive motions that lead us toward, and embody, interdependence: 1. **Be seen**. 2. [Be wrong](https://community.underminingnormal.com/t/next-up-at-underminingnormal/85/25). 3. [Accept my [your] inner multitudes](https://community.underminingnormal.com/t/next-up-at-underminingnormal/85/27). 4. [Ask for and receive what I [you] need](https://community.underminingnormal.com/t/next-up-at-underminingnormal/85). As always there’s nothing to prepare. I’ll provide our discussion prompts over the weekend and we’ll delve into aspects of **being seen** , our relationship with being seen, which is naturally complex, and a rich opportunity for connection. * * * **credit & gratitude** The inspiration and source for the love ethic conversation is **ALL ABOUT LOVE** , by bell hooks (referring here to more than one page but jump to a section on love ethic, go to p.136) and the source of the [\*] quote and the four repetitive motions leading toward interdependence is **Emergent Strategy** , by adrienne maree brown, pp.93-96). * * * > What do you think? Is this sounding like your kind of conversation space? Participating in a living room picnic is a way to join the UNDERMININGnormal community. **It costs $7.00 to attend, and comes with a month of membership.** Members can participate in all UNDERMININGnormal gatherings and programs. **To attend:** [Just sign up here](https://lakefront.underminingnormal.com/products/living-room-picnic). If you’ve never attended a living room picnic and feel like more of an introduction to UNDERMININGnormal and what picnics are like, you can stop by the courtyard; [I wrote this for you](https://community.underminingnormal.com/t/hello-and-welcome/55). [To skip to what is a living room picnic…](https://community.underminingnormal.com/t/hello-and-welcome/55/3) > **Got questions?** [I’d love to hear them!](https://underminingnormal.com/contact/) **If this is your kind of thing, or you’d like it to be** , [sign up](https://underminingnormal.com/invitations/)to receive invitations to UNDERMININGnormal living room picnics. UNDERMININGnormal is where deep-thinking, change-seeking women can find community, care and unhurried space for conversations we don’t usually get to have. * * * ![2022-01-31 embrace your complexity - Be seen UNDERMININGnormal — Instagram Square](https://community.underminingnormal.com/uploads/default/original/1X/b12b90f7dc40969fa5950cd011ddc3823ebdc037.jpeg) --- _[View the full topic](https://community.underminingnormal.com/t/invitation-to-conversation/85)._