 |
|
 |
|
 |
| |
| |
HOME >> Read & Publish >> Oyster Bed
Welcome to ...
Our Oyster Bed!
Why do we call this our oyster bed? First of all, because all of our pearls of learning can benefit all of us. And because the very process by which oysters form pearls mirrors the way our own learnings develop. It’s a process, first of all, that often takes place over some amount of time... more.
That is why this space is Our Oyster Bed! It is a place to share our learnings, large and small, with the larger community of folks who visit ARINA’s website. In these early days of ARINA’s public life, this page will simply list some pearls we have been accruing from our own experiences. As site visitors and Associates add more and more pearls, the look of the page will change as we start to string common strands together.
Once you begin contributing your pearls, monthly, we’ll select one contributor to interview, so they can “unpack” more about their learning, and we'll explore other areas of life the learning might relate to, too. We’ll publish the interview here. Start keeping track of your insights, learnings, “A-ha!” moments, etc., and send them along so we can help you share your learning more broadly, and maybe you'll even get interviewed!
Our Oyster Bed! Collection
-
On the value of checking out our assumptions when a concern first arises in our mind
I had established a nice, open style of communication with a cyber colleague over a period of some months. She had been spending a lot of time reviewing and making constructive comments and explanations on someone else’s work, that she had been asked to review. She periodically mentioned the project of reviewing the several chapters.
Around the same time, I had been working on putting together a research proposal I wanted to submit to a funder, and I had asked this cyber-friend if she would review my first draft. She had said, Yes. One day, though, she wrote an email expressing a lot of frustration with how much time it was requiring to comment on the chapters she was reviewing.
I immediately felt concern about whether she would talk about my writing that way after she had reviewed my proposal – and I wasn’t too sure I wanted her to review it at all! Although she never identified him in any way, I still didn’t like the idea that I might be talked about to others the way she wrote about the other person’s work. A few days later, I mentioned this concern. She wrote back, explaining a number of background items that accounted for some legitimate frustration, under the particular circumstances of that project. Circumstances that had no similarity to mine! I was relieved.
What I learned from this experience was that I had unnecessarily carried around an unfounded concern. I realized that if I had checked out my assumption about her complaint about putting in so much time on the other project, I could have learned immediately that it bore no relation to her upcoming review of my proposal. It was a valuable reminder, that it’s energy-conserving to raise questions “out loud” as soon as they become questions in my mind – it saves a lot of nervous energy!
# # #