Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Brigid Russell

@brigidrussell51.bsky.social

840 followers 860 following 500 posts

All about working relationally, learning, listening, & coaching. Exploring how working collaboratively & leadership can develop in practice. What does it mean and what does it take to be alongside? #SpacesForListening

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · Nov 15

An article co-written with Charlie Jones for Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. It's about our reflections on deep listening and experiences over past 4 years or so in #SpacesForListening

www.resurgence.org/magazine/art...

Spaces for listening

Brigid Russell and Charlie Jones introduce Listening Spaces, the online initiative they set up jointly in lockdown (May 2020) to give people somewhere to both listen and be heard. Sessions are held tw...

www.resurgence.org

3 21 54

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 7h

When there are no words, we can still be there, alongside. Noticing and listening with care.

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 2d

I watched Panorama tonight, too, Charlie. A 'system' in which people are relentlessly set up to fight and resist felt so exhausting & soul-destroying. For everyone embroiled in it. There has to be a better, fairer, more humane way 🤍

1 3

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 3d

I don't know, maybe it's an age thing. The gentle turn towards Autumn seems to me to be ever more beautiful and touching every year.

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 5d

In all the fractures
despair alongside hope longs
for more belonging.

1 5

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 6d

Good morning, Jen xx

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 7d

There's so much more than just the words spoken. (There's everything in the spaces in between, in experiences past, feelings lingering, assumptions held, and judgements jumped to).

1 7

Reposted by Brigid Russell

Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · 8d

Kinship – Ursula K. Le Guin's love poem to trees, transience, and eternity www.themarginalian.org/2021/10/20/u...

Kinship: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Love Poem to Trees, Transience, and Eternity

A lyrical reminder that “the word for world is forest” and the feeling of forest is love.

www.themarginalian.org

13 34

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 9d

At times it can feel harder to stay calm in the midst of all the noise and bluster and harshness. But the connections are still there if I look and listen carefully enough. And there's still hope to be found in all those connections.

1 5

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 11d

Where are the places for real conversation? For dialogue with and through difference? With space for nuance, and not knowing, and discovering insight. Where misunderstanding can be held gently, curiosity lasts much longer, and shared understanding takes the time it takes...

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 14d

In all the rush and the noise and the harshness, I hold on to the beauty of connections and friendship and taking our time. And savouring moments like this one.

3 10

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 15d

Paint a beautiful
picture as the train trundles
its way through Yorkshire.

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 17d

Hope through connection with people who care. Through curiosity and the power of listening. Listening for longer to understand much more (before jumping in with a point). Hope felt through shared laughter, in moments of poetry & music, and love. Not vain hope. Grittily real hope.

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 18d

I agree, Autumn. It was a spectacular concert. His voice, piano playing, and the Scottish Symphony Orchestra. What a wonderful sound ❤️

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 18d

In all the noise, it can be really hard to listen. That's when it matters even more. When we stop listening, we've stopped trying to understand our differences. I understand the pressure for haste. Yet this is precisely when we need to slow down, listen longer, understand more.

1 4

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 20d

Yes. Exactly 💚🍃

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 20d

When we really listen to each other - without agenda, interruption, or haste - it's so much more than an empathic act. In the gentle space we create between us, we can also find the chance to hear ourselves. A pause from all the talking at and the rushing to task. A place to be.

1 6

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 21d

Morning. That's it. That 'self' work is continual, a lifelong commitment. It's never 'done', & can't be 'fixed' with 'clever' tips & tricks. It's hard work. It's in how I honestly share my own frailties, & how clear I am with others about what I notice of how they are, & of how power plays out...

1 2

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 21d

It isn't about being 'perfect'. It does mean congruence, though. We can't tell each other how to be kind, and not be aware of how (in)consistently kind we are being ourselves. That doesn't mean some glossy version for show. It means being self-aware in every single interaction.

1 8

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 24d

It is not just a place. It is a whole mixture of memories and associations all jumbled up. Of connection and disconnection. Of people and relationships. Of moments shared and lost. Of joy and sorrow. Of now and then and everything in between.

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 29d

Sending best wishes to you, Jen x

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 29d

Do not hope alone. Hope with love and in connection with people. As a collective move, as feelings shared. Where possibility has space to breathe and flourish. Hope can't be mandated, or airbrushed, or extinguished. It lives in between.

1 1 10

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · 29d

This place, this beautiful place.

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · Sep 8

All the headline grabbing noise and bluster, hypocritical criticism, sly asides. They get us nowhere. They mean nothing other than cynical whipping up of hatred. It shows no care or humanity. For that, we need understanding. We urgently need to understand each other so much more.

Brigid Russell @brigidrussell51.bsky.social · Sep 6

When I lose sight of what really matters, I need to remember to pause from trying so hard to see. Let a different perspective come into view. It doesn't solve it all. But it certainly can help.