This week, I speak to Frank Ebbert, a friend I met not too long ago, in an AKIMBO-workshop called Story Skills. We both have a knack for having conversations, and enjoy long, meandering, and exploring conversations together.

 

 

Frank Ebbert is a character, as you will soon discover. He presents himself as an architect based in the Washington DC area. A musician, writer and designer, he is exploring the intersections of the humanities and technology.His current projects include an introduction to how our built environment impacts ocean health. Find out more about Frank at http://landwaveae.com (business), https://stealinggenius.net/ (music) and landwaveae.com/rp/ (musings).

 

 

Now, Frank can talk, and talk a lot. He even said during our conversation that:

“as a public service to my friends and family, I ought to write more, I think, because I’ve got so much to say and I don’t know why that is.”

I don’t know about that, as I enjoy speaking to Frank as much as I enjoy reading his writings. Our conversation start off with me reading something Frank wrote to me as we were trying to find a date for our first conversation. He wrote:

“I mention it – your focus – because there is a part of me calling out again for that blessed space beyond the actual demands of others AND the call of a dozen projects I want to be working on.

I am taking this morning as a windfall of time to consider the last two months roughly starting with altMBA. I am noticing that my attention was drawn to the wide range of challenges I face and decisions I have to make: all within a 30 day, 13 assignment timeframe with 14 hours per week of group discussion. It wore me out and depleted whatever tankespjärn I had in place to handle my situation.

So I am in a reset. Not exactly negative. But not really positive either. Wintering.

The gentle and the edge is in observing, just observing, your productivity and my anxiety. Letting my curiosity wander a bit. Letting my fears speak so they can know they are heard and don’t amplify themselves to get my attention. Then I can start to see what is what.

As seems to be the case frequently, I notice nothing has really changed around me. It’s just me being drawn into the myopia of deadlines without breathing.”

Now, you see as well as I, that what he wrote has nothing to do with finding a date for podcasting. It’s about finding focus in life, and paying attention to the pace you are living it with. Perhaps a different pace, more in tune with your current whereabouts is needed?

We talk about finding those places, spaces, settings, and/or contexts that nourish you. Being able to find them, making sure to hang on to them and how important that is for a life. Lived really well.

One of my most nourishing fields is my Mastermind-group (started in 2013), and not a session goes by without me learning something new. About myself, the others, or the world. In the session I chaired a few hours before sitting down to converse with Frank, I was saying how time flies, without actually paying attention to what i was saying. Inga-Lill stopped me and said ”No. Time comes. Every day time comes to you. It’s a gift.” Have you? Found the others, I mean?

During our long and rambling, meandering conversation, we touch upon the importance of language, not once, not twice, but over and over again. The origins of the word deadline, how paying attention to right/wrong, must/should makes for a shift in how life is experiences, and specifically the difference substituting judgment for discernment has had for me. But we also touch on the American dream and the pursuit of happiness. Isn’t it fascinating that American’s aren’t entitled to happiness, but rather the pursuit of it. Tankespjärn indeed!

 

The episode is available on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all other podcast platforms.