Chasing Space, Finding Self

Chasing Space, Finding Self

Oct 3, 2025 | Uncategorized

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At the end of our lives, what will we think about? Will we remember those ‘important’ projects at work that diverted our attention from our children as they struggled to get our attention? Or will we remember what it felt like when our kids were old enough to no longer have time for us either?

Chasing Space

I saw a reel on social media the other day that tore me up, as the main message was that the majority of what we focus on in our daily lives is not only forgettable but damaging. Is the fact that AI exists and can perform half the tasks I do every day exciting, or does it underscore the futility of my own existence?

What am I chasing? What are any of us chasing? Do any of us even know? The more I chase this idea I have in my head as to what constitutes the ‘better life,’ the farther I am from this better life and, in fact, myself.

I once had someone refer to me as a ‘PR guy,’ as if the whole of my existence could be encapsulated in that term. That characterization made me ill then, and it makes me upset today.

This is the best I can do? I’m a PR guy? This is my contribution to the world? To write marketing pieces about products or services that may or may not be that worthwhile or great, but I am paid to tell a story, and so I spin someone else’s ideas into a 350-word structure that is as forgettable as it is forced?

What am I doing? I am chasing space.

Finding Space

Now, I am the space doctor, armed with a doctorate and an abstract concept that I peddle through various digital marketing channels to people I think I know enough or I would not put proverbial pen to paper, right?

What do I know? How do I know it? Where did I acquire my knowledge?

I took the academic pathway, too afraid to state an opinion and most certainly too uncertain to take a stand on anything. Perhaps that is my white privilege. I am unsure.

With the onset of fall, I feel myself more reflective, perhaps bitter that summer went too fast. Perhaps I am bitter, however, at my choices in life that I diverted my attention not just from my kids when they were 8 and wanted to play catch with daddy but from the journey into myself, which is the ultimate unknown.

Everywhere we turn today, someone has an answer to something or to a question we eventually believe we must have asked at some point. Yeah, I want to know the 5 secrets to develop great content. Sure, I want to create viral reels that people remember for a whole ten seconds before scrolling somewhere else.

Where has the time gone? How on earth am I on the other side of 50 years? This is impossible. All I ever wanted out of life was to live forever. Is that too much to ask?

Changing Space

When I talk about space, it is not an abstraction. Space is historical, and it invites an inquiry into the past and the lives that preceded our own. Space is literal in that we have bodies that move, dance, play, cry, and laugh. Space is metaphorical only in the sense that there is nothing that it can not not be, and so where does that leave us?

Like the Robinsons in that wild 60’s TV show, we are lost in space, spinning on a rock that circles a sun inside a galaxy that circles other galaxies in a universe so large that it takes 13.5 billion years to cross it if we were to travel 186,000 miles per second. That is not 55 miles per hour or 10,000 miles a minute, but 186,000 miles per second for 13.5 billion years.

At the end of our lives, what will we think about? However you and I answer that question, let’s agree to start thinking about that now instead of later…

About Spaciology

Spaciology is not abstract theory; rather, it is a practice you can feel.

  • Inside: Pause, breathe, notice.
  • Outside: Design rooms, rituals, and agendas that slow the spin and invite care.
  • Between us: Make dialogue a place where different truths can live together long enough to teach something.

Ultimately, leadership is the art of making space for what’s important (for everyone) and letting that clarity shape the next step. When we change the spaces from which we lead, our strategies change with them.

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A Space-Based Approach to Leadership

A Space-Based Approach to Leadership

Aug 29, 2025 | The Method

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Most leadership playbooks still carry old habits: control the plan, predict the future, move fast, and grow at all costs. That mindset can shrink our field of vision and crowd out people, wisdom, and the living world.

A space-based approach—Spaciology—offers another path: change how we shape the spaces within, between, and around us, so more choices can actually emerge.

Internal Space

Let’s start inside. Space begins within ourselves, and so when we pause and resist the reflex to respond, fix, or judge, we create conditions for more clarity. This pause is anything but passive; rather, it is active receptivity that lets the unseen surface.

Take five quiet minutes before a tough decision and journal not to “fix” your thinking but to see it. Ask yourself, “What is here that I am avoiding?”

This reflective pause can help you reclaim attention and focus on what is important (for more than just yourself) instead of reacting from habit.

The Space(s) You Lead

Now, let’s look at the shape of the rooms you lead. These spaces—offices, meeting formats, company rituals—speak before you do. A cluttered agenda or a performative town hall signals speed over substance.

Intention looks different: declutter a workspace to mirror the clarity you seek; design meetings with built-in silence so people can think. Ask yourself and others, “What kind of space would allow everyone here to feel seen and heard?”

This question communicates a simple message: you matter here.

Shared Space(s)

What about the space between us? Shared space is where dialogue, collaboration, and community live. It is not about winning a point; rather, it is about making room for truths to sit side by side.

Begin conversations by naming intentions rather than outcomes. Allow silence; not everything needs a response. Model curiosity over certainty. This posture lets complexity breathe and makes collective change possible.

In practice, this orientation to space transforms “hard conversations” into encounters where people can speak honestly without feeling rushed into agreement.

Space-Making

Spaciology challenges the hero habit in leadership—the desire for a single savior, a single answer, a straight-line win. This story is powerful but limited, as this moment asks for many voices, shared responsibility, and decisions that respect people and place, not just speed and scale

Space-making de-centers the hero and recenters relationship and reciprocity.

Space for Uncertainty

What does this look like in strategy? Three shifts:

From prediction to presence: Spend more time sensing what’s actually happening—in your team, your customers, your community—before committing to a course of action.

From growth at all costs to health and fit: Ask, “What’s important for the long-term health of our people and the places we touch?” Let that shape goals and guardrails.

From answers to better questions: Use open, honest questions to locate shared priorities: “What are we not seeing? Who’s missing? What would make a real difference now?”

References

The following sources informed this file’s themes of decolonizing leadership, space as metaphor, and strategy.

Battiste, M. (2013). Decolonizing education: Nourishing the learning spirit. UBC Press.

Campbell, J. (2008). The hero with a thousand faces (3rd ed.). New World Library.

Chilisa, B. (2017). Decolonising transdisciplinary research approaches: An African perspective for enhancing knowledge integration in sustainability science. Sustainability Science, 12(5), 813–827.

Clarke, J. J. (2000). The Tao of the West: Western transformations of Taoist thought. Routledge.

Dei, G. J. S. (2000). Rethinking the role of Indigenous knowledges in the academy. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 4(2), 111–132.

Freire, P. (2020). Pedagogy of the oppressed (D. Macedo, Trans.; 50th anniversary ed.). Routledge. (Original work published 1970)

Gergen, K. J. (2015). An invitation to social construction (3rd ed.). SAGE.

Girardot, N. J., Miller, J., & Liu, X. (Eds.). (2001). Daoism and ecology: Ways within a cosmic landscape. Harvard University Press.

Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions.

Levey, R. (2024). Embodying transdisciplinarity: An alternate narrative framework to the hero’s journey as a tool for transformation (Doctoral dissertation, California Institute of Integral Studies). ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Macy, J., & Johnstone, C. (2012). Active hope: How to face the mess we’re in without going crazy. New World Library.

Massey, D. (2005). For space. SAGE.

Mezirow, J. (1978). Perspective transformation. Adult Education Quarterly, 28(2), 100–110.

Miller, J. (2017). China’s green religion: Daoism and the quest for a sustainable future. Columbia University Press.

Morin, E. (2014). Complexity and uncertainty: A philosophical approach. Springer.

Nicolescu, B. (2002). Manifesto of transdisciplinarity (K. C. Voss, Trans.). State University of New York Press.

Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. Jossey-Bass.

Roszak, T., Gomes, M. E., & Kanner, A. D. (Eds.). (1995). Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, healing the mind. Sierra Club Books.

Salmón, E. (2000). Kincentric ecology: Indigenous perceptions of the human–nature relationship. Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1327–1332.

Sardar, Z. (2010b). Welcome to postnormal times. Futures, 42(5), 435–444.

Scharmer, C. O. (2007). Theory U: Leading from the future as it emerges. Berrett-Koehler.

Senge, P. M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art & practice of the learning organization. Doubleday.

Simpson, L. B. (2011). Dancing on our turtle’s back: Stories of Nishnaabeg re-creation, resurgence and a new emergence. Arbeiter Ring Publishing.

Smith, L. T. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples (3rd ed.). Bloomsbury.

Tzu, L. (2004). Tao Te Ching (K. Voss, Trans.). http://globalradical.com/Tao/tao.pdf

Von Foerster, H. (2018). The beginning of heaven and earth has no name: Seven days with second-order cybernetics. Fordham University Press.

Wheatley, M. J. (1992). Leadership and the new science: Discovering order in a chaotic world. Berrett-Koehler.

Yunkaporta, T. (2021). Sand talk: How Indigenous thinking can save the world. HarperOne.

About Spaciology

Spaciology is not abstract theory; rather, it is a practice you can feel.

  • Inside: Pause, breathe, notice.
  • Outside: Design rooms, rituals, and agendas that slow the spin and invite care.
  • Between us: Make dialogue a place where different truths can live together long enough to teach something.

Ultimately, leadership is the art of making space for what’s important (for everyone) and letting that clarity shape the next step. When we change the spaces from which we lead, our strategies change with them.

Spaciology Learning Commons

Want to go further? Join the Spaciology Learning Commons.

Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

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Want to go further? Join the Spaciology Learning Commons.

Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

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The Meaning of Freedom

The Meaning of Freedom

Aug 3, 2025 | Big Questions

Freedom, NH Town Hall

This past weekend, I had occasion to visit Freedom, NH for their Old Home Week Celebration—an experience that changed my perspective on what it means to be human.

Yes, this sounds dramatic, but transformation of perspective is not a process that abstractly happens in a person’s head. Rather, it is an embodied experience that can be significantly enhanced in the presence of others.

Certainly, I have had my fair share of enlightening experiences in academic settings. I have cried after reading some academic literature, and I have felt my entire body tingle when people consciously bring their complete selves to dialogues.

More than Pancakes

What I found beautiful about the celebration in Freedom this weekend was captured in their pancake breakfast this morning. I witnessed neighbors hugging, people smiling, folks donating resources and time to bring people together over plates of fruit, donuts, pancakes, eggs, and sausage.

I sat at a table with strangers and learned about a woman’s love of this town, where she lives, and how several events from this past week were to contribute to the education of kids. I overhead conversations and listened to the stories of people I may never see again.

What I most remember, however, was the smiles on people’s faces—people of all ages, brought together in a town hall that looked like something from a Normal Rockwell postcard. The event was free, but people were encouraged to bring food or cash to support the local food pantry. I brought cash.

Seeking Connection

As I sat and observed the people around me, I felt like I was part of something intimate and yet much larger than just me. I was witnessing humanity at its best.

Why did I drive 20 minutes for a breakfast I could have made for myself with my beautiful mountain views? For the same reason everyone else made their way to a small town hall on the eastern edges of New Hampshire on a gorgeous summer morning.

We wanted to connect, get roped into conversations with strangers, watch kids eat pancakes with their little fingers, and watch other people watch us watch them and smile.

Creating Space for New Friends

There is so much ugliness in this world, and there always has been. There is so much beauty in this world, too, and we do not need to look far to find it.

We cannot systematically address the ills of this world, but we can break bread—or pancakes—with our neighbors.

I do not know if the people at this breakfast were Republicans or Democrats. I did not speak with anyone about their political views.

I drank coffee and ate too many pancakes, and I smiled at strangers who often smiled at me first. In today’s experience, Space as Metaphor was more than a metaphor. It existed in a town hall in Freedom, NH, and the only way I discovered it is because I was there.

Sharing Space

Space as Metaphor is not an invitation to abstraction. It is an invitation to share our lives with others and move beyond the conventional labels invented by men who do not know you or me.

When we define one another with simplistic words, we reduce one another to caricatures. It is both sad and painful because we are much more than any single word can possibly fathom.

So what is the meaning of Freedom? I am not entirely sure, except I am certain it is a shared experience, one made much more memorable over pancakes and laughter.

Ultimately, the meaning exists in my heart, and I have strangers in a small town in NH whom I can thank for this humble reminder. We are human beings and we belong to one another—and that is the true meaning of Freedom.

About Spaciology

Spaciology is not abstract theory; rather, it is a practice you can feel.

  • Inside: Pause, breathe, notice.
  • Outside: Design rooms, rituals, and agendas that slow the spin and invite care.
  • Between us: Make dialogue a place where different truths can live together long enough to teach something.

Ultimately, leadership is the art of making space for what’s important (for everyone) and letting that clarity shape the next step. When we change the spaces from which we lead, our strategies change with them.

Spaciology Learning Commons

Want to go further? Join the Spaciology Learning Commons.

Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

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Rethinking Transformation: More Than a Hero’s Tale

Rethinking Transformation: More Than a Hero’s Tale

Jul 20, 2025 | Leading Change

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For generations, the hero’s journey has shaped how we imagine change. Its arc—departure, ordeal, return—offers a compelling story of individual transformation. What if this is just one story among many? What if, instead of a lone hero, we focused on the spaces between us, the stories that overlap, the fields we co-create?

The Space as Metaphor Charter emerges from this very question. Drawing on Indigenous knowledge systems, Ubuntu, Taoism, Buddhism, and ecopsychology, this charter challenges the dominance of the hero’s journey and its focus on linear, individual achievement. Instead, it lays the groundwork for Space as Metaphor itself, an open-source conceptual framework for transformation—one that is collective, process-oriented, and ethically charged (Levey, 2024; Nicolescu, 2002).

Space as Home: Co-Mingling the Internal and External

In education, business, and therapy, we’re often taught to separate “internal” and “external” spaces: the mind versus the room, the self versus the system. Space as Metaphor, however, asks us to see these not as opposites, but as co-mingled—each shaping and being shaped by the other.

How I feel inside colors how I experience a meeting; the design of a classroom or curriculum helps to shape my sense of self.

There is no clear boundary. Space is always relational, always in flux (Levey, 2024).

What if every space—classroom, boardroom, counseling office, or quiet corner of your mind—could feel like home? This is not a home defined by walls or outcomes, but by a sense of belonging, story, and possibility.

The charter invites us to treat all spaces as living homes, full of personal and collective stories, beliefs, and histories. It asks us to pause, reflect, and challenge our assumptions as plans emerge and unfold, creating “thick” experiences that invite deeper awareness.

Deconstructing the Charter: Articles as Invitations

The Space as Metaphor Charter is not a set of rules, but a series of living invitations:

Space Honors Complexity
Space is never empty. It is layered, storied, and interconnected. To honor space is to resist easy answers and make room for what is not yet known (Morin, 2008).

Space Holds Story
Every space is full of stories—personal, collective, organizational, ancestral. The charter asks us to listen for the stories that are present and those that are missing (Levey, 2024).

Space is Historical and Indigenous
Space carries memory. It is shaped by history, power, and culture. To make space is to honor the land, the ancestors, and the wisdom that came before (Massey, 2005).

Space Welcomes Uncertainty
Uncertainty is not a problem to solve, but a condition for emergence. The charter invites us to pause, reflect, and let new possibilities arise (Nicolescu, 2002).

Space Holds Trauma and Healing
Space can wound, but it can also heal. By holding space for grief, restoration, and transformation, we honor the full spectrum of human experience (Naess, 2005).

Space is Chaos and Home
Space can unsettle and shelter. It can be a site of rupture and a place of reorientation. “Home” is not a fixed address, but a process of making room for ourselves and each other (Levey, 2024).

Space is Methodology
Space is not just a metaphor, but an ethical and epistemological guide. It shapes how we learn, relate, and transform—together (Nicolescu, 2002).

Honoring Multiple Ways of Knowing: Process Over Output

At the heart of the charter is a radical ethic: honoring process over output. This is a direct inheritance from Indigenous ways of knowing, which value the journey, the relationship, and the ongoingness of inquiry. The charter resists urgency, binary thinking, and the need for consensus. It asks us to trust in emergence, to invite missing voices, and to act in ways that increase—not limit—the number of choices.

Space as Education
Imagine classrooms where silence is honored, stories are welcomed, and learning is a shared journey—not a race to the finish line. Here, “home” is a space of belonging, not just achievement.

Space as Leadership & Organization
What if organizations were designed to listen, adapt, and make room for emergence? Leadership becomes less about control, more about holding space for complexity and transformation.

Space as Counseling & Healing
Healing is not about fixing, but about “being-with.” Space is held as sacred and relational, supporting deep listening and restoration.

Space as Community & Dialogue
Dialogue is not about consensus, but about making room for multiple truths, discomfort, and the unknown.

The Ethical Imperative: Keeping the Question Open

What if we endeavored to make every space feel like home? Where is this space? For whom? What does “home” mean, and for whom?

The charter refuses to answer these questions for you. Instead, it invites you to ask them—again and again. In doing so, it embodies Heinz von Foerster’s ethical imperative: act always to increase the number of choices.

By not closing the question, we keep the space open, alive, and full of possibility.

About Spaciology

Spaciology is not abstract theory; rather, it is a practice you can feel.

  • Inside: Pause, breathe, notice.
  • Outside: Design rooms, rituals, and agendas that slow the spin and invite care.
  • Between us: Make dialogue a place where different truths can live together long enough to teach something.

Ultimately, leadership is the art of making space for what’s important (for everyone) and letting that clarity shape the next step. When we change the spaces from which we lead, our strategies change with them.

Spaciology Learning Commons

Want to go further? Join the Spaciology Learning Commons.

Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

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Stay in Touch

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Want to go further? Join the Spaciology Learning Commons.

Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

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The Sun Will Never Set

The Sun Will Never Set

Jul 12, 2025 | Spoken Poetry

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There is a world inside
every song 
experienced in every heart
within the souls
of those who live on planets
that spin
inside galaxies that turn,
dreams that burn
within
the hopes and fears
of lost men at sea,
always searching
for the elusive ‘me’
within the me
that cannot change
because it must not die
nor must we try
to decipher
because
there is space
in every time,
time in every space,
love in every trace
of what once was
alive and real,
tangible and could feel
the wind,
the fire,
the earth,
and the sea
that churns beneath
the sky,
the dome,
the envelope,
the home,
the beauty
amidst the fear
behind the smile,
perched on the tear
of the woman
who holds
and carries the sphere,
the here
beyond the now,
past the how,
outside the known,
beneath the love,
outside thought,
before yesterday
and tomorrow
exists a universal sorrow
that once one is,
one eventually will not,
and yet galaxies will spin
and light will travel
and the sun will never set.

About Spaciology

Spaciology is not abstract theory; rather, it is a practice you can feel.

  • Inside: Pause, breathe, notice.
  • Outside: Design rooms, rituals, and agendas that slow the spin and invite care.
  • Between us: Make dialogue a place where different truths can live together long enough to teach something.

Ultimately, leadership is the art of making space for what’s important (for everyone) and letting that clarity shape the next step. When we change the spaces from which we lead, our strategies change with them.

Spaciology Learning Commons

Want to go further? Join the Spaciology Learning Commons.

Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

Explore The Commons

Stay in Touch

Spaciology Learning Commons

Want to go further? Join the Spaciology Learning Commons.

Membership gives you free access to community conversations, courses, introductory resources, and the complete Field Guide.

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