Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth

Oct 30, 2025 | Spoken Poetry

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I woke up one day
on this spaceship called earth,
and I held on tight for what it’s worth,
you see,
there is this thing called gravity
that holds me
in place
on this molten rock
flying through space,
so I won’t be going anywhere anytime soon,
although I can gaze at the stars,
rainbows, and a moon,
snow in the winter,
and fireflies in June.
I can fall in love,
I can dream,
change my mind,
or hold my ground,
listen to the sound
of silence,
the silence in the sound
of not being heard,
the words we sometimes think
but do not say
when something isn’t okay,
like today,
with endless rules,
tools, and fools
selling their answers
from the back of their van,
telling us who can’t
and what can,
as if the mysteries of the universe
can be uncovered for a fee,
and that what it means to be me
is probably available for discovery
in ChatGPT.
Who do they think they are?
And what am I,
and why am I afraid
to cry in public
when I love the expression so much
and how it feels
to simply feel.
That’s real
to me,
and I won’t discover that
in ChatGPT,
or on TV.
That’s life,
and I’m a body
with hopes and dreams
of a boy not yet gone,
holding on
to the night before the dawn,
afraid of space,
the human race,
and anything that moves,
and I’m on a spaceship called earth.

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

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Dust in the Wind

Dust in the Wind

Oct 23, 2025 | Spoken Poetry

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There is nothing
real except the recognition
that real is what we feel
and not what we think
because to follow a thought,
even our own,
is to follow a ghost
and yet most
of us cling
to this thing,
this idea of what would be
and how we,
you and me,
would see
things differently
at a future date
in a place
where laughter must rule,
work is for the fool,
and tragedy a tool
in someone else’s tool box,
and we would dream
and row our boats,
merrily,
down a stream
to moments
that contain unbridled joy
and song,
heroes
and suns
that never set
if only we could let
ourselves
embrace
the certainty
of absolute truth
and the reality
that humanity
understands
grand plans
and the speed of light,
the mysteries of death
and the dark night
of the soul
within the body
of life
that holds us
as we breathe
and one day die
in the desert
that is space,
a place
without time
within which we chase
ourselves down dark alleys
past pubs and salons
where we offer comfort
to ourselves and one another
because there is no stream,
no dream
or cream
that can erase
the wrinkles of time
that wrap themselves
around our face,
creating space
for tears to hide
outside
as we age
inside the cage,
and yet if we look to see,
and not just to exist,
we can choose to explore
what it means to be or not to be
and resist
the urge
to explain to others
what things mean
and how to experience the mystery
and the tragedy
that is life,
because what we think is real
is merely a thought
that got caught,
and so we if can let that idea go
and step back from what we think we know,
we create more choices,
more spaces,
more voices
in the bittersweet symphony
of life
on a sphere
in a galaxy
too far
and too near,
so enigmatic
and dear,
neither there nor here,
spinning within
and without
year after year
until we are
dust in the wind

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.

  • Free membership gives you access to community conversations and introductory resources.
  • Paid membership opens full access to courses, live sessions, and the complete Field Guide.
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The Meaning of Freedom

The Meaning of Freedom

Aug 3, 2025 | Leadership, Presence, Time, Transformation, Truth

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.

  • Free membership gives you access to community conversations and introductory resources.
  • Paid membership opens full access to courses, live sessions, and the complete Field Guide.
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Wading at the Edges

Wading at the Edges

Jun 23, 2024 | Love, Time, Transformation, Truth

All my life, I have essentially waded at the edges of the proverbial pools of life–a condition that does not lend itself to transformation, an idea I recently gleaned from Braiding Sweetgrass (2013) by Robin Wall Kimmerer. A book that weaves Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants, Braiding Sweetgrass is stunning in its simple wisdom that is really not that simple at all.

Is parenting simple? Is love simple? Are the truths peddled by various experts in any number of fields (business, marketing, real estate, etc., etc.) actually simple? Must every question have a definitive answer? Must every question beget a (pick your number) step solution? Is anything linear?

Perhaps the answers to these questions lie in the waters around (and within us). Am I speaking metaphorically? Kimmerer certainly is not when she says the following:

Among our Potawatomi people, women are the Keepers of Water. We carry the sacred water to ceremonies and act on its behalf. “Women have a natural bond with water, because we are both life bearers,” my sister said. “We carry our babies in internal ponds and they come forth into the world on a wave of water. It is our responsibility to safeguard the water for all our relations.” Being a good mother includes the caretaking of water. (2013, p. 94)

Kimmerer says, “Transformation is not accomplished by tentatively wading at the edge” (p. 89), and I cannot help but interpret this statement as descriptive of my approach to life. It has been easy to hide in my role as marketer, pitching ideas in service of systems and processes developed by others–and yet, what is my responsibility to others, to Earth, to myself now that I have completed my doctorate in Transformative Studies. Am I not transformed? Am I not now charged with a (sacred) responsibility to be of service to others?

“In one short life where does responsibility lie” (Kimmerer, 2013, p. 95)? Indeed, how do I answer this question? Perhaps, I can look to the apple tree for this answer:

The apple tree leans out over the water and makes for a shadowy arbor. In spring a drift of pink and white blossoms send plumes of fragrance wafting down the hill and a rain of petals on the water. For years now I’ve watched her seasons, from frothy pink blossoms, to gently swelling ovaries as the petals fall away, to sour green marbles of adolescent fruit, to the right golden apples of September. That tree has been a good mother. Most years she nurtures a full crop of apples, gathering the energy of the world into herself and passing it on. She sends her young out into the world well provisioned for their journey, packaged in sweetness to share with the world. (2013, p. 95)

I’m not sure I will ever look at a tree (or mother) the same way again. I also cannot imagine I will remain content to continue to wade at the edge(s). What can I offer? What can any of us offer? Questions like these speak to a scarcity paradigm, a concept explored at great length by Canty (2022) in Returning the Self to Nature.

References

Canty, J. M. (2022). Returning the self to nature: Undoing our collective narcissism and healing our planet. Shambhala Publications.

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

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.

  • Free membership gives you access to community conversations and introductory resources.
  • Paid membership opens full access to courses, live sessions, and the complete Field Guide.
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I is Me

I is Me

Apr 1, 2023 | Spoken Poetry

I is Me

by Robert Levey

I have come to realize
old adages have truth,
theorize
old fears can die,
believe
that I
have no purpose on this earth
other than to disentangle the mystery of self
and how that includes losing
old ways of framing
and painting
scenes in my head
that reflect just one perspective,
because the borders I think I see
around me
are not fixed
nor part of a reality
distinct from my own experience.

——

Making love is real,
and it involves the soul, body, heart, and mind,
and the kinds of things that exist outside
of space and time.
Heroes seem lonely
to me now.
I used to imagine myself in a cabin
in a forest,
chopping wood,
fighting demons in my head.
Such dreams perpetuate the myth
that man is burdened with something unique,
oblique,
and that to face our fears collectively is somehow weak,
and yet experience teaches me
a different kind of truth.

——

As I look out at the landscape of my heart,
I see people, animals, trees, rivers, and stones,
and the bones
of the man I used to be,
a man full of fear
who chased me
into dark corners of my mind,
and so there I hid,
slid
into a quiet madness
championed by society.
I had answers,
hard edges around my heart,
and I planned how each day would end,
not how it would start,
because I was a man whose eyes
were fixed on the horizon.

——

When my heart broke,
I awoke
from a deep slumber
to discover the man inside my head
was in fact me,
and that the chase
was not a metaphor
for what it means to be
or not to be,
but rather a manifestation
of the loneliness I felt
inside me.
I see now I created the man
and he me,
and so we
must part ways
one of these days,
and this is one of those days.

——

As I watch this man run away from me
over a bridge and into the black folds of outer space,
I hear a sound in my heart
and turn to see this man
with outstretched arms
and we embrace,
melting into the other,
as we both realize
without the need to theorize
that I is me…

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.

  • Free membership gives you access to community conversations and introductory resources.
  • Paid membership opens full access to courses, live sessions, and the complete Field Guide.
Explore The Commons

Stay in Touch

Work with Me
Contact Me