There's a song that I can never sing, because it makes me cry so hard (actually, there are dozens, which was a problem when I performed with a string band): “Calling All the Children Home,” by John McCutcheon. Go listen to it on Spotify, YouTube, or Pandora – I'll wait.
Here's the chorus, describing the scene as his mother calls the songwriter (Johnny) and his siblings (Mary Claire, Lulu, Jeanie, Kevin, Jeff, Patty, Nancy, Rob), to dinner:
Home to the table and the big, black pot
Everybody's got enough, ‘though we ain't got a lot
No one is forgotten, no one is alone
When she's calling all the children home
You can feel the love and care and mutual responsibility in that close knit Appalachian family. In the final chorus, McCutcheon asks us to imagine a world in which we take care of all our relations as if they were family:
Home to the table, home to the feast
Where the last are first and the greatest are the least
Where the rich will envy what the poor have got
Everybody's got enough, ‘though we ain't got a lot
No one is forgotten, no one is alone
When we're calling all the children home
Gathered 'round the table and the big, black pot
Everybody's got enough, ‘though we ain't got a lot
No one is forgotten, no one is alone
From the sacks in Soweto to the ice of Nome
From Baghdad City to the streets of Rome
When we're calling all the children home
The song ends with a twist; after repeating the names of all his siblings, McCutcheon calls home another set of children, whose names indicate their disparate global origins:
Moishe, Isabelle, Sipho, Kim, Mohammed, Mikael, Red Hawk, Tim
©1990 by John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP).
Teju Ravilochan is an entrepreneur through and through. In the best sense of the word – he sees problems and envisions grand communal solutions. From the Unreasonable Institute (now Uncharted.org), which he founded, to GatherFor.org, a community based mutual aid accelerator borne from the pandemic), he brings people together to solve problems and explore possibilities.
And as an activist, speaker, and organizer, he's flexing his entrepreneurial spirit to create a world in which we all treat each other as family. Where we call all our children home, and exclude none.
Talking with Teju has made me a better person: more hopeful, kinder, and more compassionate toward others – including those I have been blaming for their part in perpetuating injustice. Teju asks us to consider the words of Brazilian educator and activist Paulo Freire, who pointed out that oppression has two victims: the oppressed and the oppressor. Both are dehumanized, and we end oppression not simply by overthrowing the oppressors by any means necessary, but by restoring their humanity.
Pour yourself a mug of tea, find a quiet, peaceful spot, and join me in conversation with a bright, compassionate, energetic, and loving spirit.
Links
GatherFor.org
Uncharted.org
Teju's TEDx talk: What Love Can Teach Us About Tackling the Impossible
Teju's article: “Could the Blackfoot Wisdom that Inspired Maslow Guide Us Now?”
Dr Howie Jacobson
This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).
My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.
Here are three gigs that I do:
1. Trigger-Free Leadership: Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation
I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.
At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.
My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.
2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance
I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.
We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.
The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.
3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams
I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.
So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.
You CAN Change Other People!
Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.
What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.
Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.
Music
The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.
It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.
You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.
Gratitudes
Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.
Disclosure
This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive compensation from your actions on such links. It don't cost you a dime, tho.
