Three things I’ve learned in 2023
Three Gathering Lessons to Ring in the New Year
As we wind down 2023, I wanted to take a moment to close out the year together. (Because, just as an artful gatherer spends time opening their gathering, they also take time to close it. 😉)
This is a community filled with interesting, thoughtful, complex humans with a desire to reshape how we spend our time together — whether that’s in our workplaces, communities, and, yes, even on Zoom. Together, we spent our year going deeper into what it means to be a force for better gatherings both in our intimate gatherings and at mass scale via 2023’s gathering MVPs.
I am constantly inspired by your gathering stories and questions. I genuinely thank you for being here. Before I sign off for the year, I want to leave you with my top three gathering lessons from 2023 to remind you of the tools you have at your disposal to continue championing more fun, connective, nurturing, productive, [fill in the blank with your own needs] gatherings in the new year ahead.
1) Small shifts can make a big impact.
Though there are many ways to re-imagine how we gather, you don’t have to master them all at once. Simply starting with small, simple shifts can have an outsized impact on your entire gathering. Take, for example, these five opening moments that each took five minutes or less. One host didn’t even say a word!
Artful gathering is a practice. Take the pressure off yourself to get it all right all at once. Start small and refresh as you go along.
2) By closing the door, you create the room.
Some parts of planning your gathering can feel extra risky or scary – like defending your (smaller!) guest list or implementing tech-free gatherings. Exclusion and rules?! Trust me, the anxiety is real for some of us.
Gathering with care, especially when making harder decisions, means being relentlessly curious about what the actual needs are in front of you. And while it can be uncomfortable, sometimes those needs require boundaries — whether that’s generously excluding or creating the right set of rules to create an intentional group experience.
Just remember: it’s purposeful, not personal.
3) Gathering can be medicine.
In heavy times, it can feel complicated or just sheer exhausting to come together. And yet, it’s during these tender moments that gathering with care can be the most nourishing.
I’m taking the story of a crowdsourced playlist that brought a family together for the first Thanksgiving after a loved one’s passing to heart. Hosts often feel that knee-jerk impulse to get all the “stuff” right to create a moving experience, but when it comes to turning up the meaning dial with your people, it can be beautifully simple (hello Lesson #1).
I hope you have time at the end of the year to connect with your loved ones in a meaningful way.
Until 2024,
Priya
P.S. The magic of gathering well is contagious. If you’ve been enjoying this newsletter, I invite you to take a moment and share the newsletter with a friend who could use some inspiration in the end of the year. And I thank you.
