Conversare – for people who wish to add sparkle to their lives

Do you feel that missing in your life is enjoyable conversation and good connecting with the world around you? Would you wish to participate in lively exchanges of stories of what interests and challenges you and others?

Are there such opportunities for you to do this? Yes, partly through keeping connected to people you ‘know’ such as family, friends and neigbours. You would likely be aware that you are responsible for how you do this. Maintaining good connecting takes careful thought and action.

What if, for whatever reason, your current relating with others does not provide the sparkle you yearn for and you are at a loss to know how to find this?

Just recently I ‘bumped into’ a person with whom I enjoyed a fine connection about twenty years ago, but have had only fleeting contact in the interim. He said, quite poignantly, that he had fallen on tough times financially and had also spent much effort in being a carer for his grandchildren.  Knowing about Conversare in the Market he said “I am going to come along to these in the new year as I see them as a way to meet new people and to brush up my social skills.”

Does this resonate with you, not the particular circumstances but rather the idea of stepping out of your usual way of relating – a limited circle of mainly people you know  – to interact with people you have not met previously ?

Perhaps with the thought that ‘I feel the need to do something different’.  See here for the kind of sense you may have about wishing to open up your life.

If any of this does then Conversare is for you! For these are social gatherings in which the focus is on each other, with starting questions such as ‘Who are you? What has attracted you to come along today’?

With the possibility that the person with whom you share the meal time is from a quite different background, culture and age group!

Those of you who live in or near Adelaide are remarkably fortunate! For these events will feature regularly in 2017 in the Adelaide Central Market after trading hours on weekday nights. Could you imagine a more suitable and enjoyable place to have a delicious meal with a stranger in a context in which everyone present is doing the same? In the hands of an experienced host who helps set the scene for convivial company. See Feedback.

For those who do not dwell in this part of the Antipodes (the other end of the earth) help is on the wind. <smile> . This is through the initiative of the conveners of a major conference held in Manila, Philippines in mid November 2016. From being enchanted by what they noticed happening in Adelaide they invited me to host a Conversare style dinner on the opening night. See here for a lively podcast about this ground breaking happening.

Who knows whether any of the participants at this event – or others – from many part of our little planet, 3^rd from the sun, see the opportunity to extend their facilitation skills by adding hosting Conversare  to their offerings?

For there is more to this kind of ‘good talk and enlivening connecting, rebuilding community trust and connectivity’ than meets the eye! And only those who have the foresight and initiative will experience this.

Given that the basics, as you would likely appreciate, are simple. Choose a place which is open to the public and in which food is available or can be catered in. A community health centre is an appropriate such venue or possibly local cafes.

Invite people from a diversity of backgrounds, using email lists and social media.

Do you see this as a ‘way you go’ into being enlivened and ‘enlarged’  in ways which will surprise and delight you.

With good wishes for 2017 filled with enlightening and enjoyable  encounters.

Alan Stewart
Adelaide
alanmstewart@gmail.com

                                                                                                                     ‘Whenever we treat each other well good things happen’.