ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

When we were preparing to submit the proposal for this book, we sat down with our dear colleague and office manager, Debbie Dix, asked her to read it and tell us what she thought. We three, who are the entire staff of PeerSpirit, Inc., know that writing, launching, and supporting a book takes an ongoing effort and commitment from all of us. We are profoundly grateful for this team, for the circle in the office as well as in the work, and for Debbie’s skilled and steadfast contributions to PeerSpirit and to us.

Thank you to Meg Wheatley for collegiality that has deepened into friendship and for carrying our pages to Berrett-Koehler and advocating for this project. We are delighted to be working with this company, to have met Steve Piersanti and Jeevan Sivasubramaniam and our editor, Johanna Vondeling.

This writing occurred during a period of strenuous work that informed and enriched the stories and content of the book and strained our abilities to contribute to our local community and to relax with family and friends. We thank you for understanding and valuing what we do, especially when it so often conflicts with what we might be doing together! We are especially grateful to have four vibrant living parents, Leo Baldwin, Connie McGregor, and Frank and Astrid Brown, who continue to be proud of us, as we are of them. We stand gladly in the generations, including Ann’s grown children, Brian Schimpf and Sally Schimpf, and grandson, Jaden Villarreal.

As for our friends, you know who you are—and we bow in gratitude for all exchanges of the heart, large and small.

We offer thanks to the Calling the Circle Foundation and are particularly grateful to Martin Siesta and the legacy of his mentoring aunts, Theda, Rita, and Marie, for their support during our writing time.

To all who appear in this book—by name and by pseudonym—please know that your stories are offered as teaching tales toward the common good.

The following colleagues are named in the book through contributing stories and personal references: Angeles Arrien, Kerry Barnett, Matthias zur Bonsen, Juanita Brown, Terry Chase, Chris Corrigan, Gigi Coyle, Guy Cumbie, Thomas Dahlborg, Stephen Diwauripo, Nanci Dvorsky, Susan Edstrom, Roq Gareau, Angelina Gibson, Bethany Hays, Ruben Castilla Herrera, Jutta Herzog, David Isaacs, Elizabeth Jetton, David Korten, Fran Korten, David Kyle, Kathryn Landon-Malone, Sarah MacDougall, Joanna Macy, Chris Bicknell-Marden, Bonnie Marsh, Janet McCallen, David McNulty, Rowena McNulty, Cathy Michaels, Judy Mladineo, Sikhethiwe Mlotsha, Toke Paludan Møller, Jerry Nagel, Jim Neale, Monica Nissen, Marsha Paludan, Traci Pannullo, Colleen Person, Kay Pranis, RainbowHawk, Bev Reeler, Steve Ryman, Mary K. Sandford, Martin Siesta, Pamela Austin Thompson, Cynthia Trenshaw, Marvin Tuttle, Margaret J. Wheatley; the Wheaton Franciscans—especially the leadership team with whom we worked: Sisters Alice Drewek, Pat Norton, Gabriele Uhlein, and Marge Zulaski; WindEagle, and Jack Zimmerman.

In addition we also wish to acknowledge circles of colleagues who have contributed to our understanding and development of this work over the years: Ruth Anderson and the School for Servant Leadership and the circle colleagues in Greensboro, North Carolina; Barbara Belknap; Phil Cass and the Art of Hosting community in Columbus, Ohio; Jackie Claunch, Cheryl Conklin, Marie Dumais, Beth Elmore, Sharon Faulds, Susan Fekety, Caitlin Frost, Kim Gilbreath, W. Craig Gilliam, Jeanne Guy, Roger Harrison, Bev Haskins, Kim Howlett, Firehawk Hulin, Meredith Jordan, Jim Kellar, Kristen Lombard; Mary Martin, Sandy MacIver, Cathy McKenzie, and Royal Roads University; Linda Moore, Mary O’Connor, Harriet Peterson, Pele Rouge, Sibyl Dana Reynolds, Sharon Schindler Rising, Pamela Sampel, Linda Secord, Mark Secord, Virginia Harvey Shapiro, Sandy Smith, Jane Swanson, Clare Taylor, Kit Wilson and the Grandmothers Council.

More recently, our international networks have come to include people who came into our lives through From the Four Directions and the Art of Hosting: Kathy Jourdain, Marianne Knuth and the members of Kufunda village (Harare, Zimbabwe), Tim Merry, Cristina Molinar, Zoe Nicholson, Teresa Posakony, Kerry Sandison, Maria Scordialos, Bob Stilger, Sarah Whiteley, Tenneson Woolf; and friends from the Wilderness Guides lineage, Sheila Belanger, Anne Hayden, Meredith Little, Lynnaea Lumbard, Rick Paine, and Anne Stine.

There are hundreds of alumni of our circle trainings and thousands from consulting and seminars—we see your faces and hear you ring the bell that calls the circle in. May it serve.

C. B. & A. L.