Earlier this year I had the amazing experience of rock balancing in Baja at the Modern Elder Academy.
My experience, was, odd as it may sound, the rocks taught me something, the value of having ever deeper Presence.
Chip Conley puts it beautifully in his recent blog:
Mentoring Stones
Nature is a remarkable teacher, and we use her lessons all the time at the Modern Elder Academy. The fine art of rock balancing can teach us a lot about mentoring. Rocks are precariously sturdy yet fragile, inert yet living, and they have the capacity to fit together if you know how to match-make the stones.
Similarly, the raw materials of mentoring are humans—usually younger than you—who come in all shapes and sizes, literally and figuratively. Your job is to match-make your mentee and their calling.
It takes patience and persistence, but more than anything, it takes presence. In the same way you need presence to feel the click of equilibrium in the small rock on the big rock, you need presence to feel that click when your mentee is fully actualizing their potential in the bigger world. There’s a thoughtful awareness, a still-point in both a rock balancer and a mentor.
Mentors are often Modern Elders, which could be shortened to “mod-els.” We’re models for manifesting greatness, just by attuning to the rocks, to our students, and to ourselves.
Are you ready to stack a stone or two? Mentor a Millennial or three?