Small Fish, Big Pond

On Wednesday I accompanied some women from the community to Sheffield ready for Its Our Community on Thursday, a gathering organised by the Citizen Network. 

It’s the first time they’d been to anything like this and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I’d been hatching a plan in the hope that people organising at the very grass roots / street level in Wigan, Netherton and Bradford, might be able to get together and start some conversations.  I also knew there’d be good friends there too, so we were in safe hands.

It was a busy day and I didn’t get much time to chat to the women until the way home in the car driving over Snakes Pass.

They said things like ‘it opened my eyes’, and also said things like ‘that bit went over my head’.

I heard  ‘we felt like little fish in a big pond, you dont realise how big this is and how many are doing it’. 

I’ve been up in the hills this weekend and been thinking about small fish since. 

The way it was said, you could confuse it with feelings of not good enough or comparison. The idea of needing to feel better than others, when feelings of not feeling good enough show up.   And, I imagine there was some of that in there too, we are all human after all.  But it had such a warm edge, like real humility. It must have been humility, as the words warmed me.

Small fish – isn’t that all we need? Lots and lots of small fish swimming around together, connecting with each other to open eyes, exchange ideas and learn from each other? 

I got to thinking, imagine if that idea was more prevalent in some institutions.  What if they saw themselves as little fish in a big pond of citizen fish. 

What difference might that make to the steps we all take? And, how might that open the door to authentic collaboration? 

I have to say my favourite part of the day was watching people from different communities exchange numbers & plan exchanges. I’m really curious about the ripple effect from the day. What new life may emerge in  community ponds when we create the conditions, then get out of the way?