Reflections from the ongoing work of practice, leadership, and attention.

These essays reflect an ongoing practice of attention—exploring grief, leadership, belonging, and what it means to live into a new story, personally and collectively.

Reports on Practice Adam Olen Reports on Practice Adam Olen

Praying and Acting in Liminal Space

This period has been hard. I found myself reaching toward something that felt like it might change everything—only to watch it pass by. In reflecting on prayer, I began to see that it is not separate from action. To pray is to witness, to grieve, and to open ourselves to something beyond us. And from that place, we act. This piece explores what it means to stay open, to keep moving, and to find some grounding in a world that does not always offer any.

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Reflections Adam Olen Reflections Adam Olen

My Heart Doesn’t Fit in a Box

There is a growing amount of attention, energy, and legislation directed at a very small group of people. This piece steps back to ask why, and to explore the human, biological, and societal complexity we often ignore. A reflection on gender, grief, and the consequences of mistaking our categories for reality.

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Reports on Practice, Reflections Adam Olen Reports on Practice, Reflections Adam Olen

Learning to Live in Liminal Space

This synthesis reflects on the first five sessions of the New Story Stewards program, exploring how we learn to live in liminal space — the threshold between the Old Story that is unraveling and the New Story still emerging. Facing the reality of the polycrisis, it considers the practices of witnessing, grieving, prayer, and action as ways of grounding ourselves in humility, presence, and love while helping steward what comes next.

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Reports on Practice Adam Olen Reports on Practice Adam Olen

Grieving in Liminal Space

A reflection on grief in liminal times—moving from witnessing to grieving to action. Through ritual, community, Frederick Buechner’s writing, and testimony before the Washington State legislature, this report explores the movement of Witness → Grieve → Pray → Act and what it means to let grief move outward into the world.

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