It stands out as a bright and proud moment. I was a newly minted “professional” mingling with the accomplished-yet-astoundingly-generous front-runners of the Appreciative Inquiry community; David Cooperrider, Ada-Jo Mann, Diana Whitney, Jen Hetzel-Silbert, to name a few. As I offered my business card, I will never forget the brightened eyes and genuine exclamations of delight and curiosity at the sight of my title, “Generative Journalist.”

They are the needed pioneers of our time, those stepping out to hold space for community dialogue that embraces authentic connection, new possibilities and personal efficacy.

Trying to listen well — like striving to live healthy — can easily erode into a guilt-heavy, anxiety-stabbed experience.

I’ve been struck by the hunting and claiming language cropping up in our conversations about our work as journalists and specifically Generative Journalists here at Axiom News recently.

On a foundation of friendship and trust, a small media makers’ circle decided to venture further into experiencing what we’d been flirting with for the past several months — the art and essence of Generative Journalism and the New Narrative Arts.

Listening in on a call last week, I had two of those belly-shiver moments where suddenly the future flashes open and one glimpses what could be. It truly is a flash, a second, maybe two, as if a bare wire zapped some intuition alive. And then things go dark. But the sense of having “seen” a possibility lingers on, like a scent after someone’s left the room.

After more than 12 years of aspiring to practice what we’ve come to call Generative Journalism, several elements have begun to take shape as integral to some of the best experiences of the work.

The Axiom News newsroom is celebrating with team member Lisa Bailey whose most recent stories represent a breakthrough in her approach to her work — and raise the bar for all of us.

Sometimes the significance of a happening revisits you much later. When, several years ago, I found myself in a carload of folks that included pioneer of timebanking, Edgar Cahn, I felt very honoured but certainly didn’t imagine what might emanate from that.

While participating in the third session of the Peterborough Dialogues, a dialogue and media initiative Axiom News is hosting in our home town, I first had a wonderful feeling of sinking into rest, into freedom from striving — and then the thought came, “This must be what being in an oasis feels like.”

An intriguing number of those who joined the Peterborough Dialogues “taste-test” yesterday admitted they weren’t sure why they had come. Some went so far as to say they had absolutely no idea what the dialogues are about – even after having reviewed the media that’s been created. Still, they came.

I had the privilege of joining another set of conversations with community members yesterday as plans for the Peterborough Dialogues continue to unfold.

The Peterborough Dialogues have been described as a forum for finding new ways to be active as citizens alongside existing systems. The initiative is set to launch in the few weeks.