A few days ago I was interviewed by Jane for her wonderful Glistening Particles Podcast series “Conversations with inspiring random acquaintances”. The podcast went live today and you can listen to it here. We talk about writing, spirituality, dog rescue, and a gazillion other things. Jane has a unique ability as a podcaster. We hadn’t talked or met until the moment of the interview – which occurred virtually, via Skype – but right from the start I felt I’d known her all my life and she created a very safe, wide open space to have the conversation. She asked challenging and inspiring questions, and I’m honoured to be amongst her ‘random acquaintances.’

Actually, it doesn’t feel random at all, her brother Mike suggested she talk to me, I met Mike when I was once part of an extraordinary social network called Zaadz (Dutch for “seed”). Zaadz was a not-for-profit, conscious online community created with a commitment to helping people create a better world. It was my first experience of social networking and online communities – I had avoided Facebook and MySpace, but this was different. And it *was* different. Ask anyone who was a part of it.

Zaadz was a place for authentic conversation, a place where I not only met like-minded people but those who were able to help me see my blind spots. We didn’t share pictures of food or family, we asked each other who we were, who we really were, and in the clear space that Zaadz created, it was possible to show up as our best selves and to ask each other, what can we do to nurture the world and all that is in it?

(Here is an interview from 2006 with Brian Johnson who was CEO of Zaadz: A Cyber Community Making a Difference.)

But in due course Zaadz was bought up and things changed. Some of the members attempted to re-invent the community elsewhere on the internet. I tried to re-create the writing group I’d led on Zaadz, but it just wasn’t the same. I moved into the noisy world of Facebook, scrolling pictures and updates and clicking ‘like’.

And then, out of the blue, many years later, I get an email from Jane inviting me to be part of her podcast. The dialogue we had this weekend felt like a re-connection with the days of Zaadz, and reminded me it is still possible to have these kinds of meaningful conversations and connections on the internet, with people I have never met before; that it is possible to have deep listening, deep sharing, here and now.