In this episode of the Worth Work podcast the quest begins with the question: Why are teachers leaving the profession? Enter these fifty three minutes and twenty three seconds where Jesse and Desmond have a conversation and contemplate the heart of the matter. The invitation that emerges from their conversation; Worth Work is a way of being, a beneficial way to expand our humanity. Deeply knowing our own worth will help in little shifts to create conditions for justice and equity to be more present. If we dare to feel our fear, learn from it, pivot into the joy of the process who knows what types of creative visions emerge. Be sure to catch the 2 BARS guided meditation at the 15:35 mark and the key words and phrases freestyle rap summary at 50:45 mark. Enjoy!

01:37: Desmond- "Worth work as this idea to reframe equity from the burden and the 'when will it be done' type of approach. Switching it to a way of being. And from this way of being you will experience your worth and others will experience their worth more often. So they don't have to question it. They have more resilience for others and they can be more compassionate. its being, its movement, its not done, its continuous..."

02:42- Mentioned Cornelius Minor from his book We Got This. The actual quote that Jesse alludes to is "The true masterminds- the real enemies- in this dystopia are the business as usual attitudes, binary thinking, and inflexibility with which we have been conditioned to approach these problems."

03:23 Jesse- "The biggest hindrance to creativity is fear of all sorts." Jesse shares a metaphor for fear that have been helpful from him. Keep fear in the backseat of the car but don't let him DJ and play the music when you're driving. Listen to fear's 16 bar verse but not his playlist. Hear what fear is saying and be informed but don't let fear control the vibe. This metaphor he credits to hearing somewhere along the line from author and speaker Rob Bell

04:57 Desmond- "It's acceptance that every person is on their journey." Desmond shares an analogy about a labyrinth [from a book called Find Your Red Thread by Tamsen Webster] Labyrinths exist in our minds- we can see where a students journey could take them into vitality, but we don't know where the students labyrinth will take them. We can provide space to navigate the labyrinth.

07:38-08:32 Jesse explores how as educators can build capacity with an alive-it (word play off diet) what we feed ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally to take a vibration into the world that helps heal instead of getting sucked into the fear based vibrations that exist all around us- in the news and all the gossip.

09:05 Quote from a Forbes Article: This is the Hard Part of Teaching. Its Getting Harder by Peter Green- "A fundamental challenge of teaching is coming to grips with this: There is never enough. Never enough time, never enough resources, never enough you..."

10:03 Desmond- "The idea of not enough...This brings up a few questions- What's vital? What's enough?"

10:10- Jesse- "What would it look like to serve the whole? Ideally thats when we are the most whole hearted and alive, when we have that vision tucked into our daily actions."

10:20- Desmond- "Yes- moments of whole heartedness. It's not permanent where you reach this state and you're done. It's this dynamic equilibrium. Meaning the amount going into the system is essentially the same as the amount going out. The flow is balanced and there is always movement and change.

11:00 Quote used at the 01:37 intro mark- Desmond: ""Worth work as this idea to reframe equity from the burden and the 'when will it be done' type of approach. Switching it to a way of being. And from this way of being you will experience your worth and others will experience they're worth more often. So they don't have to question it. They have more resilience for others and they can be more compassionate. its being, its movement, its not done, its continuous..."

11:55- Desmond- "Imagine people having this way of being- 'I have a lot of power in this room, I'm going to step back, because I should not have this much control and power in this room. I'm going to empower somebody else so that equilibrium of the space can be maintained."

12:40 Desmond- "Whats vital? At the core of any learning is relationship. I can't teach anybody anything if I don't have a connection with them... But the way we've constructed these systems to facilitate taking care of our needs, our learning needs, our eating needs, our child care needs and all that... the system is constructed to not really care about our race. (BIPOC)"

13:28 Jesse mentions an interview he did with Carlos Chavez and how he made a connection about covid pandemic being a metaphor for the virus of racial injustice thats been existing in our context and culture. The whole interview with Carlos Chavez is worth checking out.

15:05 Jesse- "Its not as scary as we've been conditioned to really go into our fear..." But we can't do it alone- together we can create these conditions

15:35 2 BARS guided meditation. Breathe. Align. Relax. Shine.

17:54 Desmond- "Racism have convinced white folks they are fragile.... Humans are resilient, racism has convinced humans who identify as white that they are fragile. That they require privilege and power just to feel comfortable. The resilience of the human spirit, every person has, have you done the work to develop that strength?...It comes back to- experience is the best teacher. The experience of struggle will teach you resilience.... The shadow work will gift the most light."

19:38-20:58 Jesse explores an idea that whiteness is sampling the worst things about humanity: the fear based versions of power and control. The beautiful aspects of humanity were not sampled when whiteness in our context was created. The work is to sample something better then what whiteness gives us.

23:35-25:36 Desmond shares an analogy comparing getting honest music feedback to why we need different perspectives and background to do things differently.

26:46 Desmond "Its by committing to move through the tension that we ascend to the next level. And the tension is that we want to get to the next level with as little pain, guilt and death as possible. There will be pain, guilt and death. These are the doors we have to go through to get to the other side. Every time we see these doors we have the ahhh- I don't want to go through them."

27:34 Jesse- "Makes me think about a slowing down to give ourselves time to feel that... and back to that- 'every external thing happening is an invitation to an internal process.' I think that Worth Work is creating a world or communities or schools where its more and more accessible to take that time..."

28:35 Jesse "I'm still in the process, what is my piece to play in eradicating white body supremacy, my part in serving the whole, my part in creating a genius awakening, genius over doubt type of community and culture. It’s starts with myself and it’s connected to every one else. It's both doing my own work and creating and being a part of everyone doing their work..."

29:50- Desmond- "That manifesting of worthiness is dynamic equilibrium. When there is balance there is an equal worth thing. Imagine a classroom where every student knows they're worthy. They are worthy of a full life's experience..."

31:33 Desmond shares a vision for at sometime we will provide Worth Work habits and practices. So then when certain situations happen, we can trigger our habit loops. We can develop habits of responding that is intentional about building worth, equity, and conditions for justice to emerge.

34:38 Jesse shares some ideas for habits of building worth- taking 2 BARS to breathe, align, relax and shine. Have creative dreaming mode- to exchange knowledge and ideas. PDSAs (Plan, Do, Study, Act) at the end of a creative dream mode. Adisa Bonjoko's practice 3PA>1NT - Three positive actions are greater than one negative thought. From his book Bruce, Bobby and the Bronx- The Secrets of Hip Hop Chess

36:46 Desmond shares a practice that before you start any type of change initiative- do a practice of beginning the gathering by discussing what is working. Quick wins.

37:40-40:35 Desmond explores the idea how to track our growth in Worth Work with small practices. "Every time you practice a mode of communication that improves your listening skills- thats worth work. Every time you practice using language in an intentional way that doesn't trigger a fear based reaction... thats worth work.... Then we can model this way of being...

41:14- Another way to look at Worth Work is to build a capacity to grow and expand.

42:11 Desmond "The pursuit of perfection for me its the fallacy that joy only happens once I'm perfect. Joy can happen in the midst of imperfection and mistakes. Worth Work as the reward is the many experiences of joy that you will have in being this way.

44:06- Desmond explores what our fears can help us reveal. "The fear when we're in it, the Worth Work pivot is the idea of knowing what we are trying to protect (when fears come up) helps us reveal what we want. The pivot is too reframe and refocus on what we actually want. And have gratitude for what you want that is with you in the presence...even if it's just the dream of it."

45:34-49:00 Jesse explores the timeless aspect of our humanity, and how worth work invites us into envision higher frequency dreams: What does a world without racism look like? What could school be like where everyone is getting their needs met? Have the idea, the dream, be committed to it. And yet not attached to how we will get there. What if as teachers we had an entry way into what that dream is for us? A piece of art we make, a vision statement, a song or something of the like. That would help us re-member us to the depth of life.

49:01 Desmond builds off the idea of looking at our work as beautiful over being perfection driven.

50:45 Key words and phrases freestyle edition: enough, fear, propping up, business as usual, moments of whole heartedness, awakening, think tanking, resilience. Get it Des!