Every birth, graduation, wedding, and death have a date and a place engraved in our memory. In some ways we are each like a bottle of wine with a unique time and place reflected in what pours out of us into the cups of our people and places. The uniqueness of each person inspires awe and sonder!

Character and virtue are at the heart of human flourishing. If we truly want to flourish long as individuals, teams, and as a culture, we must cultivate the habits of virtue that lead to character, and the vineyard can teach us how. Images from a vineyard in spring, like bud break, suckering, and tucking give us a framework for developing virtues.

Bud development in a grape vine is a metaphor for how character develops in people. Small, intentional actions and choices over time produce character. The competitive edge for companies is not competency, but character. Character matters!

An extended winter pause in the vineyard is required for healthy flourishing and fruitfulness. Grapevines thrive in a climate that allows for dormancy or rest.  

The same is true for humans. We need rest. We need to take regular pauses or our life and our work would come to ruin. Rest can feel like a limitation, but it is really a gift. 

To rest well takes practice.

Like a trellis, the often unnoticed, supportive aspects of life and business are critical to flourishing. 

The ordinary, consistent attention to behind-the-scenes support, alignment of processes, and development of organizational culture will produce and continually support the best outcomes in our company, on our team, and in our personal life. 

Beauty is one of our core values at Conversations in the Vineyard. We believe there is beauty in every season of the vineyard, beauty in every human, beauty in gracious words spoken, beauty in messy communities, beauty in the struggle, beauty in metaphor. Every retreat we facilitate is wrapped in beauty, bringing refreshment to the soul and enlarging our capacity for genuine gratitude, even in the midst of hard realities. 

Authenticity is when our outward actions match what is true and unseen inside our soul. Being authentic creates a sense of vulnerability, which may feel like a weakness. But being vulnerable is very courageous, which, in turn, fosters authenticity. This is the authenticity cycle. When leaves turn from green to crimson, gold, or purple, they are showing their true colors! What a beautiful example of authenticity.

As we consider the ultimate goal of sustainable flourishing in life and leadership, the summer season in the vineyard has many valuable metaphors to live by. Themes such as struggle, hard work, patience, and metabolizing adversity come forward during a summer retreat through metaphors of dry farming, canopy management, and photosynthesis.