I’m always on the lookout for interesting and meaningful pieces to use as a talking piece. The PeerSpirit Circle Guidelines describes the use of a talking piece:
Talking piece council is often used as part of check-in, check-out, and whenever there is a desire to slow down the conversation, collect all voices and contributions, and be able to speak without interruption.
And here’s a bit more on talking pieces from Christina Baldwin’s Calling the Circle:
Talking piece council teaches us to trust the process, to not carry on when we have nothing to say, and to have the courage to take our turn when a contribution wells up inside us. It is acceptable to take brief notes to remind ourselves of what we want to speak about or questions we want to add, but the most powerful use of the talking piece is to hold it silently a few seconds, settle into our own breath and body, and see what comes forward as our piece of the contribution. In many settings, the most immediate gift of talking piece council is how it slows us down.
Artifacts identified as talking pieces have been found in many First Culture excavations, I can only conclude that the desire to interrupt each other is as ancient as council itself—and so is the desire to be heard without interruption.
Imagine my surprise and delight when I watched the video about the creation of the 2016 Rio Olympic logo and Paralympic logo and discovering two possible new talking pieces:
Now to get my hands on them…
Hat tip to Tyler Wilman for the video.