This issue includes a spring reflection on expectations in mediation, a guest article on planning for shared family cabins, upcoming events and presentations, and a new referral resources page with materials for families and professionals.
Anticipating Spring, Navigating Expectations
Living in Minnesota, we become very familiar with anticipation. Even after the calendar says it is spring, we are often still waiting for what feels like real spring: warmer days, green grass, and eventually, flowers in bloom. We know the season is changing, but we cannot predict exactly when it will arrive or what it will look like when it does. Minnesota springs can bring sunshine one day and snow the next!
Mediation can feel similar. By the time parties arrive, they usually have expectations, not only about possible outcomes, but also about how the other party will behave. Often, people expect the other side to be difficult, unwilling to move, or fixed in their position. Sometimes that is true. Other times, the structure of mediation creates space for more productive conversation than anyone anticipated.
Anticipation can be useful, but it can also narrow our focus. When we are too focused on what we think will happen, we may miss what is actually happening in the moment. In mediation, progress often comes from noticing small shifts, new information, or openings that were not visible at the start of the day.
So as Minnesota slowly trades its grey skies for longer days and the first tentative signs of green, may this newsletter find you in a similar spirit, present to the moment, attentive to small shifts, and open to what the season ahead may bring. In mediation, as in spring, the most meaningful changes often begin quietly, long before they are fully visible.
A huge “thank you” to Tim Weigel for sharing the following article. Tim is a Wealth Management Advisor based in Woodbury who shares a passion for helping families plan, communicate and navigate challenges to “still waters”.