Welcome to The Flock!

With each stroke of the keyboard, The Flock is about creating space for folks to learn how to celebrate and mourn with each other. To do that, we need to start getting more comfortable with being uncomfortable, which is always easier said than done!

Why call it The Flock? It’s a long story, and I’ll write more about it soon, but here’s the short and sweet version: In 2016, my wife and I lost a son, Ezra, who was born still. In the following days, months, and years sparrows started to show up everywhere I looked. They stopped by while I drank coffee on my back deck, in the words that I was reading, the music I listened to, and when I was working with clients. I always took it as a sign that my little boy was saying, “Hey, dad!”

I looked up the meaning of sparrows and found that they symbolize power, creativity, community, simplicity, and empowerment. A community of sparrows working together is a model that, in many ways, we can strive towards. As I thought more about sparrows and how they interact with one another and the world around them, it struck me - that’s what I’ve been trying to do with my work as well. Create a community that has the resiliency to work through tough situations, has the emotional resources and abilities to support those around them and themselves, and a community that attempts to celebrate and mourn with one another.

It’s not a small vision. It’s really, at it’s core, about continuing to re-learn what we think we might already know. It’s picking ourselves back up after we’ve fallen or been hurt; it’s learning how to care for people that are (sometimes) hard to love.

Who’s Jason Dykstra?

Hey there! My name is Jason Dykstra and it’s nice to meet you! I’m a father of four (three living), I’ve been married for 15 years, and I’m a coach, writer and teacher.

I could bore you by telling you that I have a Masters in Leadership, that I’m a Chartered Mediator, and that I’m a Certified Grief Coach. To be completely honest though, it’s not my education and credentials that have taught me the most about conflict and grief. It’s the 500+ mediations and coaching sessions that I have journeyed alongside clients through and the personal experiences that I’ve lived through.

What are we doing here?

This is a space to explore how we can better celebrate with folks and mourn with them. It’s about tackling tough conversations, it’s about checking our assumptions and bias, it’s about learning how to walk alongside others in their grief, and about managing our own. It’s about how we can bring our best selves to the situations that we are presented with.

It’s about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.

So every(ish) week, I’m going to post an article and it’s my hope that you’ll find it informative, challenging, and that we can have some great conversations together!

Life is beautiful; life is brutal.

We’re in this together