Why? A Deep Dive

Why? What Is My Deepest Motivation?

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Friedrich Nietzsche

One early morning as I was journalling, reflecting on a desire to participate in local food and regenerative agriculture initiatives, I became present to a bit of tension, a niggle. Something was ‘off’, not quite aligned. ‘Something’ wanted my attention.

Curious to discover what the tension was about I yielded into the query. What did I need to attend to? What adjustments might I be invited to consider? When no quick direction came as I continued to write, I turned to a nearby divination deck, Colette Baron-Reid’s Wisdom of the Oracle. Might a card offer up a resonate message to prompt my inquiry?

A clear question formed as I shuffled the beautiful deck: What do I need to know about my interest and desire to participate in local food initiatives? I asked before drawing a card.

Although reversed, the card I pulled was easy to read. It simply said ‘Why?’ The question resonated, and the source of my niggle became clear. Am I aware of all that motivates me to participate? Then I read the Oracle’s message for the upside-down card:

Sometimes subconsciously denying the truth may drive you toward a specific outcome that actually aligns with an intention hidden from your awareness. … Now is the time for deep soul-searching of the “why” that drives your choices. What you uncover will set you free and bring you ever closer to the happiness you seek.

As deep sigh emerged, curiosity replaced the earlier tension. I didn’t have ‘the’ answer (or even ‘an answer’). Rather I was shown a clear arrow pointing to a path inviting exploration, an exploration that at once I recognized I needed to attend to. The source of my tension wasn’t ‘out there’ in another person, project, etc. It was right here at home. IN me.

And so, my self-inquiry began. What personal motivations might be lurking underneath my interest in everyone in our community having access to nutritious locally produced food, in caring for our farmers and food producers, and in regenerating the soil in kindness to Mother Earth? Could unconscious reasons or hidden expectations offer up a repeat of uncomfortable, unsatisfying engagements I’ve experienced in the past?

I’m not rushing to discover answers. I’m observing in new ways. Questioning self and tempering my tendency to rush to conclusions. Coyote has been active and visible, visiting just this morning to munch pinon nuts under a pine. What hidden wisdom does she bring? What folly might I need to be aware of?

My soul-searching inquiry continues with a knowing that I want to participate only with full awareness of my deepest Whys and that each aligns fully with my heart and the deepening of my knowing the truth of Oneness. As I journey, I think of James O’Dea and his poignant Soul Awakening Prayer:

Soul Awakening

Heart Opening

Light Shining

Love Flowing

Wounds Dissolving

Peace Radiating

May that higher calling guide me in this inquiry and the choices that follow.

Coyote’s Morning Visit — Wisdom? Folly?

Intention & Living In Harmony

Autum’s Grasses, Evergreens, and Ziggurat

We either live with intention or exist by default. … It's not only moving that creates new starting points. Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective, an opening of the mind, an intentional pause and reset, or a new route to start to see new options and new possibilities. Kristen Armstrong

This new moon day I’m declaring my intention to live in harmony. In harmony with myself. In harmony with others. In harmony with Gaia and all Her beings. In particular I’m focused on the power of our intentions, individually for ourselves and collectively for all, and on the rhythms of Nature. I’m revisiting each of my intentions with the overarching question: Is this intention aligned with valuing ALL Life?

With today’s new moon and solar eclipse arriving just a short 10 days after the equinox (autumnal here in the northern hemisphere, spring in the southern) the seasonal changes to cool, crisp mornings and splashes of brilliant colors on the mountains finds deep resonance in my body and spirit.

In many traditions the new moon is honored as a time to set new intentions and to revisit, revise and reaffirm or release those created on new moons past. The new moon is a time for seeding, and today’s new moon feels especially auspicious in this regard.

Stepping out before dawn this morning and gazing upward to the vastness above, I felt the clarity and connection of the cosmos, a deep knowing that I, we, ALL are from that same stardust. We are all different; we are all the same.

I feel that internal knowing more and more frequently these days. As I walk in Nature’s bounty and beauty, I observe what seems to be the ease with which She changes, a clear reflection of our ever-changing evolution. Buds to blooms to fruit to seed. A tiny green sprout to tall waves of verdant grasses and grains to fall waves of golden browns. Daylight shortens as the sun moves south only to pause and return, beginning yet another new cycle. Humming birds depart and nutcrackers arrive to enjoy the bounty of pine nuts.

I weave my observations of her seeming ease and flow as potential into my intentions for who I am becoming, indeed, who we are becoming. For surely change is afoot in our world and with it our potential to sprout the unique seed that lies within and to align ourselves with the nature of Nature.

At the same time, I recognize the challenges Nature faces – some a simple part of her natural eco-system, others imposed upon her by our human foibles of living in separation and our quest to control. She faces untold challenges and intrusions on the path, just as we humans do. Nature though seems to go with the flow, with her own ways and rhythms of response. We humans attempt to control it all to conform to our comforts, our profits, and our ways. Perhaps Nature has a more advanced view of what harmony truly is.

In the wake of the havoc and destruction of fires, floods, drought, storms, quakes, and volcanic eruptions, Nature seems to be inviting us to pivot, to shift our perspective, to reset our individual and collective eco-systems to align with our planet home.

As I revisit my intentions this day, I wonder, can we calm Gaia by calming ourselves and by moving away from our addiction to control and war as we move toward understanding and love and the Oneness that IS our true Nature? That, it seems to me, is the essence of harmony.

Seeds Ready to Fall

Pausing for Integration & Rest

Sticks, Stones, and Pricklies

REST is the conversation between what we love to do and how we love to be. … To rest is to give up on the already exhausted will as the prime motivator of endeavour, with its endless outward need to reward itself through established goals. To rest is to give up on worrying and fretting, and the sense that there is something wrong with the world unless we are there to put it right; to rest is to fall back, literally or figuratively, from outer targets and shift the goal not to an inner, static bull’s eye, an imagined state of perfect stillness, but to an inner state of natural exchange. (David Whyte – Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words)

This blog morning I find myself saturated like a dripping sponge. I don’t want to wring the excess out of myself, rather I want to be with all the new that has come with this week of high activity and interaction. I feel the need to pause for the kind of rest that allows integration of the abundance of new ideas, new information, new opportunities, new possibilities that have emerged and are emerging in my world.

And so today, I yield the open and lovely white page on my writing desk to nourishment from David Whyte’s words that guided me into deep sleep last evening.

What to Remember When Waking

In that first

hardly noticed

moment

in which you wake,

coming back

to this life

from the other,

more secret,

moveable

and frighteningly

honest

world

where everything

began,

there is a small

opening

into the day

that closes

the moment

you begin

your plans.

What you can plan

is too small

for you to live.

What you can live

wholeheartedly

will make plans

enough for the vitality

hidden in your sleep.

To become human

is to become visible

while carrying

what is hidden

as a gift to others.

To remember

the other world

in this world

is to live in your

true inheritance.

You are not

a troubled guest

on this earth,

you are not an accident

amidst other accidents,

you were invited

from another and greater

night than the one

from which

you have just emerged.

Now, looking through

the slanting light

of the morning window

toward the mountain presence

of everything that can be,

what urgency

calls you

to your one love?

What shape

waits in the seed of you

to grow and spread

its branches

against a future sky?

Is it waiting

in the fertile sea?

In the trees

beyond the house?

In the life

you can imagine

for yourself?

In the open

and lovely

white page

on the writing desk?

Calm Flow on the Rio Grande - Del Norte, Colorado

Pain: A Way In

I wonder how the pine cone feels when it opens to let its seeds fall on fertile ground …

Pain is a doorway to the here and now. Physical or emotional pain is an ultimate form of ground, saying to each of us, in effect, there is no other place than this place, no other body than this body, no other limb or joint or pang or sharpness or heartbreak but this searing presence. Pain asks us to heal by focusing not only on the place the pain is felt but also the actual way the pain is felt. Pain is a form of alertness and particularity; pain is a way in. David White, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words

A thread woven into my life in the week past is rest, deep rest. I’ve been both resting deeply and observing what arises from such rest, and I thought it would be the focus of today’s post, so I turned to David Whyte’s Consolations, remembering an essay on the topic. On the way, pain intervened.

Not felt physical or immediate emotional pain, but in Whyte’s essay, I discovered a gift that stirred the depths of another thread weaving in my life recently: health, more specifically my fear of ill-health. The stirring invited me in to shine a light on a recent health event and my reactions to it.

In shining the light, I discovered that my fear of ill-health is but a veneer for deeper fears lurking within. Weeds in need of plucking after being exposed in the light of new awareness. Weeds that upon being plucked open the potential for a transformational pivot from fear to a higher frequency. The pain of fear opening a way in.

The soil holding those ‘weeds’ seems rich with nutrients desiring to serve a different crop. Underneath each deeper fear, the soil offers up an invitation to plant that new, higher frequency crop. Like the nuts, seeds that fall from an opening pine cone.

An invitation to surrender found within the envelope of fear around losing control to a system in which I have little trust. A reminder too that ‘control’ is itself an illusion.

An invitation to trust awaiting the light of discovery in the envelope of fear of needing help and that help not being there, coupled with a fear that I didn’t do enough of the ‘right’ things to maintain my health.

Shining a light on my ego-driven fear of humiliation offered up an invitation to deeper self-love and self-acceptance. And, an invitation to compassion in the envelope of judgment that sometimes surfaces around the choices of others when they experience ill-health.

Pain, a way in? Yes indeed! Pain, a way into shining light on fears lurking, fears that have no place for permanent residence in a life that aims to live into the truth of Oneness and conscious co-creation with Source. And yet fears that when I allow them to visit, hold gifts, invitations to pivot into the very life I desire for myself and for all.

On my altar are three stones naming qualities that I aim to create in my life. They are my friends, ones I invite to take up permanent residence: Serenity, Harmony, Curiosity. This day it seems that my friend Curiosity has opened pain as an exploration on the path to establishing that permanent residency for the others: Serenity and Harmony. Paving the way with invitations to surrender, to trust, to acceptance and self-love, and to compassion. Perhaps a walk on the yellow brick road is at hand!

Friends on the altar …

From Villainizing to Compassionate Questioning

The Mycelial Nursery Begins

Evil is always committed in the name of something good. Evil believes itself to be good. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. … The world is in great peril and we have to step away from us-versus-them thinking NOW. … The mindset that demonizes one's political opponent is the same one that demonizes a foreign enemy to make war, or that demonizes a population to facilitate ethnic cleansing. Charles Eisenstein (Shades of Many Colors – read it here)

This September finds me on an inward journey much like that of winter when I snuggle in with myself (and, in years past, a canine companion) by a warming fire, hearty soup simmering on the stove. Yet this week while I’m inwardly focused – asking deeply about myself, our world, and myself in that world, I’m drawn out into Nature, to the woods out back, Cottonwood Creek nearby; opening to Her knowing. Her wisdom. For surely, She has medicine to heal the toxicity of our fractured world.

In the wake of last night’s presidential debate and on this 23rd anniversary of the events of 9/11, my attention gravitates to the political realm, to what is in the belly of the whale of our ‘us vs. them’ political discourse. I look within, wondering what choices I may be making that contribute to the toxicity, the villainizing each of the other.

This inward-outward focus is reflected in a project that I began on the September 2nd new moon: constructing a mycelial ‘nursery’, an experiment to support the mycelial network of these woods. And, hopefully, to yield some tasty blue oyster mushrooms just outside my door.

I sense that I/we need this deep work within to support Life thriving above ground to help us come to more deeply know, understand, and live into what I’ve called ‘the truth of our Oneness’, a focal point in my life that’s shared and reflected here in The Pivot.

I believe the knowing of Oneness is in us all, an untapped well waiting to be tapped, so that its nectar can flow into our lives. As the sweet nectar flows, we navigate daily choices through an ever emerging and evolving lens that helps us align those choices with the whole of which we are a part. Choices that invite, nurture, support the more beautiful world we long to live in and leave behind for generations to come.

I’m saddened by the toxicity I encounter – both that within me and in the world. Toxicity that seems to permeate every aspect of life. I think of the toxic chemicals, created after deeming that certain pests are villains that must be eliminated. Chemicals that kill our soil and pollute our water and our air. We are starving with full bellies as we ignore that Nature knows better than we the ecosystems She needs. And, She knows how to create them.

This same villainizing infects our body politic, with each ‘side’ taunting and demonizing the other, choking out thoughtful, reasoned deliberation and civil discourse.

If we are willing to look beyond the surface, we can see that toxicity rises from believing we are separate – from one another, from our planet, from the cosmos. For when we know that we are One, we will, I believe, begin to unwind and set aside our toxic choices.

There is no single right path or solution. We must each begin with where we are, questioning with care, to discover our own personal pivot points and evoke our will to pivot, not for ourselves, but for the greater good of All.

I’ve long decried the degeneration of civil discourse anchored in demonization. Yet this day finds me contributing to that which I decry, observing myself silently cheering for what seems to be a victory of one villain over the other in last night's presidential debate. I challenged myself to watch and to watch with as much non-judgement and open-mindedness as I could muster, desiring to bring forth my lens of Oneness in whatever way I could. And I did so having read Charles Eisenstein’s timely essay, a long, challenging read that invites us to look beneath each side’s demonizing the other, into the very belly of the whale that calls be transformed. Then, having looked and questioned our motivations and our  questioning, to ask compassionate questions that may help us get to the root causes of our multi-crises. He says,

The revolution we are seeking has compassion at its core. Compassion asks earnestly, “What is it like to be you?” “How did you come to be as you are?” “What is your story?” “What are your circumstances?” “What are your hopes?” “What are your fears?” “What do you want?” “What do you need?” And, as Orland Bishop says, “How must I be, so that you may be free?”

Such questions are for me like rich compost for soil and soul, restoring and regenerating healthy ecosystems outside and in. Are we willing to pivot to such deep, personal questions and care – not to change our vote, but to cast our old habits of separation on the compost pile of that which is decaying, and in doing so is growing nourishing new life of possibility? Am I?

Gentle Flow

The Ubiquitous SOULution

Grandmother Spider, The Weaver of Life

Move yourself into the idea of unity in the universe thereby allowing yourself to become fluid to all the experiences of the universe. Gregge Tiffen

The threads of wholeness, oneness, unity wove tightly into my week as I was reminded that the unity I seek in and for our world lies within my own journey to knowing that I am One with all Life. It’s as if every event that life presents points to this truth. Within the discord that I experience internally and witness in the world lies the potential to know.

Among the many threads in the weave was a reminder, sent by a dear advisor and friend, of a transcript from a talk that Gregge Tiffen offered decades ago, ‘United You Stand’. Much that I encountered reading and from varied media echoed the theme.

In a world whose systems are built on the rocky foundation of separation and division it is challenging to move beyond unity being more than just a concept that sounds and feels good but isn’t ‘realistic’. Yet in the words of Anodea Judith, “We can no longer afford the old, tired wars of you and me, us and them, this and that, instead of celebrating the amazement of each other’s differences. We must no longer see Heaven and Earth as separate concepts, as if the cosmic mother and father had filed for divorce and were splitting up the property, instead of being the ultimate lovers of eternity that gave birth to everything we know.”

She continues, “A world chosen for love is evolution’s next enterprise.” Love, it seems, is the path to unity just as recognizing unity is the path to love. Unity and love. Wholeness and Oneness. All is One. One is all. Time to upgrade realistic.

There are countless paths to bring the reality of the truth of unity to fruition here on our planet home. While each is different, the paths begin at the same choice point: Here. Now. Me. You.

As just one way to bring the idea of unity into practice, Tiffen suggests an experiment imagining oneself as the true nature of water. Think ocean. Think drop of water. He says, “It is a matter of saying to yourself, I exist everywhere. I do not only exist here. Then allow yourself to pull apart and become like a drop of water in the ocean.” He concludes, “You are the ubiquitous soul.”

Living in the high desert mountains, sand is a more apt and accessible metaphor for me. I am a grain of sand. I am the sand. Putting my bare feet in a sandy wash deepens this connection. Simply being present to the wonders in the woods that present themselves each day: the wispy gossamer of a spider web strand, nuthatch revealing a tiny hideaway in a tree trunk, a spider with barely visible legs, the twists and turns made by limbs over time. Each an opportunity to remember, ‘I am that. I am.’

Another of my practices is to intentionally seek and tune in to messages and examples of individuals and groups who choose this path. Examples abound, like the intrepid 96-year-old woman who shares the wisdom and awe of her “second childhood” in this short video To Be In Awe. (Watch it here.) As I watched and listened, I felt a sense of awe wash over me. She is living, fully it seems, into the unity, the Oneness that is Life beyond the illusions of division and separation that are all too often labelled ‘reality’.

For me, in her wisdom she knows that she is the ubiquitous soul, demonstrating her SOULution, with each choice she makes and step she takes.  

I am the sand … AND the ubiquitous soul …

Through Dissolution to SOULution

Pinecone dripping …

In the journey to its flowering, human consciousness has a decisive pivot point when it is thrust inwards toward self-revelation. Once this occurs, an individual shifts away from a life direction dependent on external events and opens more and more to a conscious inner life guided by love and wisdom and the passionate quest to be an embodiment of abiding truth. We call this axis of transformation “soul awakening”. James O’Dea – Soul Awakening Practice: Prayer, Contemplation, and Action

In the wake of a week with challenges in how I relate with others and as I prepare to journey more deeply within in the coming weeks, I was drawn to the simple beauty of James O’Dea’s Soul Awakening Prayer.

Soul Awakening

Heart Opening

Light Shining

Love Flowing

Wounds Dissolving

Peace Radiating

Still feeling some hurt from having experienced dissonance and dissolution along with dissatisfaction (with both self and others), I wanted to skip right into wounds dissolving. Patch up my hurt and move on. But as I read the prayer aloud several times, I felt myself begin to soften into myself as I put my attention on Soul Awakening. From somewhere deep within I felt a longing rising from which my heart opens, my light shines, and love flows, dissolving wounds and opening the way to radiating peace with such brilliance that I hold no awareness of ‘other’ and the voice of my critical eye/I pivots from judgement to live in and speak from discernment and compassion. Sharp. Clear. Home.

Taking the prayer with a bundle of gratitude into an early morning walk, I recalled that in the early 1990s when I began my coaching career, or perhaps even before that, I had a sense of divine order in the Universe, that everything held a purpose in manifesting some divine plan.

Like the seeds of all plant life, seeds within the pinecone hold the code to their purpose. To the beauty within, gestating until their time. All Nature seems to operate in this knowing, synergistic way. Despite evidence to the contrary, I sensed that the same is true for each of us humans. ‘If only we could know and live our purpose, our world could experience peace,’ I recall thinking.

While my belief, indeed my dream, hasn’t changed, I’m growing in understanding that what most spiritual traditions call the ‘soul’ is where our true purpose, that seed given us by Source (Creator, the God of our individual understanding) lives. This isn’t a new idea. Throughout time spiritual traditions have guided, even implored, us to look within to where our true essence lives and to follow the unique guidance planted in each of us as our purpose, our role in a divine plan.

But alas, in separation we have turned away from this Truth of our being, resulting in making choices that have created the multiple crises of our time. We, along with our ancestors are each culpable, in the state of our world today.

But our journey, our pivot, is not about blame or guilt. Rather it is knowing that we each have a part in seizing the opportunities that these crises present. To be present with them as gifts, the presents that they are to nurture the evolution of our consciousness. And then to move with heart-felt light and love to dissolve all that which is not in service to Life. ALL Life!

There is no single path, no one formula, no ‘right’ solution. Rather it is our individual responsibility to seize the opportunities of this ‘decisive pivot point’, turning within to discover our own SOULution, trusting that we will harmonize with the music of the cosmos.

Imagine for a moment the beauty of the planetary eco-system THAT will create.

The Naga Shrine on Cottonwood Creek

Gratitude Step by Step

Moonset

Gratitude is not a passive response to something we have been given; gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us. Gratitude is not necessarily something that is shown after the event; it is the deep, a priori state of attention that shows we understand and are equal to the gifted nature of life. David Whyte (Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words)

Attention must be paid. Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman)

‘Paying’ attention is an investment that returns joy, peace, satisfaction, and more.

I generally think of myself as grateful, holding gratitude for and in my life, and generous in expressing gratitude to and for others. I was carried into deeper reflection by experiences during Monday’s powerful full moon along with reflections on other experiences which guided me to David Whyte’s essay Gratitude and carried me into deeper reflection.

On the morning of the full moon after witnessing a glorious, pre-dawn moonset, I sauntered along a familiar path gathering wildflower blossoms to create a mandala I’d envisioned a few days before. I felt deep gratitude for the beauty, the flowers, and for the spaciousness in my life to engage in this way. Asking permission before cutting each bloom, I did my best to listen for their replies. Indeed, one sunflower said, “No, not me,” and another piped up, “Me please. I want to go.”

Reflecting later I recalled the time years ago when I was creating the labyrinth in the woods out back. As I walked along roads in the area rock beings caught my attention and seemed to ask if they could come and be a part of the creation. Almost always I honored their request, and I continue to experience rock beings in this way from time to time. Each offering a sense of where it belongs and its purpose.

“In your morning sitting space,” a beautiful, green-tinted Crestone Conglomerate recently said when I saw it on a barefoot walk in the sand. “Hold me to your heart.” I honored the call and continue to hold this being to my heart when I feel drawn to do so. Each time I feel its comfort much like holding a favorite blankie or my stuffed, ‘Hobbes-like’ tiger (you do know Calvin and Hobbes, don’t you?).

Remembering such experiences kindles gratitude, and reading Whyte’s words, gratitude rises from paying attention, reminds me to nourish mindfulness. ‘Paying’ attention is an investment that returns joy, peace, satisfaction, and more. ‘Paying’ attention is free. And it is freeing. Can we ‘afford’ not to ‘pay’ attention? Are we perhaps living in and witnessing the consequences of not paying attention or of investing our attention unwisely? I wonder.

Returning from my full moon morning saunter and walking the labyrinth with a sense of gratitude, the phrase ‘make each step gratitude’ rose in me. I placed my attention there, gently guiding it back as my mind attempted to wander.  I wondered how our world might be if we cultivated the rich soil of gratitude with each and every step we take. What might be possible if we paid greater attention to all the beings on our planet home and, indeed, to Mother Earth, Gaia, herself?

As I feel this clear connection between paying attention and gratitude, I see them both as necessary elements for living in the Truth of Oneness, of knowing our divine connection to ALL Life, and to the very Source of Life itself.

May each step we take in the days and weeks ahead be attentive, intentional steps that nourish mindful gratitude for ourselves and for ALL Life. So Be It! 

Full Moon Mandala

Year 12 Begins!

Soft Grass in the Morning Light

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty

and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study

and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. Jelaluddin Rumi

Waking not frightened but feeling empty this morning, I recalled this Rumi verse that I’d read a few days back. So, I didn’t grab a pen and open my journal, my version of the morning door opening to the study. The instrument I took down was not musical. I grabbed my walking stick and headed out the front door.

I found the earth soft and moist, and the grasses were glistening from last evening’s rain. Rock beings, shining after the overnight shower, seemed to be singing along with the many active, vocal winged ones.

Steeped in the visual, sensory beauty of early morning in the foothills of the sacred Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the emptiness lifted. I felt full of life and with curiosity about what would emerge in this post, the first of my 12th year of weekly postings. Soft and bright like the verdant grasses at first light. Grateful. One with all that is. I am that, I am!

A bit further along, rounding a corner and seeing an overturned container and garbage strewn about, my near-bliss softness instantly turned as prickly as thorns on the cactus that grows alongside the grasses and wildflowers. ‘Wake up people, this is bear country!,’ was the kindest thought I could muster. I bristled as I snapped a photo to send to the absentee owner of the house that’s rented as an Airbnb. … And then…

… Then I remembered what I know: that I am One with ALL that is. Even those whose choices and judgement I do not align with or understand. How might our world be if we all learned to ‘live with the bears’ whatever their form? How might my life be …?

I find myself invigorated by carrying such questions. There is heart-felt beauty in discovering the pivots necessary so that I may live more fully aligned with this Truth that I am one with All that IS. With my fellow humans – each and every one. With all of Nature’s creatures – including those I experience as pesky and that I may desire to control. With the weather in all its expressions and with Gaia and her diverse forms of expression and communication. With unseen life above and below. With planets, stars, galactic beings – all the elements of the cosmos and beyond.

And that is how this 12th year of The Pivot begins, much as year 11 ended with last week’s post. The message isn’t new. The thread of our interconnectedness with one another, Nature, and cosmos has been woven into many posts since The SuccessZone began, August 15, 2013.

But in this pivotal time, the theme of pivoting from separation to Oneness, is emerging as my personal trajectory as well as the purpose and direction of my writing and presence in the world. It is time that we ReMember. And it is time that we kiss the ground as we embody this remembrance that we are All One. It is time to seek out, play with, and support those who are building this new world. Let’s do this!

Thanks for being with me on the journey!

Prickly Cacti

Beyond Battling, Beating, & Maintaining Separation

Crestone Conglomerate

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’

doesn’t make any sense. Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

 Beyond our habits and the systems of separation from which they rise and are fed is the truth of our existence: we are One with all that is. We are in the midst of what can, if we cooperate in co-creation, be a seismic shift from the lead weight of separation consciousness to the uplifting reality of Unity. Are we willing to invite our souls to lie down in that grass and move beyond the language, ideas, and actions that feed separation? Am I?

Are we willing to set aside our habits of division and othering and come to a feast that honors All Life and commits to finding ways forward in cooperation and communion with one another, with Mother Earth and all her creatures? Am I?

In this evolutionary time when change is upon us at warp speed and the world we’ve known is crumbling, which path will we choose? Will we set aside our souls to enter the battlefields of competition and survival? Or will we invite our souls to lie down in the grass and listen? To self. To one another. To Gaia. To the cosmos.

At that macro level, the choice seems so clear, so obvious, even easy. But as we’ve all heard, the devil is in the details. It’s in looking at the micro, the choices we make with every step and every breath, that the opportunity exists to call forth and co-create Unity. To gather. Together.

The daily choices of life – what we say and to whom, what we do, how we be, what we consume, where we invest (time, energy, capital) – reflect which path we’ve chosen. The systems of separation have given us templates that define success and give us the steps it requires to ‘be successful’. As I look out at that world its so-called success doesn’t look so good to these eyes.

How is it that all the drops of water flow in the creek? Together. How is that the varied elements in our Crestone Conglomerate rocks came together and live as in beauty as one? What does Nature have to teach us about success?

This wasn’t the track I began writing earlier this morning when I revisited questions from last week’s post that I’d carried forward into my week along with the intention that they inform, show me opportunities for weaving threads of unity into the fabric of life. Indeed, they did so, showing me where I bristle and (over)react and where I’m invited to grow more fully into my BEing as one of the One. Pointing to my misaligned micro choices.

I noticed the prevalence of language that separates – beating, battling, controlling, and so much more: a colleague ‘battling’ grasshoppers in the garden; a friend sharing a book about ‘beating’ cancer (and an angel friend who pointed out the violent language of the title); my own swats at pesky mosquitos and, even worse, a snarky reaction to her well-intentioned communication. No matter how well intentioned, thoughtful, organic, et cetera, each maintains the status quo of separation. Of control. Of dominance. Of winning and losing.

All too often we think (and we’re told) that we must do big things to change the world. I disagree. I think we need a groundswell of little things to wake up to who we BE:  to shift our language; to examine our choices and align them with what the world we want to create; to seek out allies to collaborate with; to listen and respond to all Life with an open heart. To harmonize inside and out.

May we each find our path to the Field that Rumi calls us to and, as my friend, author Rivera Sun suggests in The Dandelion Insurrection: Be kind. Be connected. Be unafraid.

Morning at Cottonwood Creek