Pivoting Into Autumn

Our Ancestors

The wise leader solves the problem of water first. Lao Tzu

The question before us, then, is not only how we will mobilize to redress the immediate harm done by the current militarism and violence. The question is also how we will plant the seeds of a peaceable economy. There is no more fundamental place to start than with how we grow food, how we feed ourselves and one another, how we relate to and care for the land. Woody Tasch – A Call to Farms

You’ll learn how to be a good ancestor. The answer is in the land, in the mountains, which are the sources of life. Dr. John Hausdoerffer

Tomorrow, September 21 is the International Day of Peace and day 1 of Campaign Nonviolence 12 Action Days (check it out here). I think of this as I reflect on the threads woven into this week past, threads that carry forward from last week’s post about living into a desired future (find it here).

Last week we were approaching a new moon, a time to set and renew intentions. In the wake of that new moon, I experienced two long-held intentions stepping forward with opportunities for attention and action.

The opportunities rose perfectly timed to redirect me from stepping into a commitment of time and energy that was interesting, but around which I felt little excitement or passion, and which, in hindsight, was only minimally aligned with my values.

Food and water. Now we’re talking passion and alignment. Both water and food are ingredients for building a culture of peace. They go hand in hand as elements of Nature that our culture all too often views as resources to be tapped.

The desired future that I want my daily choices to create includes sustainable, just, and accessible to all food systems, along with clean, pure water that sustains ALL Life. I believe that future will rise as we repair and restore our relationship with Nature, as we listen to that which sources Life and align our choices with our planet home.

Ancestry is a related thread in the fabric of life this week, inspired by Dr. John Hausdoerffer in his webinar, Kinship with Mountains, (enjoy it here). If you’ve been with me for a while, the title alone clues you into why I was drawn to the event. Hausdoerffer speaks beautifully, questioning how Life could look when we “recognize Earth as our kin and Mountains as our ancestors.” I wonder, as does Hausdoerffer in his forthcoming book, What Kind of Ancestor Do I Want to Be?

Are my choices aligned with that? What pivots are indicated?

As summer gives way to fall here in the northern hemisphere and we approach the autumnal equinox with equal hours of daylight and darkness, I feel myself musing these heady questions from a deep, heart-centered place. What do I value and what actions align with that? As my priorities shift what old habits, beliefs, ways need to fall away?

It seems a different pattern to be in these questions in the season of harvest. Perhaps my harvest of opportunities this week is nourishment for navigating what lies ahead and the questions are integral to receiving that nourishment. Perhaps they will linger and be the focus of winter morning musings by the fire.

Perhaps I’m experiencing the speeding up of time in a changing world, on a changing planet. Perhaps I feel an age-related urgency.

I pause to observe Zadie Bryd licking her paws, then rubbing her face, as she lays nearby. I wonder what she’s experiencing in her body and whether there’s something I need to know or to do to support her.

The observation and questioning in that pause brings clarity that, no matter the project or priority, my prayer is that I step into the flow of Life with heart-felt love and care, being the kind of ancestor that will leave this world a better place.

Our Kin

Pivot to Gentle, Curious, Adventurous Perception

The Flow in Nature Reflects the Flow of Life

The way you look at things is the most powerful force in shaping your life. In a vital sense, perception is reality. … There is such an intimate connection between the way we look at things and what we actually discover. If you can learn to look at your self and your life in a gentle, creative and adventurous way, you will be eternally surprised at what you find. John O’Donohue (Thoughts Are Our Inner Senses in Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World)

Life has a way of presenting us with opportunities when we are open to receiving. I aim each day to live in that openness and curiosity. Waking this morning with fresh awareness of two seemingly unrelated dream fragments, I wondered how they might relate to each other and what messages the dreams offered.

On top of them, Mind recalled a choice that I’d taken with me to sleep: which of two events scheduled at the same time should I attend? Then Mind leapt to analyzing, comparing the two, apparently seeking a rational decision to put the question to rest now even though the events are a few days away.

Feeling tense and pressured (self-imposed to be sure), I paused. That wasn’t how I wanted to make the choice. In the pause, a gentle suggestion rose, “Ask for guidance.” Ahh … I relaxed, pivoting to a more curious, gentle perception of the question. Hmm … What is my intention for joining either event? What guidance am I seeking?

Muse reminded me that ‘back to basics’ is always a good place to start. As I sat quietly, clarity began to emerge. I began to wonder, “What is in my highest good and the highest good of all? Which event will best serve my growth and provide opportunities for expressing my values, for building community, and for more closely aligning my life with Gaia?”

The questions as context further eased my angst and the self-imposed pressure to decide now. They give me clarity for the guidance I’m seeking and opened me to receive that guidance. They offered a gentle path to making the choice and offered an opportunity to be creative in doing so.

I realized that I could let go of ‘missing out’ on something and open to the gifts I’m sure to receive whichever event I choose to attend. That’s the beauty of our thoughts; of allowing them to emerge, to develop, to shift; and to being gentle with self and all that creation presents.

The process unfolded in a short time, but the reminder of the importance of thoughts, awareness, and perspective will stay with me far beyond the making of this choice. May I be continually surprised by where my thoughts lead and the adventures they offer up.

Morning Clouds

New Year, New Stories

Full Moon Spiral

I am a person who constantly is trying to liberate myself from my socialization and the weight of the culture that I was born into . . . so that I can choose in every moment how I want to respond based on my values and care for the whole. Miki Kashtan (8 January 2023 – This Nonviolent Life: Daily Inspiration for Your Nonviolent Journey – Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service)

More and more I’m noticing places where my values, my dreams, my care are at odds with so much what’s brought forward in mainstream culture, so it was no surprise that this daily quote caught my attention. Its declaration of aiming to be at choice about how to respond in every moment based on values touched a resonant chord in me. That very idea itself is liberating.

As I began to explore, I wondered, ‘Do we need to struggle? For me, the language of ‘constantly trying to liberate’ suggests struggle.  Muse sighs and tickles another question or two: On what foundation is our culture built? What’s beneath the surface of our cultural habits and our socialization into that culture?

Stories. And stories about stories. Our stories. Old stories. Accurate stories and those that are not. Stories. Conscious stories. And those of which we are not aware.

I’m no stranger to how stories form our world, the culture, and ingrained habits of living and walking in that culture every day. Or to how our own stories about those stories (yes Muse, MY stories!) form the life we experience and how we experience it. Indeed, The Pivot is replete with stories as was The Zone, its predecessor. And with calls for new stories to create our world anew.

I believe that every thought we think and action we take is based on layers and layers of stories and beliefs, many of which we are aware of and far too many of which have been lost to our awareness. Yet conscious or not they inform our choices, build our world. And they inform our snap reactions, as I was reminded by an experience – and my reaction – this week. (‘Now we’re getting to it!’ encourages Muse.)

Despite a good amount of work and attention to shifting over the years, I discovered that a long-held story that I’m not enough still lingers in layers of my being, popping in at inconvenient times without invitation or conscious choice.

I experienced such a ‘visit’ several days ago when I received results from a recent body scan, a tool intended to provide insight, direction, and support. But rather than seeing my results as they were intended, I reacted as if they were a personal affront, criticism, clear evidence to support the old story that I’m not enough.

I spiraled (‘downward’ notes Muse) for a bit, holding the results as an indicator of something ‘wrong’ in me that needed to be ‘fixed’. It was familiar, if uncomfortable, territory until a different story rose in me. That story invited a different view, a view that the results are an invitation, not to fix, but to grow, to learn, to deepen understanding and awareness. I embraced the invitation into new territory or to familiar territory in a new way, opening curiosity about what I might discover. A path of exploration became clear.

New stories. We need them individually and collectively in our chaotic world that is crying for a remodel, a reboot. No current writer/thinker that I’m aware of groks and writes about the importance of stories more cogently than Charles Eisenstein. And, given my experience this week, it’s no surprise that he published an essay a couple days ago outlining his ideas contrasting the old stories of separation with new, emerging stories of interbeing: What is the Next Story? (I encourage you to read or listen here).

With each choice, thought, and action we are following the old or making way for the new, supporting its emergence. I know which path I choose. May my choices be conscious, clear, and consistent with calling forth the new.

New Snow on the Peaks!

Soul Stirring of Winter

Beauty Abundant

The geography of your destiny is always clearer to the eye of your soul than to the intentions and the needs of your surface mind. John O’Donohue (Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing in Eternal Echoes: Exploring Our Hunger to Belong)

As winter weather continues to settle in and we move closer to the Winter Solstice, I find myself more pulled within. Much of what I read stirs something in this soul. I feel a choice point coming, a gestation of something that as of now has no words, no form, no clarity. Certainly, no certainty. I wonder how ‘it’ will emerge or even whether ‘it’ is an ‘it’ at all.

Muse gently reminds me to embrace the stirring and all that isn’t known, then guides me back to an experience that seems to point toward some shift on the horizon.

As I was putting away an abundance of leftovers a few days after my Thanksgiving feast with friends, I listened to Robin Wall Kimmerer reading her essay The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance in an Emergence Magazine podcast (find it here -- https://emergencemagazine.org/podcast/). She was speaking a topic near and dear to this heart while picking serviceberries: an economy based not on scarcity as it is now but on abundance, reciprocity, flow, a gift economy.

I listened, aware of the irony, the juxtaposition throughout: I’m packing and storing as I listen to a wise woman’s words about giving, sharing, and flow. Beyond the leftovers, I’m reminded of the abundance of pinon nuts that I harvested in the woods. Except for those shelled by a friend and enjoyed with our Thanksgiving feast, they sit on the pantry shelf waiting…

Abundance, flow, reciprocity, using, gifting … These ideas are not new. They resonate deep within as the truth of who we are, who I am. They point to possibilities some of which are emerging worldwide.

This, I think, is foundational to a level of consciousness needed to grapple with the issues of our time. Perhaps a part of Einstein’s admonition that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them.

Then I wonder ‘what needs to shift in my thinking, my being, and my habits of doing?’ so that I more fully align with what I say I believe? What habits of choice do I hold and follow that are of the systems of scarcity? As I pose these questions to self, I do so in hopes that only remnants remail. Yet I know our systems have imbedded their ways, their thinking in us, in me to keep the lie of scarcity alive: ‘there isn’t enough, hang on to what you have’.

And so, I pack and store, having on some level bought into the lie of scarcity. Yet I hold a knowing that this is one of the ways of the past that is in hospice, moving toward laying to rest so that new ways can emerge, be nurtured. How that will look in this life I’ve created and in the world beyond is ours to determine, ours to co-create. May we do so in harmony with one another and with dear Gaia, Mother Nature, our home.

Mossy Love in the Woods Out Back

From Institutions to Inner and Interdependence

Dawning Sangres

This Huston Smith quote (thank you Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service for your Daily Inspirations!) evoked a nod of agreement, a chuckle (as in yep), and a long sighing ugh! Its truth runs deep in me. I could even add to Smith’s list of institutions and systems that serve neither humanity nor the planet. (Were Smith alive today, he likely would as well.)

Decades ago, I withdrew from religion and (after some years of aimless wandering in the territory) I began to forge a spiritual journey that continues with unexpected twists and turns to this day. The journey – heck, I might even accurately call it a quest – has guided me in numerous ways, many of them away from what we call ‘mainstream’ beliefs, culture, institutions, and such.

I tend to see ‘things’ – indeed life – differently than most of what I observe in the mainstream and many with whom I’ve engaged. Years ago, a revered leader in coach training circles dubbed me a ‘contrarian’. I wear the badge proudly.

I’ve long had the ability to see ‘both’/all sides and to accept the paradoxes that result, though I find it harder in today’s polarized culture as the sides dig more deeply into their positions. Institutions, as they are constituted by people, suffer and are failing as a result of this polarization. We’ve lost willingness and capability on all sides to listen, learn, cooperate.

And so, as institutions fail and fail us, I seek to find my own way. Seeking guidance and advice from others whom I trust and with whom I feel an alignment of values, I find myself making decisions from the inside out. I always aim to choose from my heart (and being human, sometimes falling short). I call this way ‘innerdependence’, strength from within to move forward in life; trusting self over institutions; depending on self-knowing, guidance from within. (Dr. Google, Webster, and Word inform me there is no such word. Hmmm…well, there IS now.)

Speaking of now, about now you may be wondering ‘what does this have to do with institutions?’ (I was wondering too as Muse guided the pen across the page!). We’re glad you asked!

As my innerdependence and self-conviction have deepened, I have been nudged (and, sometimes, pushed) to pull away from supporting institutions of all flavors (government, corporate, economic, education, etc.). They are not only failing us – you and me – they are failing, unsustainable, many breathing/gasping for their last breaths. I’m choosing to envision and to discover systems that are sustainable and that recognize in their designs the interrelatedness of all life. Interdependent. Cooperative. Life valuing. Life enhancing. Life generating.

I am clear that the future I want to see emerge is not ‘more of the same with some tweaks that (maybe) make ‘it’ better’. I envision and, by my choices, I call a world that works for all as we each follow the inner knowing of our unique roles, purposes, and gifts. From that individual innerdependence, new systems and structures rise. They recognize and honor our interdependence with one another and with all life as well as the interconnectedness of all life – from the unseen and microscopic to Mother Earth herself and the vast universes beyond.

My dream is not just for some distant, imagined future, this world is emerging NOW, being built NOW in thousands (perhaps tens and hundreds of thousands … maybe millions) of initiatives. As I pull away from mainstream institutions I’m creating and opening doorways to discovering amazing initiatives underway to co-create this future. Local, regenerative food systems and agriculture. New, innovative investment vehicles designed to do good in the world. And much, much more.

As I explore and choose to plug in, I will be sharing these discoveries. Meanwhile, I invite you to reflect on where your time, energy, and money are plugged in? How are they supporting the future YOU want to see in our world? For yourself? For the generations to come? For humanity and for our planet?

Evening Sky

Pivot to Re-Ordering Life

Elk Herd in the Neighborhood

The nonviolent person does not seek an impossible compromise with the times, nor a prior, intemperate synthesis for the times. The nonviolent person sees life in terms of a choice toward change, involving a re-ordering of life. Daniel Berrigan

This quote popped into my box (thank you once again Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service for your Daily Inspiration!). It seems apropos for this time of war – yet another war that makes no sense. War has never been the answer. It never will.

I’ve been thinking about borders. How is that we humans are so preoccupied with borders? What in our story of separation has us believe that they are real? On some level we know they are not, but borders and ‘we/they’ have been ingrained in us as important to our identity. What if we reframe our identity to Earthlings? Gaians? Heck, even Humans!

Early this morning Zadie Byrd and I make the 60-mile journey to the vet (her eye irritation hasn’t eased since surgery two weeks ago). We crossed the Rio Grande River at a point that was once the western boundary of the Republic of Texas, reminding me that borders are mutable. Countries come. Countries go. I wonder what quality of life we could create if we gave up the idea of maintaining and expanding borders. Of pivoting from the constraints of borders and defending them to creating community with one another and with Nature.

For surely Nature and the planet do not give one whit about the artificial lines we humans draw on maps and then defend at the cost of unfathomable life, limb, and treasure. Astronauts who have spent time in space speak of a deepened understanding and appreciation that we all share this planet as they look down at ‘home’. How might we take up that perspective?

How might we re-order life around sharing our planet home and its bounty rather than the continuing the historical practice of mine/yours? Win/loose? Bad/good? Haven’t we suffered the trauma of this approach sufficiently to genuinely want to end violence?

How might we re-order life to care for our planet home, shifting the use of our treasure to help her restore from our abuse? What if the trillions of dollars spent on so-called ‘defense’ were re-allocated to support life in all its forms?

While my heart aches for the trauma of all who are in the path of the war in Ukraine, I’m putting my attention not on who will be the victor. For in war, any victory is temporary. Rather I’m asking deeply, how do we re-order life, individually and collectively, to end these cycles of violence? What thinking do I need to shift? What beliefs do I need to challenge? What choices toward change can I make?

If your thinking and sensing is moving in this direction, here are a couple essays that I’ve found helpfully thought-provoking this week:

·        Charles Eisenstein’s The Field of Peace (click here)

·        George Lakey’s article The Dangerous Assumption that Violence Keeps Us Safe (click here)

And, I leave you with these words of wisdom from Thay:  The individual has to wake up to the fact that violence cannot end violence; that only understanding and compassion can neutralize violence, because with the practice of loving speech and compassionate listening we can begin to understand people and help people to remove the wrong perceptions in them, because these wrong perceptions are at the foundation of their anger, their fear, their violence, their hate. —Thich Nhat Hanh

Rocks are different on the west side of the valley …

Pivot to A Culture of Care

Storm Clouds In the Sangres

Greed is the absence of care.

Zadie Byrd and I took a short overnight trip to a nearby mountain community earlier this week to meet our trainer and support her in learning to be a calmer canine. It was our first trip away in over a year, and in our short 30 hours away I experienced a wide spectrum of care (and lack thereof) that has me reflecting on how our culture and the economy we support have made greed a part of our unconscious standard operating procedure as we navigate life’s choices.

Before you react with your ‘I’m not greedy!’, as I did when the Muse started me on this exploration, take a breath, open your heart and mind. The Muse didn’t take me on the path of blame, rather invited me to simply consider choices I make around what I purchase and where, where my nest egg is invested, and the like and to look at the bigger picture beyond my individual choices.

Now back to that triggering word: greed (pretty charged, eh?).  Merriam-Webster defines greed as a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (such as money) than is needed (emphasis mine and the Muse’s). I’m guessing that no one reading would define themselves as greedy. Heck, I don’t define myself that way. And yet, I how often do I want more than what I need? How frequently do my purchases and other choices I make? More importantly, what is the impact of my choices on the greater whole of which I am a part? How often do my choices consider only the ‘bottom line’?

Take for example my quest to find the ‘best rate’ at a hotel in the area we visited. Good for my ‘bottom line’, but how does my choice impact the ability of hotel management to pay its service staff a reasonable wage … reasonable enough to afford living in a community where real estate values are soaring?

I share this example from an experience at the hotel which demonstrated to me a lack of care on the part of management in fully cleaning and preparing our rooms for occupancy. I’ll spare you the details, but in part the situation was a result of being understaffed because there isn’t a supply of affordable housing available to service workers in the community.  Although the manager apologized, he also expressed the attitude that ‘if you don’t like, leave and I’ll rent the room for full price’. It was a disheartening experience reflecting, to me, a lack of care.

In looking more deeply, beyond the moment and my disappointment, I thought about my own role as a bargain hunter, looking for a deal on that which I purchase. I thought about how investing in real estate solely for financial gain undermines community. The Muse and I won’t pick on folks who buy a house and convert to overnight lodging because they can make a lot more money than renting longer term to a community member – service workers, educators, others on whom quality of life depends. Yet such choices are squeezing communities throughout these Colorado mountains and beyond. They’re made with care predominately around money and/or our own personal comfort (not that these are not important – they are!) but without care for people or the planet…

Like the other end of the spectrum of care we experienced from our trainer (providing healthy dog treats from companies with sustainable practices and sharing that info so that we too have the resources) and from a small local eatery that sources much of their food locally and did an exceptional job of cleaning each table (and all the chairs!) after each party departed and the next arrived.

This week I invite you to notice where you witness and experience care or a lack thereof. Join me in considering the choices you make. Did your bargain jeans come from a source that exploits labor and disregards its environmental impact? Examining such choices is rich territory for creating a fundamental shift to a culture of care not just for profit, but also for people and our planetary home.

Breaking for a Healthy Treat!

Calling Forth Unity

Crestone Peak Peeking Through the Treetops

It’s time to pivot: calling forth and practicing unity, oneness, the interconnected nature of life. Time to cooperate and co-create.

This is week three of what has emerged as a theme of the weekly muse, consistent with observations and concerns about our world and with my heart’s deep longing that I live more fully into the reality of unity with each step I take and every choice I make.

Reading some new/old material from Gregge Tiffen, one of my greatest teachers, reminded me that our sojourn on this earth is not an easy ‘school’.  We are tasked with the challenge of working with/working on three levels that are often in conflict: body, mind, spirit. It was an important reminder as I seek to practice unity – inside and out – in a world that seems hell bent on division and separation.

As I sat in the quiet of daybreak this morning, it occurred to me that dark and light are not separate. Opposites, yes; but light and dark coexist, cooperate, and flow from one to the other and back. Whether in the dark of night of a new moon or in the light of a ‘Colorado blue sky’ day, the ‘woods out back’ are ‘the woods out back’. The degree of light or dark simply changes my experience of seeing the woods.

Perhaps we might consider the same of other ‘opposites’: good/evil (every time I write this word, I’m reminded it is simply ‘live’ spelled backwards); we/they; pro/con (vaccine, life, war, and the list goes on).  We are different, yes. We each have our stories that differ, sometimes widely. And we are the same: humans navigating a tough learning school at this seemingly pivotal point in time.

As I further engaged the muse, I wondered what all the aspects of the growing (and troubling to me) ‘vaccine divide’ and a recent movie, A Wrinkle in Time, have in common. Each presents the opportunity to ‘choose the path of love with conviction’. Yet each in their own way perpetuates separation: the movie with its classic ‘good vs. evil’ where one or the other must ‘win’.

The vaccine divide doesn’t look much different. Each side choosing language to vilify the other, claiming they alone are ‘right’ and the other is ‘wrong’. Neither side recognizing the truth in some aspects of the other’s story. The noise from both is deafening and the damage to families and friendships, heart wrenching (AND avoidable!). Much of the ‘information’ from both sides is fraught with assumption (at best) and both are guilty of fear mongering. Each seemingly wants to usurp my free will to choose what is right for me, my body, my mind, my spirit.

Is anyone reminded of the acrimony of the ‘choice’ vs. ‘anti-abortion/right to life’ divide? It’s enough to bring out my inner contrarian rebel and allow her to dance beyond the words of the weekly muse. I’m reminded of a favorite line from Rivera Sun’s awesome novel, The Dandelion Insurrection: When fear is used to control us, love is how we rebel.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have consistently expressed the idea that the best path forward is to build our individual immune system in whatever ways best serve the body we inhabit, as well as align with our individual, intelligent understanding of available information, and consistent with our personal spiritual beliefs. This should be front and center of public health policy and media attention. It isn’t.

Where is the love and care that providing such information widely would demonstrate? Why does it seem increasingly more difficult (and sometimes lonely) to follow this path? Where is our humanity in this great divide?

Why is it that those who offer information about this path must be cautious about how they speak about covid, natural health, etc. lest a ‘bot’ label their words ‘misinformation’ or worse yet, prohibit others from seeing it? How is such censorship any different than burning books – indeed entire libraries throughout history – to suppress views that challenge our own?

My aim is to not add to the babble of the divide, what a friend calls part of the ‘debris field’ of these times. Rather it is to shine light in the darkness, to rebel with love, sharing that which I find helpful in navigating the choices of this time with solid information, with love, and with care.

Neither I, nor the muse, nor anyone outside of you knows what choices are best for you. But each can offer information, insight, perhaps even inspiration to take the best care of you that’s possible and to be a part of bridging and healing the divide, not furthering it: to call forth unity from within and promote unity in our world. Toward that end, I found this recent video informative and rebellious in a most loving, caring, and unifying way: Strange Virus …

Whatever your choices, may this and other information in your field support you in unifying body, mind, and spirit and calling forth that unity in our fractured world.

Day Fades in the Sangres as the Sun Sets in the West

Making Choices Without Choosing Sides

Sunflower ‘Volunteer’

So, while I really appreciate your support, I'm asking you not to take sides. Charles Eisenstein

Yesterday’s email with its subject line ‘Peace: Important plea to readers’ marked the second time over three or four days in which individuals whose work and lives typically align with my values used the clear, direct language: “don’t take sides”.

The first, a recorded message mostly addressing earth changes and their impact, inspired me to think about the difference between making choices and choosing sides. Eisenstein’s email confirmed my hunch that the Wednesday muse would explore just that. The topic seems a logical (although logic is rarely my primary aim!) extension to last week’s muse that suggested:

It’s time to pivot: calling forth and practicing unity, oneness, the interconnected nature of life. Time to cooperate and co-create.

As I suggested last week, more and more it seems that the world wants us to choose sides rather than simply making choices that are best for each of us based on what we know, what we have yet to know/learn, and what we sense. Sadly in the collective many have taken the bait.

Sharing a point of view that differs from others is seen by some as divisive rather than collaborative. Or, in Eisenstein’s case, when the point of view he expressed was attacked, many of his supporters took up the banner to defend, attacking the attackers. His email yesterday was an impassioned plea to his readers to “abstain from that pattern… Respectfully disagree with their views if you feel so moved, but don’t make it about the personalities.”

Eisenstein’s plea reminded me of a kinder, gentler time when then presidential candidate John McCain challenged a questioner at a town hall who labelled Barrack Obama an “Arab”. “No he isn’t …” McCain said urging his supporters to stop hurling abuse against his rival for president and saying that he admired and respected Obama. Such a move is a powerful choice. If a side is chosen by such an act, it is the side of love, of harmony, of peace, of something bigger than the campaign for president.

All this combined with a deep concern about the toll our divisions are taking on each of us individually, all of us collectively, and on our home, Gaia, Mother Earth stirred my pot of curiosity to wonder just how I might make choices without contributing to the divisiveness. Or worse, being a part of the source. That led me to begin exploring the distinction ‘choosing sides and making choices’.

Distinguishing choosing sides and making choices is, at least in part, a matter of perception and of intention.  What do I aim to accomplish when I choose sides? What is my intention when I make a particular choice? All too often in our ‘on demand’ culture, we leap over considering our motivation. We need to make our point or join the chorus of the herd (but not heard) and move on to the next thing.

Not only that, it’s also far easier to attack, for example, the fossil fuel industry and blame ‘it’ for environmental crises, than it is to look in the mirror of our own habits and consider our role and what we might change in our individual choices. It seems that for the mainstream media, it’s easier to blame the unvaccinated (or another country, or ….) for the pandemic rather than look at the bigger picture of nature/viruses/the planet and recognize the interconnectedness of ALL things and then to make choices aligned with creating health for all.

Blame is the game of the world of division. Responsibility and respect are the badges of honor in a world moving toward restoring unity and connection to our awareness.

May we take time and make the necessary effort that enables us to make responsible and respectful choices for ourselves, for one another, and for our planet home. May I. If a side must be chosen, let us choose the side of power with not power over.

Old Juniper Greets the Sun

I Am That I Am

Sunflower Sea on a Smokey Day in the Sangres

I Am That I Am Exodus 3:14 (King James Version of the Holy Bible)

This week I’ve felt a deepening sense of the truth of unity along with a heightened awareness of how subtle yet rampant the story of separation is imbedded in our culture and, indeed, daily life.

There are the obvious divides perpetrated and perpetuated by media and exploited on all ‘sides’ ‘by profiteering and fundraising using fear of ‘the other’, anything outside of us really, as the primary reason. “Give us your money so we can fight him/her, them, it, etc.” is their constant plea.

I’m pivoting away from giving to such ‘causes’ – even groups and individuals whose views align with mine. Earlier this week I cancelled a small monthly donation to a Congressional candidate because of the onslaught of fundraising emails each of which found a new way to bash the incumbent and proclaimed that I should donate for that reason. No more. Time to pivot. Time to reimagine and create our political system anew.

Continuing a trend that I’ve noticed for quite some time, environmental, natural health, and other organizations that hold positions I agree with seize upon recent disturbing climate and Covid news to ask for donations using fear and the need to fight as the basis for their plea. No more. Time to pivot. Time to dream. Time to create structures and systems that recognize our interconnectedness.

Want my support? Tell me what you dream of creating. Share a bit of your soul. Damn the current system – BE bold in unconventional ways. Hear the deeper longings of humanity to call forth unity. Lead from YOUR heart, not from polls, advisors and others who want you to believe they know the best formula to ‘win’.

Time to recognize that we are each part of a greater whole and that all is in each of us just as we are each in all. I Am That I Am.

Time to sharpen awareness of the choices we make and language we use that perpetuate the separation story in subtle ways we mostly don’t notice. Take, for instance, the term ‘common sense’, a seemingly innocuous term we use share our views and enroll others. I might say, “It’s common sense to drive slowly on wash-boarded, curved dirt roads.” The implication being that those who drive fast lack ‘common sense’, thus separating me from the drivers that I find not just annoying but dangerous. Yet, I Am that driver as surely as I Am me.

When I check in on social media, I see posts using common sense and other such terms to promote their point of view (heck, I’m sure I’ve done so as well) to get vaccinated, eat organic, become vegetarian, invest in gold, … and the list goes on (and on). Most likely there are elements in this musing that separate rather than unify, despite my best effort and intention not to do so. This is what we’ve come to practice: division, separation. It’s time to pivot: calling forth and practicing unity, oneness, the interconnected nature of life. Time to cooperate and co-create.

During a coach training conference some years ago, I participated in an exercise appropriately named ‘I Am That’. (Yes, some of you reading this were there!). The exercise was to be outdoors for a particular amount of time and to notice what attracted my attention. It could be anything – a tree, a bird, grass, a bloom, a car in the parking lot, a bench, etc. Then, looking at it, to declare “I Am That I Am” and to simply BE with that being or object. I recall being deeply moved by a tree (no surprise that I love the woods out back!). As I stood in its presence, I felt the deep connection of being at one with the tree. My core being knew it was so.

Amidst the discord and divisiveness present in our world, I’m adopting the exercise as a new practice. I long to feel that deep connection more consistently. I long to hear the tree, the land, Zadie Byrd, the planet on which I walk, friends, and associates, as well as those with whom I’m not aligned in a way that reminds me “I Am That I Am”. I have a hunch this practice can move you/me/us in that direction as well as supporting our navigation, individually and collectively, through the mine fields of these current times.

What is your heart yearning for? What ideas and practices do you employ to honor your heart’s yearning?

Smoke Clears - A Blue Sky Sunset with Beautiful Clouds Begins