Yes, We Can Embrace Our True Nature

These are remarkable times. The tension of opposites feels taut as never before – poised on a brink of both intense devastation, and exhilarating possibilities. Shadow and light seem to be revealing themselves to us in new guises. The events and synchronicities are pulling us, guiding us, to unexplored vistas of our consciousness, wisdom and potential. This feels like the opportune moment to embody a new and ancient perspective.

Could it be that this is the time when we might remember the inherent holiness that connects us all in the breathtaking web of life? Is this an opportunity to recognize the need to pull back our own projections and take true responsibility for our destinies on this planet? Will this be the era where we move beyond the either/or dualities that devour harmony and unity, and embrace our role as peacemakers? Are we capable of listening to the guidance that continually reminds us that our true nature is to honour all that is and serve?

Yes, we can make a leap beyond what we have known and find ourselves standing in our indigenous, essential truth – we are one with all of creation. We are embedded in that web of love.

This is the kind of love that can make justice more of a reality, that embraces difference, and can transform the horror. Only this love can hold us together and keep us from tearing ourselves apart. This is the love can help us stand firm for a better world - a more equal, humane, sustainable and peaceful world.

We are being called to plant our own sacred seeds in the seeming impossibility of the mess, and stop waiting to be redeemed.

A deeply primal instinct as old as life reveals itself through a pearl of wisdom – we will reap what we sow. We are being challenged to tend to a radically new harvest – a radically new (yet old) way of being.

The time is now.

Yes, we can step out of the shadows and begin.

Reading My Way To Conscious Citizenship

This summer, I've had the opportunity to dive deeply into the words and ideas of some great social and political thinkers.  What I've appreciated about what I have read is the integrity, care and honesty that has characterized their work.  Each text has prompted serious reflection in me and contributed to a more expansive and conscious world view.  The gift is that my own notions of citizenship continue to be refined, and I become more aware of how I can contribute. 

The guiding questions for me are: What is my relationship to what is happening in my community, my region, and my planet? and What are my responsibilities in light of my understanding of what is happening? By giving me a grounding in the latest research and frameworks that can help my thinking and actions to be more integrated, I have found that my summer reading choices are better equipping me to engage with my community in a proactive way.

I worry about the state of social and political discourse that I experience around me.  I see a lot of reactive news programing, instant access to information that fails to leave room for deeper contemplation and thought, and a highly polarized debate.  Yet the issues facing us today are so complex and serious, that they require so much more from us.  It truly is in the best interests of those in powerful positions to keep the majority of citizens ignorant and disengaged.  The more you know and understand about the state of the world - most notably in relation to the poor and in relation to the environment - the more indignant you feel and the more powerfully and passionately you respond to calls for change.  Change is always threatening for those who benefit from a current social order.  This dialectic has been played out in social movements for centuries.

One act which is empowering and sustaining comes from giving oneself the time to really understand one or more of the key issues facing a community - whether local, global or both.  Knowledge really is power.  Knowledge coupled with conscious action acts as an immune response to a troubled, diseased situation. 

Every little cell counts.


What I've Been Reading...

Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt.

The force of his writing takes you into his well thought-out arguments for how to restore social democracy in the 21st century.  How did we get to this current moment of intense political and social dysfunction?  Judt helps the reader to understand the road we've travelled, and illuminates the one we can yet choose to walk.

Days of Deception, Days of Revolt by Christopher Hedges and Joe Sacco

Hedges has a way of exposing that the Emperor not only has no clothes, but has no conscience.  Documenting the stories from the "war zones" of unfettered capitalism, Hedges and Sacco force the reader to face and truly understand how dismally we fail our own humanity when we enable profit to matter more than people or the environment.

Everything Under the Sun: Towards a Brighter Future on Small Blue Planet by David Suzuki and Ian Hanington

This book acts as a primer on a number of environmental issues facing our world, as well as outlining what the latest research has to say, and what we can do to turn things around.  Real and hopeful at the same time.  You get a clear picture of what is happening to our precious ecosystems without becoming completely disempowered at how dire the situation really is.  No free passes here -there are constant reminders about what each of us can do to shift the balance in a life-affirming direction.

Relational Reality: New Discoveries of Interrelatedness That Are Transforming the Modern World by Charlene Spretnak

As a teacher, I found her chapter on parenting and education alone to be worth the cost of the book.  I've loved Spretnak's work for many years; she is an original thinker who brings the feminine dimensions of life to the forefront without compromising critical thinking and analysis.  In her latest reflections, she points to emerging (and re-emerging) understandings of life's systems that are revolutionizing how we organize our societies.

What Really Matters

What if you had the opportunity to listen to wise individuals share teachings about some of the most fundamental questions facing the world today?  What if you could sit in circles, or groupings of people who were interested in discussing what really matters to them? 

When I think about what is taking shape in Toronto at the end of August at the fourth Spirit Matters Gathering, I feel strengthened, inspired, and engaged.  On August 24-26, Indigenous wisdom keepers from around the world will gather to have their knowledge honoured and shared with the public.  In addition, this gathering will bring together all people who are asking one of the fundamental questions of our time:

How do we make the shift from an industrial culture that has hit a crisis point, to a sustainable, life-affirming reality for all who inhabit the Earth?


Instead of pretending that there is nothing happening, or that there is little we can do about the major events overtaking our communities and our world, we have the opportunity to come together in a safe, sacred space to share and to speak what is on our minds and in our hearts.  This conference is an invitation to gather as whole human beings - as citizens of the planet - connected in our deep care and concern for all life.  We can no longer put our heads in the sand and hope the messes that continue to threaten our eco-systems will be magically solved without our contribution.  We can no longer repress the knowledge of Indigenous peoples that has so much to contribute to healing our relationship with the web of creation.

Now is the time to honour what is life-affirming.

Now is the time to speak on behalf of creation.

Now is the time to act with purpose and integrity.

Now is the time to affirm that our spirit truly matters in this process.

For more details about Spirit Matters: Honouring Indigenous Worlds see:


http://www.spiritmatterscommunity.com/

A More Authentic Education

I am proud to be an educator.

I feel privileged to work in the field of education on a daily basis.  It's very challenging and demanding work. Yet it is often joyful, rewarding and, at times, positively miraculous.

Educators are profound cultural workers.  We communicate, transmute and, if we have a critical and holistic vision, transform culture through our work.  In formal educational settings, we teach the skills and concepts necessary to engage meaningfully in the world through literacy, numeracy, scientific inquiry, athletics and the arts. We assess, cajole, praise, and deliver consequences when necessary. In addition to this, our role is to create an emotionally secure environment so that learning can happen without fear, intimidation and threats to the integrity of our students.

This year, our school has committed to running a weekly whole school circle.  Based on traditional ways of being in community, the circle is where we sit as equals. This initiative started in September, and we have all (teachers and students alike) noticed how our strong sense of community has been enhanced by this weekly one hour commitment.  Passing around the talking piece and offering each person within the school a chance to express themselves and be heard has been profound.  Tears, laughter, silence and wise-beyond-their-years insights have woven us closer together and made us all more real to one another.  Bullying at our school is at a true low. 

This circle, backed by a strong anti-bullying policy and commitment to emotional safety that has been in place since the school's inception, has become the place where we make authentic communication and respect a living, integrated reality.   It is sacred time during the week because it is the space where we:

....are seen

....are heard 

....are different

....are similar

....agree

....see things from diverse perspectives 


Through the powerful simplicity of the circle, we remember that we are interconnected.

Where We Go From Here....

Today I share with you an excerpt from a powerful editorial written by Nancy Roof of Kosmos: A Journal for Global Citizens Creating the New Civilization.  If you have never seen this journal, I strongly recommend you check it out.  It is full of inspiring articles, artwork, and insights dedicated to the great paradigm shift of our times.

Nancy writes:

Many of us think that by changing ourselves we can change the world, while Second Axial Spirituality recognizes the expanded need to change the way the world works so that it expresses our basic values.  Alone, we are disempowered and victims of mass media propaganda - designed to scare us into numbness in order to preserve the system.  We urgently need to link our global efforts in a spirit of cooperation, as people in every country wake up to the reality that all issues are interdependent and need to be connected.  Even more importantly, it is up to you and me to change the world - not alone, but together.  Whereas the average person is appalled at the worsening situation and feels helpless to do anything about it, let's consider that there are so many more of us - let's find our place in this era of need.  Let's find out what amazing things we can do together.  Help ignite the worldwide protests!

What would happen if we widened our vision, deepened our ideas, focused on our strategies and experienced our felt-compassion to embrace the plight of every single individual on the planet?  What if we were energized by the possibility of making a difference, rather than being defeated by incessant bad news?  What if we designed new systems that expressed a higher turn of the spiral of our human potential?

If you care abut one billion hungry people without clean water to drink.  If you care about the 100,000 Iraqis who died in a war they never wanted.  If you care about unpiloted drones killing people without human guidance and much more, please join the Global Citizens Movement (GCM): A Global Community of Conscience, Integrity and Action at http://www.kosmosjournal.org/.

We care - do you?

While We Can...

Late in the summer, my partner and I got into the series Six Feet Under on the recommendation of a good friend.  We became riveted, and found ourselves watching a number of episodes weekly.  For those unfamiliar with it, the show is set in a family funeral home, and it explores the lives of those who must deal with death on a daily basis.

Intelligent writing and unexpected story arcs were only part of the appeal, we soon realized.  We found ourselves becoming transformed by the process of having to face mortality in the same way that the funeral directors had to face it - as an inevitability.  What always rescued death from its almost banal march through people's lives could be found the emotion it prompted around those who surrounded the deceased - the memories, the connections, the emotions (including complex feelings of regret and anger) and the intangible essence of the departed soul

I've written about the paradox of life and death before, but it has a slighlty different tone for me now.  I saw the characters, in a very unsentimental way, struggle with life amidst death.  Always they tried to reach for what made them feel most alive, as if to act as a counterweight to what they witnessed.  Each had their own way of trying to make peace with that which they realized could not be avoided.  Sometimes they made unwise choices, and at other times they redeemed themselves with their sheer humanity.

Our culture often has a way of making violent death 'normal', yet the true feelings and awareness of our actual death are often unmentionable and the reality, as well as the true grief, remain hidden.  As I witness some brave souls around me facing serious illness, as well those coming to terms with the onset of advanced age, I am reminded that the true gift of life is found in all that we share while we can.

Brave Men

I am currently reading two books, both very different yet culturally necessary, and each written by someone I would consider a brave man.


The first, The World As it Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress is written by Chris Hedges.  He is uncompromising in his indictment of our current economic and political system in the West, which he considers morally and ethically bankrupt.  Hedges points out that we are living in times where we have lost our cultural memory, and as a result, we are ever more vulnerable to the forces of totalitarianism.  In addition, he laments the violence and greed which characterize American society, and the ease with which war and militarism have seeped into the psyche of the nation, serving as a reflex response to any threat to its interests.


The second, Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman is written by Malidoma Somé.  In this autobiography, Somé shares his painful journey of transversing the colonial intervention into his culture, and finding his way back to a spiritually rich and precious heritage.  Through his story, he reveals the depth at the heart of the shamanic traditions of his people, while trying to build a bridge of understanding to the Western mind - a mind that has lost touch with the ground of its being.


Both men are deeply troubled by the violence and alienation which are so prevalent in the world today, and both call for a remembrance of core human values, and the absolute necessity to honour these values in times where environmental, ethical and political decay are seeping into the collective at an alarming rate.  In addition, while each man comes out of a different religious and spiritual tradition, both are loudly beckoning for a re-sacralization of what is best in us as human beings.


Chris Hedges and Malidoma Somé help to redefine our notion of the Warrior, and reclaim it as beings who honour the integrity and beauty of life.