2008 ... A change in perception

This is the Chinese character for change: dangerous opportunity. It's the perfect symbol for the coming year! This is a longer post today, as befits the start of a new year. I hope you find it inspiring.

Life can throw a lot at us, sometimes more than we think we’re capable of dealing with, and often there isn’t much we can physically do about it. Those are the times when we feel impotent and the feeling is so disempowering that we may be tempted to give up.

I raise the point because my intuition tells me that 2008 is going to be a year of change. As with the genesis of all change, the first stages occur beneath the surface. A friend of mine planted potato seeds in her garden last summer and was getting impatient and concerned when the spuds didn’t seem to be growing. This is typical of most of us, especially when we’re hoping for and even expecting change and growth. When we can’t see it, we begin to wonder if anything is really happening or if we’re doing something wrong. And who among us hasn't had those passing thoughts in the past year?

Well, I think global change has been germinating for quite a while and it will begin to break surface (to use a submarine term) in more obvious ways in the coming year. Some of you have voiced to me that you’re wondering if we should expect changes to our physical world, or if it will be political and/or economic.

I think the changes are going to be in the realm of information. I have felt for a while now that ‘the truth will out’; it will be revealed to us. I’ve mentioned before that truth and lies have completely different energy; that of lies, twisted back on itself to form a sort of inverted spiral. On an energy level, I can feel a lie, and so can most psychics. I would go as far as to say that most people can but not all of us can identify what we’re feeling when we feel it.

The truth about Enron, or at least some of it, has come out. As with all lies, one lie requires another to cover the first, and before you know it, you have a whole fabrication of lies. When one is discovered, it doesn’t take too much digging before the others begin to come to light. An environment is created where the public begins to doubt the formerly accepted status quo, and expand the doubt into many other seemingly related areas. The fear is that if they could be duped once, then about how many other things could they still be in the dark? They start to look askance at everything they once trusted.

A profound level of mistrust arises, creating a crisis of faith encompassing more then just the original lies. By association, we mistrust all the people in the affected organizations, all the same or similar positions and professions in other organizations, the laws themselves, and not just the individuals and organizations who broke the trust in the specific, publicized incidents.

It is said that trust is a given until it is broken and then it takes a very long time to earn it back. The effect of any sort of lie is to erode the very fabric of community, where trust forms a crucial element of the bedrock upon which we build our relationships, for the purposes of commerce, government, education and family.

When I say that we’re going to see a year of change, I mean that it will come about on every level mentioned above. I don’t suppose it will be limited to just the corporate, political, global or family levels. I think we’ll also find it amongst the world’s religious leaders; local and on high. We’ll find it in our education systems, the scientific community, the medical community. In fact, I don’t think there is an area that will be immune. The fact that it will appear to be everywhere is what will cause the crisis in our hearts and minds.

I mentioned earlier that in feeling disempowered and mistrustful, we may be tempted to give up or become cynical. I encourage you to guard against these for a few reasons which I will outline below.

Firstly, not everyone has been lying, or creatively bending the truth, or even lying by omission. There are many individuals who witnessed some of what has been sanctioned and in some cases even demanded by the organizations in which they were members, and they may have felt gagged. Standing up and challenging the lies may have been tacitly or blatantly discouraged and they may have feared for their jobs or even their safety. These individuals, and I believe there are far more of them than we know, may be mightily relieved when the truth comes out. You may be one of them.

Secondly, I believe we have the tools and the creativity to deal with the fallout from these revelations, even if the results look like a mess. We could be tempted to throw the baby out with the bath water but we should think this through before we do anything precipitate. Our constitutions are principled documents, encouraging us to be idealistic while at the same time recognizing that we’re human. The common problem lies in the interpretation of our guiding principles, not in the principles themselves. Our boat may have sprung a leak but that doesn’t mean that we don’t know how to sail, any more than it means that there is something wrong with the principle of sailing. And, to continue the metaphor, even if sailing isn’t the best way to get where we need to go, I believe we have the global resources and the creativity to find another way.

Thirdly, we may have to look at the events that have led to our feelings of hopelessness, and ‘reframe’ them. By that I mean that the events about which the truth will come to light will quite often be about what happened in the past. When that is the case, there is nothing we can do to change what has already happened. What’s done is done. What remains within our power however, is to change how we look at it. Learning from a past mistake or betrayal, and seeing it for what it really is, is the first step in making sure that we don’t repeat it.

Vowing to never trust anyone again will not be useful. Rather, we should be more judicious in what evidence we require before we trust and in how involved we are in the follow-up. Perhaps we have been lulled into trusting so much, or scared into focusing our attention elsewhere, whether it was by our elected officials, educators, clergy, corporate leaders, etc., that we absolved ourselves of responsibility for due diligence. For that we must take responsibility and endeavour to make changes in our future behaviour.

Fourthly, in this era of apparently vast quantities of information, so much specialization and so many so-called experts, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and unable to determine what is actually the truth. Who do you trust and how can you be sure? I believe there is only so much homework we can do and then we have to rely on our instincts.

No, I’m not advocating that you retire your brain. I do suggest that we have been overly reliant on our brains, to the exclusion of our ‘gut’ sense of what is right. There are many times I’ve heard people say, ‘that doesn’t seem right’, or, something smells funny about this’. If it doesn’t seem right, it might warrant further digging on your part, or at least your postponing your decision until you get more information (the job of the brain). Don’t let yourself be pressured into having to make a decision right now when it doesn’t feel right (the job of the gut).

And lastly, in the coming year, you may know right away that you are a leader and just what you should be doing to help correct a given situation. You may have been biding your time, waiting for the sense that the time is right for you to do what you feel best suited to do. I say, go for it!

On the other hand, you may be a supporter and you just haven’t felt there was anyone to support yet. To you I say, when you find the right person, support them! Neither leading nor supporting is more important or more valuable. Both are necessary. You’ll know when to move by ‘feeling’ for the truth. The truth feels different than lies. Viscerally, you will know which feels right.

So, in these times of change, when so many about us will be afraid, disenchanted or angry, and when the ones who have been illegally and immorally co-opting our power, are trying to use fear to convince us to continue supporting what they are doing, hold on to your centre and open your heart. Know who you are and use your heart to FEEL for the difference between truth and lies. Don’t panic, get cynical or give up your right and your responsibility to make informed choices. Think positively. We have the systems and the solutions already, if we will just look for them and support them.

So, bring on the change! It’s time. We have been manipulated by fear for a long time and we’re ready to take up our power, integrate our brains with our hearts and make some different choices.We can live in a better world and there are those among us who have the blueprint and the passion. We just need to recognise and support them while we find our own paths.

I wish an inspiring, passionate and positive 2008 to you all. May you remember who you are and have the courage to stand for what you believe in. Let us remind ourselves of our true potential and live it, one day at a time.

Nothing is something

I've been giving some thought to 'doing nothing' lately and I've come to the conclusion that it is vastly underrated. The subject of 'nothing' may seem a little strange at this time of year, when we are all so busy, but I think that it's topical. I've decided that I should strive to be neither a human 'doing' nor a human 'being' but rather a 'be-doing' - the best of both worlds.

I stepped out of the formal world of business more than seventeen years ago because, after nine years, I was spent. But I didn't just step out of my job; I also stepped out of the 'busy-ness' I had been so hooked on for so long. I can see now that I thought that being busy made me important, made me look like I was needed and valued. I started the habit in high school where it helped me cope with feeling completely alienated and alone, and I just kept going with it into my twenties. By the time I reached 30, I'd finally had enough. Whatever it was supposed to be doing for me, it wasn't working and I knew it.

At thirty years old, I moved to the other side of the country and started afresh. I went back to school, worked part-time to keep the wolf from the door, and in the process I found a way to still myself for short periods, the way I had when I was a child. I found me again. I can't say that I loved everything I found when I looked inside but it prompted some soul-searching. Looking back at that time, I can see that I needed space; some 'nothing-time'.

Although it was somewhat scary to be without work for the eight months that I was, and somewhat threatening to my identity, it was also gloriously freeing. I let go of scheduling and I could go to bed when I was tired and wake up when I was refreshed. I could walk outside, or read a book, in the middle of the morning or afternoon. I stopped dreading Mondays. I no longer got angry when it rained on the weekend. I felt I could breath freely again. When I left my job, I had been as tightly wound as a kid after ice cream but not as happy. It took me months to unwind, but I did, and I am richer for it.

As I look around me lately, I think that many of us are as wound up as I was, and not always to good effect. We're so busy we don't seem to be able to make time for the things that really matter in the long run - family, deep friendships, learning, service, fun and rest. Keeping food on the table is important but is that really what ALL the busy-ness is about? Honestly?

These days, the buzz word we hear is 'stress'. We have to 'manage' our stress levels while still finding ways to get everything done. At the end of the day, 'doing' seems to be how we're measuring ourselves. We've bought into the idea that 'doing nothing' is wasting time, and with death looming on the horizon all our adult lives, that's close to a sin.

I was looking at a friend's artwork the other day and we were talking about having white space in the composition. Whether it's deliberate or accidental, life as well as art needs a space on which to rest the eye. Chefs know this; there has to be an element in the best designed meal where your pallet can rest, or your taste buds get overwhelmed and the most beautiful flavours are lost.

I believe life is the same way. There needs to be a certain percentage of our day/week/year when we take time. The exact duration, frequency and way of taking it will vary according to each individual, but I believe it's more than just necessary; I believe it's imperative. If we don't take it, life turns into an unexamined, undigested blur, sometimes even a lump, as we run without pause from one activity to another. And don't tell yourself, "but I take a holiday!", if your holiday is as frantic as the rest of the year and you have to 'catch up' when you return!

Sometimes I think we've lost the art of 'nothing'. Even the acts of examining and thinking are still 'something'. When I was in school, if I got caught staring out the window, I was chastised. Staring out the window on school time, or work time, was and is unacceptable. But outlaw it as we may, the healthy student, or worker, will find a way to take it, even if we don't know we're doing so. Some part of our psyche knows that we need it - crave it. The shame is that we most often end up feeling guilty about it.

Doing 'nothing' is like the fallow field that rejuvenates itself for a season. It's the sabbatical that we seem to think only professors need. It's day-dreaming and reveries. It's watching the clouds scud across the sky or birds at the bird feeder. It's watching the rain on puddles and the snow on the windscreen. It's listening to adult conversation ebb and flow around you when you're a kid and not needing to participate. It's staring out the window on a plane or a train and not needing to do anything in that moment. My generation knew how to do it when we were kids. Along the line, I think we've learned to devalue it.

So here's my suggestion for the week ahead, in this frantically busy time of the year, with so many demands, obligatory social functions and so little time: make some space to do 'nothing' - whatever your version is. It may be challenging but do it anyway. Find a space, however small, to 'un-do'. Savour it. Recognize it. Value it. And then see if you wouldn't like to build it into your life more regularly. Consider it a present to yourself. If you're someone who can do healthy 'nothing', then good for you. Keep doing it and model it for us.

I wish you a little morsel of 'nothing' this Christmas season. If, like me, you're more Pagan than Christian, then enjoy the first coming of the light. If you're into the Christmas celebrations, I hope you enjoy the camaraderie and the sharing of goodwill. If you're of another persuasion and have to put up with the negative side of this time of the year, I wish you patience and earplugs, or an invitation to join in our annual craziness. Bless you all.

Hope and a better world

At this time of the year, in the Northern Hemisphere, I become pensive, especially regarding the state of my world and the larger world around me. I gave up watching and listening to the news many years ago because I found it profoundly disturbing to take in the pervasive levels of fear that seem to coat each item presented in the name of awareness, for the public to consume. And still, the major news of the world sifts into my awareness anyway.

We have three weeks until the tide of light turns and the days begin to lengthen once again. I actually welcome this dark time of year, as I do the long days at the opposite end. Both bring with them the opportunity to purge in different ways. In June, I long for the chance to celebrate the life that surrounds me and expand into the lightness of being that comes with sun and growth. In December, I crawl into my cave, dream my dreams and set my sights on the freshening of hope.

I realize that I’m a little ahead of the game here but I thought that we might need some time to think about this, before the tide of light shifts. I’ve been reflecting this week on how sad I feel when I look at the state of the world. A friend of mine has been sending me articles that remind me that not everything that goes on in the world is reported in the media, and that we must steady our sights on what we strive for, rather than allowing fear to encourage us to lose hope.

Believing that dreams should be made practical in order to manifest, I have set myself the challenge of creating my wish list for a better world. If I were to have the world I could be proud to call home, what would it look like? Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. This is a longer posting that I usually write so I hope you will bear with me and take this away as fodder for thought. I recognize that I’m being idealistic and we’re not there yet; that’s the whole point.

Peaceful
My world would be at peace. I believe that constructive conflict in moderation is healthy. It shows us what matters and what is not yet as we would like it to be. However, I don’t believe we’re meant to live in constant anger, nor carry revenge from one generation to the next. It is harmful to the heart, the mind, the body and our communities. It forces us to expend energy and talent on finding ways to defend ourselves and/or defeat the identified enemy. There are surely more valuable things on which to expend our creative energy.

Confident
This may be fundamentally linked to my first point but let me make it anyway. I would like every child to grow up knowing that they are valued and unique. Let us measure them by their talents and interests, and encourage them to explore these as the basis of their ongoing contribution to their community. Let us treat them with respect so that they will continue to respect themselves and their fellow human beings. Let us celebrate their mistakes as a way for them to learn how to correct themselves and make different choices next time. If we all had more self confidence, maybe we would be less likely to live in fear.

Interconnected
I’d like my world to be like a web, where everyone is connected to everyone else through the forgiving tension of the web. By ‘forgiving’, I mean that the web has elasticity and doesn’t break as soon as it comes under stress. I would know that I matter because whatever I did in my corner of the web would immediately be felt by the rest of the web, and vice-versa. A web such as this would make borders obsolete. I believe that borders are designed to protect power and that the desire for protection is the result of fear.

Transparent
A transparent world would be like everyone having telepathy. There’s no point in lying if your thoughts are transparent. No doubt we would have to learn some strong interpersonal skills to deal with the fallout from having our thoughts on public display, but I believe it’s possible. Incorrect assumptions could be dealt with immediately. Public figures would have to tell the truth. Everyone would have to be more self-aware and responsible.

Learning as a way of life
With the amount of information available in our world and the rate of change that we experience, I believe that learning has to be recognized as a way of life. Teachers have always walked among us and should not be relegated to institutions, with low recognition. We are all teachers when it comes to what we have a talent for and are passionate about. Learning is not something that we only do at school and information shouldn’t be treated as a commodity for those who have the money to pay for it. In my preferred world, we would learn as we felt the need and teach as we had the talent.

Money as energy
I don’t pretend to have the answer to the problem of the equal distribution of money in our world but I confess that I do not like the way it works at the moment. I had exposure to an ‘alternative economic system’ when I lived in Scotland and I liked it. It had potential to be more equitable than our current system which seems usurious to me. Units of barter in an alternative system could be treated as energy that ebbs and flows over time. What’s important is that we keep the units moving, through each person’s spending and earning, and not that we accumulate more than we need or that we go into deepening debt. In my ideal world, people’s worth would be measured by their unique talent and their contribution and not by their bank balance or accumulation of things.

Beliefs that enrich
I see other people’s beliefs as part of the mosaic of humanity and not as a threat to my way of life. Language, culture, religion, food and ritual all make our world a richer tapestry. I would hate to have a homogenous world. On the other hand, belief systems that are intolerant of others’ rights to believe differently are not compatible with the idea of an interconnected web. Ultimately, we will have to come to a global consensus about values that we can all live with, that are mutually respectful and tolerant, otherwise we will not survive to live another day.

Our health and that of the planet
This ties back into our being interconnected. I believe we should treat our bodies the way we treat the planet and our planet the way we treat our bodies. We may have a self-aware brain but that doesn’t give us the right to destroy the natural balance of the planet. In fact, I think it brings a unique responsibility to keep things in balance and not doing so will be to our peril. Finding ways to cure diseases is no great feat when we engineered the conditions that created the diseases in the first place. A healthy body is a balanced body and the same goes for the planet. We have the talent, the ingenuity and the will to clean up the planet and our bodies, and keep them that way. My ideal world is a balanced one.

* * *

I think that’s as long as I can stretch your attention for this week. I hope what I’ve written here inspires thought. Nothing I’ve mentioned is rocket science. It probably isn’t even complete, but I hope it’s positive. It is my fervent wish that there are many more people than just me out there, who see opportunities to create positive change for our future. I hope that there are people working on it as I write this. Blessings on them, whoever and wherever they are. I may not know what they’re doing but they do. I hope they know they aren’t alone. I hope someone spreads the stories about what they’re up to so we can all be inspired and reassured as we approach the solstice time this year.