IN THE NAME OF LOVE

Togier Berge Photographer, photo used with permission

In the eyes of the law, the fox kit was out of place, a weed, expendable. To me, his individual life was precious, his death arbitrary.

                                                                                          Priscilla Stuckey

All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.

                                                                                          Buddha

Fragmentation, competition, and reactiveness represent three key aspects of cultural dysfunction, in organizations and society. They are not just isolated behaviors but powerful strategies that have outlived their usefulness.

                                                                                          Peter Senge and Fred Kofman

     

The first quote broke me when I first read it. It broke me the third and the fourth times too. Broke through my sluggishness. Life expendable? Dylan has it right, “the answer is blowing in the wind.”

In Kissed By a Fox, Priscilla Stuckey writes of our western creation story that shaped a rupture in our understanding of the world. It is the separation story of mind split from body and spirit from matter. Tracking Descartes, Plato, Augustine, Malthus and Hobbes, Pricilla brings to light the western confabulated creation story, producing hosts of paradigms: humans steeped in original badness, (and there is nothing we can do about it); animals as unfeeling mechanistic forces; and the belief that if we cut ourselves from our bodily experience, heaven will redeem us. Well, “basta” on that.

History books and the media sirens are rampant with old embedded views, moldy cheese stories. Even the mice don’t want that cheese. Who Moved My Cheese? What I love about paradigms is that untruth can be released. Poof! Goodbye old world-views. Hello life connection!

“In the Andean story,” Priscilla writes, “humans as well as llamas, potatoes, maize, beans, ancestors, rains, and mountains all keep life running smoothly by loving and allowing themselves to be loved.” West African couple, Sobonfu and Malidoma, says that each child is raised knowing they were born to bring a special gift to the village.  Basil, Francis, Thoreau, Butterfly Hill and The Achuar found radiance in connection with our environment, taking stands to protect and honor Father Sun, Sister Moon and Mother Earth. Unlikely Loves written by Jennifer S. Holland chronicles animals who share love between species as they bear their special gifts.

Jennifer writes of Piper of Oklahoma, a Pit Bull, who was first responder in licking rejected baby goat back to life. “Piper and GP (Goat Puppy) were like Mother and Son after Piper revived the little goat that night.” Posed Paws, a group of pet photographers, posted this jewel of love between the species, http://posedpaws.ca/edmonton-pet-photographer/real-life-fox-and-the-hound-best-friends-will-melt-your-heart/. In 2010, the positive news media reported the story of Buddy the German Shepherd, that went viral. Buddy raced to get the lost Alaskan state trooper after Ben Heinrichs let Buddy out of their burning house. Once found, Buddy raced ahead, leading the trooper to the burning house and his family in need.

Martin Buber also got it right. We exist in relatedness. There is the I-Thou relationship. The Wind’s been blowing into a better creation story all along. Many of us are setting sail. The fox kit, indeed ALL life, is not expendable.

Togier Berge, Photographer, used with permission

BEING THERE: NATURE’S ENDURING CONVERSATION

This blog is featured in Eric’s Hope: (http://erikshope.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/being-there-natures-enduring-conversation-by-guest-blogger-karla-boyd/) and in Spirited Women. With planes arriving at 3 am with weary travelers back from the east coast ice storms, this blog is replicated to warm some bones.

I wake up to a hot shower, liquid hot packs on tired shoulders. Later I climb a mountain trail close to home. At the lookout, I gaze over a vast panorama and inhale deeply. The view looks good from here.

Heather Armstrong, writer and lover of Super Mutts, Chuck and Coco, took her daughters, Marlo and Leeta, on an outdoor adventure. Hand gliding, Crocodile Bungee Jumping or Volcano Boarding you might ask? No. Who needs to lean over cliffs when we’re cut off from our roots?

Heather packed her kids in the car and drove 3.5 hours to Arches National Park in Utah in the snow.  The oldest daughter after seeing this magnificent red-orange, brick-hued arch quipped, “Awesome, being out here is, like, nothing I’ve seen ever.” With the media’s unruly playground, that says it all. Nature, it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen.

In our American scarcity conversation, our hunt for the next adrenaline rush, we ignore the obvious. Connect with Mother Earth. We all need to recharge, powered by slow walks and energized runs out onto grassy knolls. Nature is a magnificent host anchoring us, granting inspiration to fuel our day and stay in relationship.

I love nature’s creatures. Okay, I love most of them. But in nature, there is an enduring conversation that is constantly teaching us. As William Shakespeare said,  “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” That certainly was true for me yesterday.

I was at a beautiful gathering in a community on acres of rolling hills, wisteria and gardens that overlook fountains and a little Buddha planted amidst bright yellow and indigo flowers. I was there in birthday celebration of a woman’s life of 92 years, her contribution inspiring. As I walked toward the assembly hall, I was surprised to see the gathering crowd staring off at the grass as if they had not seen green earth before. Granted many came from nearby brown hills with temperatures sweltering in the high 90’s, but this is a wet ocean town. The grass is always green.

As I approached so did a friend, a community resident. Momentarily I saw the grass come alive. Bryce glided through the crowd and swooped the snake up in one smooth movement, holding him then in the air. People gasped. A photo was taken. Bryce ceremoniously draped the snake around his neck, smiling. Astonished vocalizing ensued. Some laughed. The snake squirmed. Bryce departed, snake in tow.

Later, I asked Bryce about his experience. To my admiration he responded, “Poor guy, he got scared when people laughed.” My snake phobia melted. Bryce confided he felt himself a snake in a former life. He recognized his great-grand nephew. We both smiled. We’re all connected. What better way to be reminded of this interrelationship than in celebration of a 92 year-old life, engaging nature’s paradise?

           

CRYING "UNCLE": THE WAY TO BREAKTHROUGH

Things fall apart so things can fall together.

                                                                     Unknown

In the end is our new beginning. What does this mean? It often means when resigned, at our wit's end, we have a chance to breathe more deeply; to walk along the ocean. An “aha” comes. We wrest ourselves from old ways. Yet, we often exhaust ourselves before we surrender. There is a dreadful sense of defeat, having to cry “uncle."

In leadership and organizational development, we as consultants encourage people to declare their blinds spots or breakdowns. Otto Scharmer in Theory U talks a lot about our discovery of the "blind spots" at the individual, organizational and global levels.

When we continue to go about day, continuing the same ideas and methods that we know are not working, we are lost. When we stop to discovery what is our "blind spot," we have the possibility of discovering something we have not seen. Our blind spots are the space from which we generate our action. Our blind spots often are organizational stories, old learning strategies, doing it the same way handed down in our family conditioning. 

The question arises how does one connect with the empty openness of a future as the organization, learning community or personal leadership is falling apart? Surprising, part of that new discovery lies in declaring the blind spot. 

When tooling down the road, have you ever had a flat tire? There was this nail or rut in the road. Your means of being “in action” has broken down. Acknowledging breakdown is the step toward a better future. Why? Because with this flat tire, you realize you are not going anywhere.

Once acknowledged, take notice. What caused the breakdown? Are you and your organization driving too fast? Not checking the tires before you left? Is it your outmoded beliefs? 

Sitting along the roadside, dwelling on bad luck is not the answer. There are lots of steps in between staying stuck and being safely back on the road…and the better for it. How you go about it either generates more breakdown or gets you into genuine breakthrough. I write of having a “do-over” in my blog, Ceremony. It is my personal breakthrough and offers a mapping to a positive future.

What gives you pause to recognize the breakdown? You promised your sister you would not let her down? You have a dream for what the organization's future could be?

Priscilla Stuckey, who wrote Kissed By A Fox, describes her fifteen-year breakdown. An important soul moment goes awry. She writes, "I desperately wanted to find a solution. But in the fifteen years since, I haven't been able to think of one.” Her friend asks a question. The seeming resolution that comes to mind was not enough.

An important part of Priscilla's road to her breakthrough was her courage to not accept a death that seemed wrong to her. Another part was in her admitting her grief and finding ways to heal it.  "My bags of grief, already heavy, sagged even more with the weight...something in the law seemed wrongheaded." This is declaration is her beginning to admit a breakdown. She entreats us to join her in declaring a collective societal disintegration. She writes a compelling book after being led to her own personal breakthrough. In that breakthrough she invites us as readers to see our blind spots with our natural world. 

Wayne Baker of the Center for Positive Organizations says “extraordinary events--positive or negative--are temporary openings for breakthroughs in personal growth, organizational development, and human progress.” Priscilla shows us a positive way to generate communication and world breakthrough. Intrigued? I hope so; her book is a good one. 

Breakthroughs are the revolutionary pathways. They are everywhere. Andrea Chilcote's blog, The Way I Carry Things chronicles her recent breakthrough and invokes us to dare the same.

The world is full of innovative possibilities when we’re stopped in our tracks. What if, instead of staying stuck, you declare a breakdown, see your blind spot and get back on a NEW road to freedom?

Reader, are you willing to stop and invest the time in a leadership process that can take you into the generation of a breakthrough? What is the breakdown then that will you declare right now?