THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, PEACE AND TRANSFORMATION

If I were to interview organizational consultant colleagues, they would say that mission embodied companies are the most likely to succeed. Many consultants write about the value of aligned personal and organizational values. Most consultants know of the gap between living personal values and the organization’s values in the workplace.

We are living at a time that’s vital to our global family’s sustainability. We need to heal the splits between our core right brain values and our actions. Happiness is a core value of the United States Constitution. Many of us now know that the key to happiness lies in manifesting our core values of peace, love, joy, and compassion into our lives and the world. Yet, there is a huge split in we Americans’ ability to manifest equality and happiness for all.

            “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
             they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that
             among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Many Americans say that peace of mind is a core value. Auto and health care insurance; estate, auto sales and pet sitting advertising capitalize on this in their slogans. Yet, the USA does not have a track record of demonstrating peaceful actions and relations. We don't treat everyone in the USA as if they have a right to pursue freedom or happiness.

The Huffington Post wrote a recent article, “Violent Deaths More Common In U.S. Than Any Other Wealthy Nation Report,” finding that “homicide and suicide together account for about a quarter of the years of life lost for U.S. men compared to those in peer countries.” Poverty is another factor in American violent deaths. Alcohol related accidents and drug abuse are others.

           Other Statistics of incongruence with American Values of Peace and Happiness
          1. USA: Highest crime rate of any wealthy nation.
          2. USA: Residents say they love animals and yet consume one-sixth of the
              global population of them. 

3. Most surprising is the Global Peace Index 2012. The USA ranks low on the list.

        

It’s striking that, ranked at #88, Americans haven’t yet demonstrated inner peace translating to world peace statistics. Yet, you cannot be committed to peace, joy and happiness while engaged in practices, images, language, thoughts, values, mindsets, policies and decisions that promote violence.

Physician Gary Slutkin returned from a decade of treating diseases in Africa. When he returned to American, ready to rest from epidemic deaths, he discovered America was not exempt from the scourge of brutal disease. He encountered gun violence that followed patterns of infectious disease. He rolled up his sleeves and went to work.


Americans can join Dr. Slulkin and others who are helping the USA and the world align their core values and manifest them into peace and happiness. Otto Scharmer writes:

           What's being born is...something that we can feel in many places across Planet 
           Earth. This future is not just about firefighting and tinkering with the surface 
           of structural change. It’s not just about replacing one mindset that no longer 
           serves us with another. It’s a future that requires us to tap into a deeper level
           of our humanity, of who we really are and who we want to be as a society. It
           is a future that we can sense and actualize by shifting the inner place from 
           which we operate.

We can shift into love, harmony, joy and compassion. We can find freedom for all. There is growing value in our earth’s sustainability.

It is up to all of us to align our core values with our life practices. I consider this essential and noble work. It’s money well spent. We can close the gap between constitutional declarations, organizational missions, and personal values.

Reader, do you want genuine happiness? Are you willing to invest your life’s energy into creating it for you...and the world?

UNTIL THE COWS COME HOME

I am humming along these days, things unfolding in beautiful and harmonious ways. I also have this little voice that intrudes, “Are we there yet?”

This past Saturday, I was delighted when I emptied half my clothes closet onto my bed. This spontaneous impulse, formerly stifled, was set free. “Clothes are on the bed; organization’s in the house! Yippee!” I was happy, just BEING, sorting clothes by colors, creating order and space.

In the last phase of organizing, appreciating color coordination, this little voice said, “Yes, but what about Linked In? What about organizing the dresser drawers? What about that call you need to make?”

While it sounded like a dentist drilling inside my mouth, it was not an inner critic but a child’s whine.

I explored deeper. This impulse sabotages my happiness sometimes. She speaks to me of TO DO LISTS. She mistrusts “being in the now”.

I started WORKING early in life, putting out family fires. My poor amygdala! http://drbenkim.com/overcome-chronic-fear-anxiety.html  It’s Horse Sentinel Syndrome, scanning horizons for danger. 

In equine-guided leadership, we teach that horses are herd and prey animals. As a herd they move together, promising greater safety from predators. Often in herd dynamics there is a lead mare who will let the others know when to stay and when to move. 

There is also a horse who stays outside this herd cluster. This sentinel is in the role of scanning the horizons, noting if things are safe. It's the sentinel's job to also notice if a coyote is on a hill. The sentinel then communicates this danger with the lead mare and the other horses so that the herd can move to safety.

On a recent walk, I interviewed my inner child using a Psychosynthesis educational model that helps one have detachment to view various concerns and conflicts. http://www.aliharrison.com/psychosynthesis/Subpersonalities.html Turns out, this aspect of my identity needs my help to STOP working all the time! She’s perpetually on duty. She needs to trust “the moment, this now.” And know that it’s okay to be happy.

As I contact her, cows come into view.

From afar, one cow looks deeply into my eyes. I look back into hers. My heart quiets; my breath slows down. She is showing me what BEING looks like. This cow contentedly is, well, chewing on her cud. I hear her message.

“Do you understand? What I’m doing is as important as you working with animal stewards, or cleaning out your desk. I’m lying down, chewing. I’m fulfilling my destiny.”

I listen. I walk slowly toward her. I feel this inner child soothed and grow quiet. Two cows further out walk over to the fence. I meet them. I don’t need to hand them grass or do anything. I just “be”. Curious, four other cows join us at the fence line. I am reminded of Carolyn Resnick’s blog about SHARING TERRITORY.  http://www.carolynresnickblog.com/good-vibrations-sharing-territory™/ It’s about being present, connected, not doing, Zen-like, "letting come".  http://consultingforpassion.blogspot.com/2014/03/wu-wei.html

In inaction, I’m connected.  Another cow looks earnestly into my eyes. We stand close. I look into her large brown eyes. It’s the first time I’ve seen a cow. A veil drops; karla/soul meets cow/soul. I experience a profound peace. We are standing together in a field of love.

Later, I tell a friend about my Saturday interruption and what the cows just shared with me.

No slouch to inner development, Beth responds: “Karla, I believe all of us, as women, have these eternal lists that keep us from nurturing ourselves. We’re compulsive and keep working, scanning for others’ unmet needs. Our lists don’t let us rest. It’s why we don’t easily take care of what we need. Or take time to just be.”

Well, I’m no longer waiting until the cows come home. This moment, this blog, sharing territory with you and the cows is enough.

Do you have a never-ending list, Reader, or are you content to just be?

                                 

MOVE OVER PHILLY, THERE’S A NEW SANDWICH IN TOWN

My next blog might be “Confessions of a Vegan”, ‘cause I am 97% there.

                                                                                               Karla Boyd

               A vegetarian is a person who won't eat anything that can have children.                    

                                                                                                David Brenner

Yesterday and today, I ate in peace. Today I created my version of a Philly Cheese Sandwich recipe. For me what was missing in the old recipe was LOVE.

The film industry has a clause that states, “no animals were harmed in the making of this film.” I, too, say that no animals were harmed in the making of this sandwich! I might be more precise, by the way, in declaring that statement. While The American Humane Society is laudable in their work to protect animals in Hollywood, Pat Derby, The Lady and her Tiger (http://www.pawsweb.org/) lived to tell a different tale.

But now I’m off track. I need to return to what let me eat in peace. (Please see my other blog on this subject: CONFESSIONS OF A VEGETARIAN: Working My Way Back T... It was a worthy detour, but back to the “show.” Here is my mouthwatering vegan, Move Over Philly, There’s A New Sandwich In Town recipe:

Ingredients:

One Slice Daiya cheddar cheese-(http://us.daiyafoods.com/our-products)

One half white or yellow onion-caramelized or grilled

Garlic chopped and sautéed

Fresh Ginger sautéed

Grilled veggies, either roasted red pepper or zucchini does nicely

Gluten Free, Vegan Bun or Bread your choice

1 teaspoon Chia Seeds

Tomato Grilled, Sautéed, or Raw

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Love-“No animal was harmed in the…”

Cooking Instructions:

Caramelize onions, sauté garlic, ginger and veggies…

Fry one bread slice with cheese and Chia seeds on top.

Fry the other slice alone.

Add veggies onto sandwich along with tomato.

Cook a bit more…

When cheese is melted, bring out your best dinnerware.

Eat.

Heaven…..

Of course like a good healthy Philly sandwich, it will drip all over you…

WE ARE NOT YET DONE WITH THE SIXTIES

In 1969, Pennsylvania Avenue was coated with muddy slush as marchers from all walks of life streamed down, mostly single file, in the March Against Death. We marched past the White House to our destination. As we walked we saw others returning from dropping their placards in the caskets at the Capitol building. Some looked relieved; some eyes were wet with tears.  We were all tired. There was a searing question that many shared: “Are we making a difference?” This march brought out our best...and our cynicism.  Yet our hands were held high, hoping somehow that our fingers, separated for peace, could stop the war.

In the last block, we drew up close beside an old monument. Each of us, cold and depleted, wore a placard around our neck with the name of a dead American soldier. The wind whimpered against the caskets now heavily laden in tribute to those dead. I dropped my placard into the pine casket. Some turned away. I could see them vacantly staring. I imagined them looking into that blank space that lies somewhere between life and death.  

Barb nudged me. Her eyes fastened on a large black Pontiac that slowly pulled up behind the caskets. A man in a servant’s uniform got out and went to open the back door. His arm held fast the elbow of a wrinkled old woman. Her gray-veiled hat was ready to topple into a mud puddle. Her worn back was crippled over. Her tiny black glove clutched tightly to a white name card and her eyes met the caskets in resignation.

The man had one arm around the old woman’s arched back, holding firmly to her left shoulder. The old woman took tiny solid steps toward the caskets. She was as old as wars were old. She was as tired-looking as the time of killing is tired. Her face was as worn as the flag. Her eyes filled with tears and a look of pity that the dead now could never know. Her steps remained as slow as the movements for peace remain slow.

She took one final step to the casket. She quivered as she stretched out her hand, gently easing the name placard from her fingers into the overflowing casket. She didn’t waste time for goodbyes. Yet she glanced out into the crowd of people and nodded slowly, then turned quietly and walked back to her car.

Suddenly I knew why I was there, why we all came, why we were fiery, angry and sad, trying to make sense of a war that had no meaning. This one woman, solemn and bent over, shared her love for life that was no more.

“Karla, how did you feel in that moment?” Barb asked. “Well, somewhere in our aching uncertainty, there’s some hushed meaning in what we’re doing.” Put this on your resumes, America. We were there. That moment lives in us. It will lead us home. We are not yet done with "The Sixties".

"And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."
                                                                              John Donne

“ALL WE ARE SAYING”

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."
                                                                                             Abraham Lincoln

In 1979, along with two close friends, I staggered out of the movie theater. We had just watched “The Deer Hunter”. No one spoke. We proceeded to a café. Gently, we found words. “At least this is an anti-war movie.” My friend Robert had been to war. “No, it isn’t. This movie stirs up young men.”

John Simon, film critic, agreed: "For all its pretentions to something newer and better, this film is only an extension of the old Hollywood war-movie lie.” Robert shared a personal war story and then lamented: “These films fuel men to blindly accept military commands.“

Only fifteen years before “The Deer Hunter,” Americans were on their knees in prayer. Across America, the response was instantaneous: “NO” to war. By 1970 some 4 million students protested the National Guard’s killing of Kent State students. Over 900 American universities and colleges closed during the subsequent student strikes. 40 per cent of the American population participated in the anti-war movement.

Chants rang out: “Hell no! We won’t go! We don’t want your stupid war!” “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” When we marched, we KNEW we had a VOICE. We knew that America needed one: “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” 

In 1974, Holly Near belted out “It Could Have Been Me” to a packed auditorium. The audience was stunned, hushed. Teardrops fell. We sat remembering. We sat in hope, a trembling hope, but hope enduring. Peace was still the answer.  http://youtu.be/CadP4dRemYk 

It was a long moment in America’s history, but it came down to simple equations.

There are Americans who believed in going to war. They believed in Government calling the shots. Overnight, a flowering force of Americans sprung up saying, “We WILL NOT go.” WE do not believe in governments who send their children to die in war.

It was a time of voting with your conscience. It was being a part of something noble that did not hang back. It was a moment of taking a stand...standing for something bigger than our personal lives. It was being at risk for a better world. It was the quintessential ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY.

This organization was made up of The Civil Rights Movement: universities and colleges, parents, those sickened by war, flower children, The Women’s Movement, doctors, lawyers, clergy, Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, administrators, meditators, Yogis, journalists, artists and musicians.

The media broadcasted the war AND America’s discontent. Everyone was on stage. Protesters were being graded. A force drove those seeking peace. It was more powerful than any division. We stood as ONE FORCE. WE made a difference.

This moment took root. New life grew. Where were you, dear Reader? How did this TRANSFORMATION impact YOUR life?