WU WEI

“What are you doing up there? It’s awfully quiet.”

“I’m doing nuthin’.”

“It is way too quiet for you to be doing nothing.

Don’t make me come up there.”

As old memory enters, I hear a mentor’s words rolling around in me. “Relax. You’ve done your work. You are moving forward. From within. I say again, relax and enjoy your steps.”

I teach and live leadership development: learning to let go, hold hands with Being: let Being do the heavy lifting. My mind tells me that I may as well be taking a pass at an Olympic gold medal as to drop completely into the zone. Some part of me, a marathon runner, sees the next goal post up ahead. She cannot stop running. Must have been all those Wheaties I ate as a kid.

Saturday arrives with my declaration for rest. “Ah, nice to kick back.” Seconds later in the shower the saboteur enters: “Be nice to get your desk cleaned.” “ George and Linda seem like they hit a rough patch. Call them, eh?” I turn up the hot water. “Today, relaxing; no agenda,” I tell my Wheatie’s fan.” If a mind could pout, mine certainly would have.

Nowhere to go. “Ah, but the project,” the yelping voice protests. “Ah, we’re not doing that today.” “Huh?” And so it goes.

Surrender comes: Wu Wei. “Go to the pond,” the no voice says. And so I do. A sigh from body, groan from mind.

Once there, I notice the quietness of water, the lilt of fountain spray, Canadian geese resting. Calla lilies in cozy harbor. My neck releases taut muscles. My legs move slowly in steady stride. Camera hangs loosely. I walk to the water’s edge and to the calla lilies. Casually, I lift my camera.

Wu Wei is the wisdom of non-action or non-doing. Laozi tells us that when we are in harmony with the Tao, we conduct ourselves in natural and uncomplicated ways. I like that.

The geese slowly paddle near my favorite bench. We hang out together, in stillness. I remember hanging out. Just sitting, resting. No reading. No nuthin’.

Quiet for a while. Then mind blurts out: “Do you think the camera will bother the Mallard ducks?” “Will that couple make the geese swim away?” No longer engaged by its chatter, I let my thoughts drift in and out, as if clouds wandering by.

“When mind moves away from noticing breath,” Vipassana meditation teachers say, “gently bring it back.” “When your mind wanders away from a passage prayer line,” passage meditation teachers say, “quietly bring it back to that line.”

Geese continue to groom as I tell my mind: “Slow down, slow down, slow down.” As ducks take to flight, I let my camera join them in play and gratitude.

I watch ripples of water, ducks swimming, their smooth landings from flight, a thing of grace. When thoughts enter, I gently return to the water, just noticing. It calms my spirit.

Camera down, mind quiet, I lie down and just “be”. Doing nuthin’. The geese now cease grooming, stare into the water, not moving, as when I arrived.

“By jove, I think she’s got it,” warm breeze seems to say. Geese and I are present, in tranquility. Doing nuthin’.

GATEWAY TO THE POSITIVE

                                                                                             Photo-Yose-Bierstadt

It is easy to look around and notice what’s wrong. It takes practice to see what’s right. Positive energy heals, conducts love, and transforms. Choose positive energy.

                                                                                                Melody Beattie

                             

Before sunlight can shine through a window, the blinds must be raised.

                                                                                                 American Proverb

“The reprieve from everything negative that these animals offered me was enormous. I was feeling very apart from nature. I had lost my fascination with people. Being so close to the horses and alpacas was really special.”            

                         Lauren Grabelle, quoted in Unlikely Loves by Jennifer S. Holland

This week got off to a blazing start. When I was in Africa, I fell in love with the Chimfunshi sanctuary and I met amazing people, including beautiful ebony-skinned ones. I wondered if, in my lifetime, Hollywood could embrace this beauty. Imagine my delight when Oscar winner Lupito Nyong’o’s moving speech on black beauty went viral, empowering others to step out of internalized racism and into a new standard of splendor. http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/lupita-nyongo-delivers-an-incredible-speech-on-beauty-i-prayed-to-god-for-lighter-skin/story-fn907478-1226846866664 

What allows you to move in positive ways? We are in constant transformation. Let me introduce you to Nick Ortner helping us “tap” our way into transcendent tipping points and to Ryan Eliason, whose mission is: “empower 20,000 social entrepreneurs with mindset shifts and tangible business skills needed to make a positive impact in the world.”

When I need a hit of the positive, I dip into nature’s beauty: flowers, rocks, mountain views. When not writing, working, being with animals or engaged in soulful conversations, I occasionally look to what new offers the television industry has.

My criteria: Is it affirmative? Does it model good values? Is it inclusive? Recently, three shows made the grade: “The Fosters”, “Parenthood” and “Switched At Birth”. They feature families honoring diversity and who are lavish with amends. Actors who might be overlooked are celebrated, with no culture or race upstaging the other. Oscar winner Marlee Matlin shares that in "Switched at Birth," she gets to be herself. It is a beautiful new cultural fabric that we are weaving. We have raised the bar.

Not only did Lupito Nyong’o move me to tears, but also my heart leapt up with a client’s watershed breakthrough. As an activist, my client got caught in a breakdown of “us against them.” Old conditioned bias sabotaged her efforts.

Through her leadership development, this client committed to ending her negative speech and angry outbursts. She cast new stones upon the water. No longer muttering, she is making a solid leadership stand for women caught below the poverty line. Aligned with her values, she teaches organizations to do their leadership development work first. Slow down and do your own work.

We toasted her 20-year project completion that celebrates the feminist movement’s positive impact and her philanthropy on behalf of shared wealth. She offered what helped in 2013: “Many things, equine-guided leadership, a horse named Lilly, meditation and moving up the scale.”  http://namasteglobalvision.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NamasteDeclaringNewFuture-3%20copy.pdf 

Isn’t it amazing what can we can accomplish in this new movement to step into the positive?

Lupito Nyong’o

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?

HOW YOU GONNA SING THAT SONG, BABY, IF YOUR VOICE IS OUT OF TUNE?

I used to think vibrations were positive energy.

“Thinking” was the first clue that I was not quite onto the scent of the thing. I had made progress and yet, things kept falling apart. Recently, I worked with this remarkable teacher/healer. Now I’m singing a different tune.

Before one is a good teacher one is a good student, experientially, humbly and ongoingly. If life is a journey, it is worth dipping ourselves into its nourishing waters often, revitalizing, becoming more who we “be”. The journey? Move into light, love and our true vibration. Release the rubble.

When I was five years old, family, neighborhood and community conditioned me. When I went to college, I found new world-views. My journey to freedom began, voyaging into more and more of my authentic self. However, nothing quite prepared me for this cosmic shift, attuned by God’s Tuning Fork, realigning myself into the universal echoing sound. 

Our American culture knows that good practicing cranial osteopaths keep body and spine aligned. A friend trusted her husband when he was racing cars because he kept them attuned to an impeccable purr. When a dinner hostess calls our attention, she taps her spoon on a fine crystal glass. We hear that lilting, lovely tinkling sound. “Ping”. We are each a crystal glass. And before we morph into our “Ping,” we need to attune to the one true sound.

Many of us are mavericks, high-level performers going for the gold. Others do our due diligence on paths to a better life. Sometimes we are moving so fast that what life throws at us lingers inside cellular fissures, repositories for our gunk. This gunk is not in tune. Its jarring vibration rips off our ping. We are not aligned to our one true sound.

What was my vibration in my first training session? Cheerfulness sprinkled with dissonance. Oldie Gunky tunes loitering around. Ancient life impairment causing me to sing off-key. “Phlat” vibrations mixed with honeydew “pings”. But do my work I did, clearing, cleansing, releasing, giving forth, affirming, shifting, singing, warming up the vocal chords, acting in good faith, moving on and into the best that life has to offer.

Tuned up, aligned, new things are happening. Light, happy things. I am now in synch. I dissolve glop into Light. Once I struggled and now I’m free. It’s the resonance of “Ping.” 

People in recent weeks stop me, feeling drawn to me. Old friends wonder what I am up to. Maybe they are seeing a new light in my eyes? “No, it’s your vibration,” she told me. “They are attracted to your vibration.” Thanks to being with one of God's Best Tuning Forks, I am tuned in and turned on.

Don't we all want to be that shiny crystal glass that Pings, calling attention to something grand? With new tools for my journey, I remain in natural vibration. Join me, this grand New Year, in getting your “Ping” on.

CEREMONY

In ceremony the pictures of my heart could be seen without my having to speak much about them, and I sighed with relief at being deeply known.    

                                                                         Kissed By A Fox by Priscilla Stuckey

January 1, 2014 is a gift I still am receiving. A blessing to sit in circle with friends tucked in our respective places of nature, engaged via the modern miracle of media conferencing. As a gift, Andrea tells this year’s story in A New Start. On our call, she said, "We always get a do-over;" I felt a chill. We all get a do-over; none of our best efforts gone awry trashed? We all get do-overs. That is the beauty of January 1. 

I have been in the business of granting others and myself do-overs. But, I was unprepared for my recent do-overs. Ready to ramp up reorganizing my work life, I was halted. Move in a new direction something deep inside urged. Friends and mentors told me to write poetry and stories. I told them that my life is serious; I have obligations. Writing needs to wait. Not so said the poems and stories that flooded in. In my holiday blog, IT IS ALL ABOUT THE BREATH, I did write of my trip to Sacred Camel Gardens. It was interlude.

That is what my life begged for, more interludes. What is an interlude? "A short piece inserted between the parts of a longer composition." 

I had been in the practice of giving forth my best contribution in answer to needs requesting to be met. Somewhere in the middle of a sentence, a hand was placed over my mouth and that practice curtained. 'Receive more give less,' was the message. Huh, I thought I was both receiver and giver. Not so was the reflection back. 

New Year's Day, a wealth of gifts, all unexpected pours in. My neighbor’s best Vegetarian Pazole. My niece and nephew and families present additional holiday gifts. Home late, I discover a gluten free brownie hanging like an ornament on my door handle. A host of fire logs on my back porch just because she told me. Add to this being whisked off the following day by another friend to our favorite Indian restaurant gifted more with Tibetan incense, to start the New Year off right. My heart is full from New Year Day Ceremony and the accompanying cornucopia.

This magnificent interlude: gifts prancing in from all fronts, a compelling break from old life, in the midst of its vast do-over, is this bridge to 2014. I said, "yes" to these gifts like the little Shih Tzu, who stayed with me recently, shyly creeping down the hallway when invited in for a cuddle. It’s like that you know; receiving is delicate business. It is an unbridling interlude to new life.

That is how my new year is progressing. How about yours? I don't know what 2014 holds. It is clear it is secured and full of abundance.