BeingChange

BeingChange

WELCOME

BeingChange is about creating a space – a sangha, a circle, a council - to explore together ways to be psycho-spiritually prepared for
any and all future planetary outcomes, while being lovingly and courageously present to the here and now. It's about envisioning a
viable, compassionate, just future we can live our way into. A future that's so compelling we want to contribute our best, most passionate efforts to making it a reality - even in the face of possibly insurmountable odds. Please join us and become part of the circle.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Warriors For the Human Spirit

I am not interested in being hopeful
Margaret Wheatley
or optimistic or
working diligently to reverse the
patterned path of history we tread
so reliably toward collapse
I am interested in being able to stay
in the midst of this terrible travesty
that degrades the human spirit
or denies we have one
caught on the balance beam of
meaningful work and terrifying times
I want to walk steady in the world
learning what balance feels like....

Margaret Wheatley “How Does Raven Know?”



I have been on a virtual walkabout for a while now, searching fora community of people intent on doing good work, trying to keep their hearts open, wanting to make a meaningful contribution, aspiring to stay and be of service even as situations become increasingly more difficult and disheartening.*

I have found that there are many such people out there; I want to start introducing them and sharing their stories in these pages. Who are these people searching for ways to balance beingfully engaged with the world with an open, breaking heart?* Who are these living examples of Edgewalkers: hospice workers to what is dying and midwives to what is wanting to be born?

Margaret Wheatley has made a career in pursuing the questionWho do we choose to be in service to this time?More than a career, I would say, but a spiritual journey, a quest. One that she has clearly put her heart and soul into for many years.

She has written and spoken extensively on how we degrade the human spirit when we devolve into fear and violence and self-interest, on how we have forgotten who we are and ourgreat human capacities of generosity, caring and creativity.* She asks over and over: how do we persevere in bringing forth the very best of our human capabilities - despite the formidable tides pushing against us? How do we not succumb to exhaustion and despair?

Her answer to these questions was to name herself a Warrior for the Human Spirit.
She defineswarrior,in this context, assimply a decent human being who aspires to be of service in an indecent, inhumane time. We want to be of service without adding to the confusion, aggression and fear now so prevalent (in our world.) In Tibetan, the word for Warrior, Pawo, means one who is brave, brave enough to never resort to aggression or fear to accomplish their purposes.*

This, she says, is what she wants to spend the rest of her life pursuing. And she wants company. So she created the year-longTraining as Warriors for the Human Spirit.

This Training is designed to form our identity as Warriors for the Human Spirit, provide us with the skills required of this role, and create a strong and supportive community of companions whom we can rely on far into the future. This new identity either will strengthen us to do our present work or support our discernment to find new work.   Wherever we choose to use our Warrior skills, we will remain actively engaged in the world, supported by new capacities and a strong community, in dedicated service to the human spirit.”* Take a moment to learn more here.

The first cohort is just beginning, assuming she got a critical mass to make it a go. It's a huge commitment in time and money for many, but I have a friend who signed up so I can get the inside scoop as it progresses.

Bottom line, this is an incredibly brave and beautiful effort on behalf of all beings and the Earth, and an example of someone walking their talk or, as Rilke said, living the questions. I encourage all of us to take being a warrior for the human spirit to heart and ask ourselves how we can embody this in our own lives. Margaret, I wish you the very best.

...and the point is to live everything.
Live the questions now. Perhaps then,
someday far in the future, you will gradually,
without even noticing it,
live your way into the answer.

Rainer Maria RilkeLetters To A Young Poet

* From Margaret's web site

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

The Impossible and the Unthinkable

I have been silent for a while – again. I have been grappling with some very deep and challenging stuff – still.

I have been “stuck between the impossible and the unthinkable”* and it has been trying hard to render me speechless.

Clearly, sometimes succeeding.

The “unthinkable,” to paraphrase David Roberts, is the future into which we are heading if we continue on our current path – especially regarding “the brutal logic of climate change”.

The “impossible” refers to what appear to be insurmountable “forces that retard or prevent (necessary) change.”

In other words, the ultimate rock and hard place. 

But when I ponder being between the impossible and the unthinkable, what gives me a spark of meaning and purpose, what makes me want to get up in the morning, is

the word

“between.”

I've been pondering this for some time and I am finding that “between” is vast and it is timeless; it conjures up soul and presence and healing and possibility. It implies mystery and awe, and energy, and creation....

I have been pursuing for years the question of how we are being called as human beings in this planet-time. I think there are clues in the “between” if we can free ourselves enough from the impossible and the unthinkable to discern them.

A key, for me, is “essence.” What is essentially mine to seek, to know, to give? What is uniquely mine to live? What will empower me to not give up on life, on the future, on the mystery, no matter what? “There may be no better time to learn the inner story that our souls carry and find the ways we are intended to be in this world of uncertainty.” **

The BeingChange mission is, essentially, to bring together people who feel this call to discover and live their soul story in service of the Great Turning. This year I will be searching for more and better ways to make this mission a reality. I invite you to join me in whatever way you can.

*  From "Hope and Fellowship" by David Roberts
The following link takes you to the article and a Ted Talk by David called "Climate Change is Simple."
If the link doesn't work, email me and I'll send you a copy of the article.
 
** From "Fate and Destiny - The Two Agreements of the Soul" by Michael Meade (pg. 9)

Photo by George Hodan

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

In the Dark Times, Will There Be Singing?*

Tree 


I think I've been afraid to speak my deepest truth. Especially since, when I have, it hasn't been well received. People don't want to talk about changing and dying, even though that is the nature of all things, even though changing and dying can lead to healing and initiation and rebirth. And even though I believe with all my heart that being able to talk about changing and dying is profoundly necessary for guiding us into the future.










I started to touch on this in previous posts and since then I've discovered that I'm not alone.

Consider this from The WorldWe Have by Thich Nhat Hanh: “The wisdom offered in the Buddha is that we accept impermanence – our own death and the inevitable death of our civilization. And after having accepted that, we will have peace and strength and an awakening that will bring us together. Then we will have the opportunity...to save our beloved planet.” (pg. 56)

Or this from Coming Back To Life by Joanna Macy: “Pain is the price of consciousness in a threatened and suffering world. It is not only natural, it is an absolutely necessary component of our collective healing...Pain has a purpose: it is a warning signal, designed to trigger remedial action. The problem, therefore, lies not with our pain for the world, but in our repression of it. Our efforts to dodge or dull it surrender us to futility – or in systems' terms, cut the feedback loop and block effective response.” (pg. 27)

In The Green BoatReviving Ourselves In Our Capsized Culture, Mary Pipher talks about the Trauma-To-Transcendence Cycle – a process which “requires us to face the truth, feel the pain of (our) experience, and ultimately transform that pain into action and authenticity. As we move through this cycle, we can acquire the skills we need to overcome our sense of doom and discover our own capacities for transcendent coping...we can find deep within ourselves new strength, deeper courage, and an enriched capacity to love the world.” (pg. 4)

In So Far From HomeLost and Found In Our Brave New World, Margaret Wheatley writes: “If we fully accept the world as it is – in all its harsh realities – then we can develop the very qualities we need to be in that world and not succumb to that harshness. We find our courage, morality, and gentle, non-aggressive actions by clear seeing and acceptance. As we accept what is, we become people who stand in contrast to what is, freed from the aggression, grasping and confusion of this time. With that clarity, we can contribute things of eternal importance no matter what's going on around us – how to live exercising our best human qualities, and how to support others to discover these qualities in themselves.” (pg. 11)

Mary Pipher, in another of her books - Writing To Change the World - tells this story:

In September 2003, when I was fifty-five years old, I visited the Holocaust Museum, in Washington, D.C., to view the Anne Frank exhibit. I looked at the cover of her little plaid diary, and at pages of her writing, at her family pictures. Meip Gies, Otto Frank's employee, who brought food to the family, spoke on video about the people who hid in the attic. She said that Anne had always wanted to know the truth about what was going on. Others would believe the sugar-coated version of Miep's stories, but Anne would follow her to the door and ask, “What is really happening.?”

Even though Anne Frank ultimately was murdered, she managed (through her writings), in her brief and circumscribed life, to tell the truth and bequeath the gift of hope. She searched for beauty and joy even in the harsh, frightened world of the attic in which her family hid from the Nazis. Her writing lived on to give us all a sense of the potential largesse of the human soul, even in worst-case scenarios. (pg. 20)


We are now facing a potential “Worst-case Scenario.” If pain is the price of consciousness in a threatened and suffering world then perhaps these are the gifts: peace and strength and an awakening that will bring us together...new strength, deeper courage, and an enriched capacity to love the world...(becoming) people who stand in contrast to what is, freed from the aggression, grasping and confusion of this time... the potential largesse of the human soul....

Is it possible? It sounds so compelling I'm willing to go there. And it looks like I'm in good company.


*In the dark times, will there be singing?
  Yes. There will be singing about the dark times.
- Bertolt Brecht

Friday, September 20, 2013

Must Reads

Bill Plotkin continues to be, in my mind, one of the most important people on the planet – his work is that innovative, that necessary, and that potentially transformational. I feel moved to give him yet another mention in this blog.

Bill has written three books and, while each can stand alone as a brilliant contribution to evolving humans and restoring the planet, combined they offer a template for human/nature healing and wholing that is of truly epic proportions.

Creating the context for the other two books, Nature and the Human Soul “introduces a visionary ecopsychology of human development that reveals how fully and creatively we can mature when soul and wild nature guide us.”* Humanity needs to grow up and out of its current stage of (pathological!) adolescence, and in this volume Bill “presents a model for a human life span rooted in the cycles and qualities of the natural world, a blueprint for individual development that ultimately yields a strategy for cultural transformation.”

Soulcraft “is a trail guide for the mystical descent into the underworld of soul: what the descent is, why it is necessary, how to recognize the call to descend, how to prepare for the descent, what the process looks and feels like, and what practices initiate and accelerate the descent and maximizes the soul-quickening benefits of the journey.” This is a process that is sorely missing from modern day culture with devastating consequences.

In Wild Mind we discover that “our human psyches possess astonishing resources that wait within us, but we might not even know they exist until we discover how to access them and cultivate their powers, their untapped potentials and depths.” It shows us thatthe key to reclaiming our original wholeness...is to fully embody our multifaceted wild minds, commit ourselves to the largest, soul-infused story we're capable of living, and serve the greater Earth community.
These three volumes embody a hero's journey of initiation into our fullest human potential and a truly interdependent relationship with the natural world. They are beautifully written, deeply heartfelt and infused with decades of scholarship and the wisdom of experience. I hope you read them and then read them again. You can learn more about Bill, his books, and the Animas Valley Institute here.

* Quotes are taken from the books. I could not have said it better.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Deena Responds

The following is a response sent to me by Deena Metzger after I asked her permission to use her photograph for the previous post. Please do read the post so you will understand the context. Deena is one of my favorite wise, compassionate, and creative elders and I encourage everyone to visit her web site and immerse yourselves in her work. Thank you, Deena, for who you are and for all you do.

Deena Metzger

"For a year, a dear friend and I regularly visited several animals, a polar bear, a gorilla and several elephants incarcerated in the Los Angeles Zoo, an hour’s drive for us. Billy, the elephant, had evident PTSD, swaying back and forth endlessly, listlessly; no matter how hard we tried, we could never indicate our presence to him though we hoped, over time, we might make a difference. There was, in contrast to what is said here (note: in the previous post), little left of him, but that is exactly why we tried as best as we could to reach him. The polar bear, Dreamer, never noticed either. But, the gorilla, that we called Miko, did notice and we bonded over the weeks. He engaged us in elaborate games of recognition and it seemed that for at least an hour he was relieved of his terrible isolation and confinement where he was also subjected to the on-going taunts of most of the human visitors.

The two female elephants who were friends and companions, and then Dreamer and Miko died within months of each other. We don’t know why Dreamer died. One of the elephants was sent to another facility, and her friend languished here. When the friend was finally returned, it was too late. Her friend died and she died soon afterwards. Heartbreak is a real disease. As real and terrible as trauma. Miko was sent to another facility as well — to be a breeder. He died within a few short months.

We had visited these animals in the ways we would visit a family member who might be incarcerated. We wanted to extend love to what others might see as damaged and not worthy of notice, or too painful to see. Some people, understandably, cannot bear going to the zoo, do not want to support such practices. But what about the animals who are imprisoned there? Heart contact -- with as much or as little survives -- is necessary. Heart contact is a medicine. Heart contact can begin the process of restoration of the earth. Since the poster, so much more has been added to my life than a simple breast. Bringing the poster into the world, and becoming a healer, I am so much more than I was once."

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Alive In the World...

I just finished a novel where one of the main characters survived the loss of a breast to cancer.

One day her granddaughter happened upon her in the bath, seeing the “still angry and red puckered flesh” where her breast had been.

“You notice that something's different about me,” my grandmother said.
I nodded. I did not have the words, at that age, to explain what I wasn't seeing, but I understood that it was not what should have been. I pointed to the wound. “It's missing,” I said.
My grandmother smiled, and that was all it took for me to stop seeing the scar, and to recognize her again.
“Yes,” she said. “But see how much of me is left?” (1)

I've been trying to come to terms with what I believe is the reality of Bill McKibben's assertion that “the chance that we will in fact leave to the future a world at least as rich in possibilities as the world that was left to us is nil. As in, not going to happen.”(2) That the world has changed in ways that can never be recovered. And that there's actually nothing I can do about it. I have to accept it; I have to let it go.

Yes, says Grandmother. But look how much of me is left.

But I can't let it go. It's unacceptable. It's unbearable. All I can see is the scar. To see otherwise feels
like a betrayal, giving in. Giving up. Yet, is it a betrayal to let go of something that's gone? Should it be mourned? Yes. Should it be remembered? Absolutely, in intricate detail, so our future generations will know what they aren't seeing.

But what about that which is still left and which is still rapidly disappearing? How do I stop seeing only the scar and recognize my grandmother again? “Once something's spoiled, it's easier to throw up your hands and walk away, which will be the great temptation for us,” says McKibben.(3) Indeed, I have been so tempted. So tempted.

But I remember a quote by Julia Butterfly Hill that went like this:
“If you’re the only person left, as long as your hope is committed in action, then hope is alive in the world.” As long as any of us keep love, compassion, beauty, peace, the sacred...alive in our hearts and we do not walk away from that which is “damaged”, then these will remain alive in the world. And if enough of us can do this, maybe the cancer will stop spreading.



This is a poster of Deena Metzger whose work I often cite. It is available for purchase on her web site. She transformed her scar into a winding branch with leaves, grapes, and a bird. Photo is by Hella Hammid.

¹Jodi Picoult - “The Storyteller” pg. 365
²Bill McKibben – Essay “Something Braver Than Trying to Save the World” in Moral GroundEthical Action For a Planet in Peril, pg.175. Kathleen Dean Moore & Michael P. Nelson,eds.
³Ibid. Also see his book “eaarth – Making a Life on a Tough New Planet”