Wanderlust

 Communing with friend in Otavalo, Ecuador


I want to introduce you to two amazing women - Jan Phillips and Vijali Hamilton. (See the links page on my web for more about them.)  These women are visionaries, artists, and activists PLUS they've both taken extraordinary trips around the world doing their art while promoting peace and nurturing relationships with diverse peoples.

Hearing their stories, and others like them, makes me just about want to bolt out my door and hit the road!  Indeed, my dream is to finds ways to travel, to do circles, to collect stories, to listen to people's experiences, and to put it all together in ways that I might share it with you.  This would be nothing short of a pilgrimage for me - a sacred journey of communing with both place and people.

This world is so precious, there is so much to see and learn.  What stories would people in Latin American, or Africa, or the Middle East have to tell about The Great Turning?  How would they envision the future?  What insights would they have that we may not see from within our industrialized, consumeristic culture?  What art and beauty and community might be created?

This is no small undertaking, of course.  It will take some time to grapple with the logistics.  But my intention is to do everything in my power to find ways to fulfill this dream.  Any suggestions?  Please leave comments!

BeingChange - The Beginnings

Phebe at Morey, sacred Incan site in the Andes of Peru


BeingChange has been a long time in the making and has gone through many evolutions before settling into "Weaving the Great Turning Through Circles, Art, & Story."  Though I imagine the seeds were planted possibly before I was even born, it wasn't until I was in graduate school that they began to take root.  I attended Antioch University in Seattle, majoring in Whole Systems Design.  This unique program encourages students to explore a question or an issue systemically and to design a response that, when implemented, can embody real change.

Suffice it to say that I brought a big - a HUGE - how can I save the world-type question and it took years of letting go and listening to my heart before a discernible path emerged.  Often this was agonizing.  While I strongly sensed I was on the right track, I couldn't seem to "make anything of it."  This led to many moments of despair and self-doubt.  More recently, part of my despair was from my perception that, at fifty-plus years old, time was running out if I ever wanted to "make something of myself."  (More letting go....)

Looking back I can see that, of course, things were cooking.  I can see that when a person has a passion, then spirit is at work, and I need to trust that.  I learned that it's important to not get TOO far ahead of myself and miss the insights and opportunities that are presenting themselves all along the way.  Luckily, if anything, I'm persistent.  I kept plugging away.  I took trainings, read voraciously, led various events and workshops, involved myself in various issues, went on a vision quest and traveled to South America, spent hours in nature, developed an eclectic spiritual practice, and so on.

Eventually, it became more and more clear what made my heart truly hum AND it was still unclear how to put all the pieces together in a way that "made sense."  (Even more to let go of!)  What were the pieces?  ....the Great Turning, a new story, my love of indigenous peoples, wanderlust, spirit, nature, circles, poetry and writing...Eureka!  Now I'm getting somewhere!

Imagine: Gathering in circles, sharing stories, finding our voices, honoring our experiences, empowering each other on the journeys of our heart, envisioning a better world for our children and for all beings.  Imagine sharing ritual and ceremony to evoke our deepest imagination and creativity, and manifesting what emerges into a story, a poem, a dance, a song, a work of art.  Imagine weaving these works of art back into our world, into our psyche, and we begin turning....

The other piece of this puzzle is my crazy, unrelenting wanderlust.  I absolutely have to travel to learn about the world and to feed my soul.  This year I hope to travel by bicycle to points as yet unknown, doing circles and gathering stories along the way as well as spending deep time in wilderness.  Stay tuned.  I may occasionally need a couch and a shower!

All I know is I must follow all this and see where it leads.  Even as I still struggle with my fears and my uncertainties, it feels right.  It feels like home.

Being an Edgewalker

Phebe with Joanna Macy

"I believe in my heart that we are being called to be Edgewalkers: 

hospice workers to what is dying and midwives to what is waiting to be born."

From the BeingChange web site

Dear friends,

For me, being an "Edgewalker" is an intensely spiritual journey. My personal journey has been influenced by many things, for example: training in systems thinking that explores patterns and processes and interconnections; a deep relationship with our Earth and our brother and sister beings; an extensive exploration into indigenous wisdom and traditions; a fascination with the stories that are emerging from both the realms of science and spirit about the nature of our unfolding universe, and a relentless calling to search for ways to dedicate my life to the service of the Great Turning.

I feel as if I don't belong in the worldview of what Joanna Macy calls "the industrial growth society."  While this stage of our evolution accomplished much, much more is being lost and much creative potential remains unrealized. Yet how do we step out of our cultural paradigm enough to see it holistically and objectively? Where do we find the vision to imagine and create other ways of being?

My response to this question has been to explore a variety of diverse cultures and worldviews as well as to examine the impacts of our culture on others. I have done this through study and research as well as through exposure to other cultures and perspectives both from within and outside of the United States. Continuing this process is a central part of my path and I hope to create BeingChange circles wherever I go. I dream of making BeingChange a container to deeply explore the issues of discerning and visioning and co-creating. We have the power in us to steer the course for a future of peace, sustainability, equity and respect for all beings - what Joanna calls a life-sustaining civilization.

Stay tuned. I will elaborate on this dream in my next post.