Seeds for a happy planet

I want to mention here the site (and there is a book too) Worldchanging.org. They really have good articles and a regular email with the latest postings. This one I have found good food: Recession and Innovation.

And a good quote to contemplate upon:

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”
Mark Twain

Keeping Quiet – A Callarse
Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

This one time upon the earth,
let’s not speak any language,
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be a delicious moment,
without hurry, without locomotives,
all of us would be together
in a sudden uneasiness.

The fishermen in the cold sea
would do no harm to the whales
and the peasant gathering salt
would look at his torn hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars of gas, wars of fire,
victories without survivors,
would put on clean clothing
and would walk alongside their brothers
in the shade, without doing a thing.

What I want shouldn’t be confused
with final inactivity:
life alone is what matters,
I want nothing to do with death.

If we weren’t unanimous
about keeping our lives so much in motion,

if we could do nothing for once,
perhaps a great silence would
interrupt this sadness,
this never understanding ourselves
and threatening ourselves with death,
perhaps the earth is teaching us
when everything seems to be dead
and then everything is alive.

Now I will count to twelve
and you keep quiet and I’ll go.

(painting sent by a friend in Copenhagen, which is now on her wall; painted by Charlotte Backman)

How do forest health and wealth create each other?
Do they ask permission from the sun to use its rays?
How could they?

Protecting the sky is protecting life.
Is protecting the earth at the same time,
joining vision with practicality?

What is the currency of forest wealth?
What is the currency of atmospheric health?
Where is their point of co-creation?

How do the other elements come to play?
For example, how does water live in,
And give life to the forest?

Is it two-timing the sky?

Is generosity the currency of organizational wealth?
How do peace and creativity yield a culture of abundance?
How does that fundamental richness emerge as generosity?

Is generosity the virtue that produces peace? Really?

Jim Drescher – Windhorse Farm

Sorry if you don’t understand Dutch… this blogposts announces the start of ’something’ that is called ‘Levend Vlaanderen’; in translation it says ‘Flanders alive’. Whenever we have a separate blog it will move there!

We zijn begonnen. Met zes rond de tafel, in één van de verbouwde stallen van de Koningsmolen. We willen iets op gang brengen in Vlaanderen.
Levend Vlaanderen

Onze focus is niet wat er mis loopt, maar we richten ons op wat er mogelijk is. Hoeveel mensen zijn er niet bezig om op de één of andere manier het leven voor henzelf en ook voor enkele anderen beter te maken?
Levend Vlaanderen

Vooralsnog is er geen plan, wel de intentie om te verbinden. Mensen verbinden. Gemeenschappen verbinden. Sectoren verbinden. Allemaal ten dienste van het leven, ons leven, hier in Vlaanderen. Ook de intentie om te ont-dekken, om te laten ont-vouwen, te laten ontplooien.
Levend Vlaanderen

De diversiteit was dadelijks aan de orde, komende uit al die verschillende sectoren met hun eigen taal, hun eigen gevoeligheden. Maar wat een rijkdom, wat een palet aan mogelijkheden! Wat wordt mogelijk als we dat samen inzetten en hier lokaal verankeren?
Levend Vlaanderen

We kijken niet in ‘probleem en oplossing’, maar we willen ons verbinden met het leven, dat alsmaar doorgaat. Een leven dat betekenisvol is en dat ook plezier geeft! Kan Vlaanderen een levende, bruisende regio worden als inspirerend voorbeeld in een Europa van de regio’s?

Wij zijn enthousiast en gaan door.
U hoort nog van ons.
Levend Vlaanderen

As it goes, through some connections by email I received this report. I found it interesting as it links with constellations I have facilitated, or maybe better to say: that have emerged in gatherings that I was hosting. It is about a constellation with its focus on the New Economy.

Especially the role of the Joyful Women – see the end – speaks to me as we are looking in the program Women Moving the Edge what is the kind of feminine action and consciousness that is needed in the world right now. Enjoy this story!

“On Sunday Nov. 16, at a Women’s Circle in Malibu, California, a new Deva* came through to help us manifest the New Economy of the New Earth: The Deva of Flow.

This occurred during a Constellation** inquiring into what needs to happen to bring the Economy into alignment with the Divine Plan.
It was a “Chaos Constellation” in which people do not know what they are representing. Each person simply follows her own movements until she finds her place. Representatives were chosen for the Economy, the Deva of the Economy, and different aspects of the Solution. By the end, all the 20+ people in the room were in the Constellation, including a 7-year-old girl and 5-month-old boy.
In sharing after the Constellation, representatives reported feeling as though they were water, part of the waves or wave action, sources of power, etc. Science, Education, New Energy Forms, the Common Man and Women all entered to find their places as part of the Solution.
The representative for the Deva of Flow (a name that came to me later) constantly wove in and out of the group, making a whooshing sound like the wind, easily bending, arching and moving among all the different people and energies.
When New Forms of Business came into the Constellation, all the other representatives ignored her. She wanted to go to the Economy, but could not stand on her own and sank down on the floor. It took the Deva of Flow to reach out to New Business, raise her up and show her how to dance, how to move, how to effortlessly flow.
Dancing, New Business connected to Conscious Humanity, and they danced and flowed together. Many other representatives in the room already were holding hands, starting to make a circle. Conscious Humanity and New Business – their hands linked – moved to join the others.
Conscious Humanity took the hand of the 7-year-old girl and there was an expectation that New Business would complete the circle. But, with her right hand joined to Conscious Humanity, New Business continued to move into the center, placing her left hand on the back of the representative for the Economy who was holding the baby boy in her arms.
Conscious Humanity and New Business continued their dancing movement, swaying their hips and moving together. Everyone else in the room linked hands and the line moved and swayed in harmony, slowly spiraling toward the center in a living expression of Sacred Geometry, the Golden Mean, the spiral at the center of a Nautilus shell.

In sharing afterwards, one representative emphasized that what the Economy needs is the energy of Joyful Woman: The woman who has no agenda. Who does not push but gently pulls, saying, “Follow me!” This is NOT the energy of trying to fix or make something happen. This is the energy of pure knowing, powerfully and gently expressed. This is the wise, intuitive woman who leads simply by Being who she is.

* A deva is an overlighting Spirit – emanation of the Divine – overseeing physical manifestations on Earth. (There are Devas for all the elements, trees, plants, animals, etc.)

** In a Constellation (a process pioneered by German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger), an issue or question is raised and individuals enter a circle of sacred space, following the feelings, information and movements they sense through their bodies. Through this group process, a new picture may emerge, which can help shift the energy in an individual, relationship or situation.”

Joy Steltzner

What you find here below was written by Maria Scordialou, Sarah Whiteley and myself when we had five days of intense learning and living together in May ‘08 (Axladitsa Guardians Gathering). It gives a beautiful, and rich description of what is asked from us now.
Unless we engage our authentic selves, we cannot live the future now.
Unless we engage our fullness, we cannot take the leap individually and call in collectively.
Unless we tremble collectively, we cannot presence the new.
Unless we take a leap together, we cannot access and live the next level of our humanity.
Unless we are willing to hold the space open long enough for our collective clarity to emerge, we cannot shift our systems and behaviour for the better.
Unless we fuse the streams of practice and inquiry, we cannot see what else is possible and be prepared to meet our chaos.
Unless we acknowledge our collective identity, we cannot co-create our real work.
Unless we unlearn our complicatedness, we cannot find the simplicity of the next elegant step.
Unless we share our new insights immediately, we cannot not serve evolution.
Unless we live through our collective identity, we cannot become whole.
Unless we engage our authentic selves, we cannot live the future now.
Unless we engage our fullness, we cannot take the leap individually and call in collectively.
Unless we tremble collectively, we cannot presence the new.

Monday morning, our last half day together…

Some had meditated, I had been blogging… As usual, we gathered in circle after breakfast. Taking the talking stone… seemingly totally different voices were heard, which were brought to one picture as someone saw that they were all answers to the same question. Without naming it, we had arrived to the third piece of M’s map: the Thou, the practice. We need the Body, the Heart, the Mind and the Soul!!! We need the complete wisdom, held together by the inquiry.

It brought us to our next question:
What needs to, longs to emerge through us, for the world?
What needs to emerge in me, for the sake of the world, for the sake of Thou?

We moved away from language again, took paper and colors…

L: I remembered the density of the World and its resistance. But these little orange things could break free. In my despair I was asking myself: What do I do with this world? Then this very big Woman appeared in my drawing, very dense herself… The World was in me. That gave hope! A very solid a woman can hold the world! She was equal to the task.
If this is the answer to my question… it heals my sense of separation!
Could this be our practice? of seeing through the eyes of the Divine? The whole world is in this decision…
Living in this paradox: I am the world, and the world is in me; the principle of One connects both if I relinguish myself. Then there is space for the field and what comes through it.
If I am not a body; then what is IT that is being expressed? The energetic is so fluid, quickly to move… this re-identification has implications for the field and for the development of the field.
The asking becomes paramount, it is going to bring a possibility… the cellular structure will be changed and influence others. If I ask to be present to who I really am, then it becomes contagious!
The drawing brought it’s own solution and it is possible that it is true: that we are capable of holding the whole universe. We are it, and it is US!
The fullness of awareness is not dependent on time or process. The experience of it brings it about.

S: My gift is around movement and beauty. The world is doing what it is doing, and I am the tree: expressing, laughing, screaming. The world loves this beauty, this manifestation. It just helps, it supports, it is not a specific solution. Everything is on the tree: love, music, conversations, tragedy, movies, friendship; presence, marriage, beaches, tears… The density, something solid is needed to hold the world.

M: Since I was a little girl I had heard the world weep and I didn’t know how to hold her. How to be in the presence of a weeping world that doesn’t overwhelm me, doesn’t consume me? My whole life was about understanding that.

I recognise that it takes conversations and a big heart. What radiates out is something that I cannot not. It has made me a little weird… but it gave me the ability to see; things unfold for me. That is why I am good at organisational development and coaching… but it is also a burden.

Now I see the bridge, the concept of collective presencing. There are the hearts and the symbols of infinity… the brown lines are the mycellium. When I leave the space, there are others holding it. The We, and what is created through the We is my path. With the We I can fall asleep at night. It is a field of presence that is being held.
The mycellium gave me a way… it gives nutrients, and the leaves falling feed the mycellium. If we don’t understand this, the crying of the world is left.
Organisations pup up as mushrooms, live, and die when needed, giving their nutrients. This is totally different than reorganisation, aquisition etc.
This helps me to see death, and my death, differently.

J: I wanted to tap into Source and my question is: How I move with that into the manifest world? This is the challenge of my life.
I was drawing many wombs, coming up like in the U process. There is continually evolving, do it over and over, and begin to interact with the manifest. It can come into structure now. It is about continually accessing Source. It is a continually birthing process.
M: The world is working with us, it doesn’t have any struggle! The world gives us words like mycellium, it is trying to find us! When something is spoken that makes sense, it starts to blossom; without having to move it uphill.
L: They become attractors in a chaos field. In an emergence they form around a next level of develop.
S: I had a welcome feeling of the space, and the arc, the fluidity, the gentleness of the surface… I want to dive in that space that you created. It maps about ‘holding space’. I can go in and do so much. The longing itself is a spiritual practice; it is the part of the heart. The longing generates creativity! The longing creates space.

R: First came this yellow and then the colors on one side, and next the colors on the other side. Then I put it aside. I had to take it back to add the red dot.
L: The emergent at the very end happened out of the combination of all colors. It doesn’t look like anything else. It takes all my attention.
M: It looks like something is planted.
S: For me the red dot is R herself. I see all colors from Spirit and Source and R steps up in the manifest world. It is time for the woman underneath to step up, just at the edge…

It felt complete.
Our circle was closing. We cleaned up the room and went to lunch.
One last group picture and we left.
Our time was rich, good, fertile, promising for the future.

We ended our afternoon session with M. reading this to us:
Companioning is about being present to another person’s pain;
It is not about taking away the pain.

Companioning is about going to the wilderness of the soul with another human being;
it is not about thinking you are responisble for finding the wayout.

Companioning is about honoring the spirit;
it is not about focusing on the intellect.

Companioning is about listening with the heart;
it is not about analyzing with the head.

Companioning is about bearing witness to the struggles of others;
it is not about judging or directing those struggles.

Companioning is about walking alongside;
it is not about leading or being led.

Companioning means discovering the gifts of the sacred silence;
it is not about filling up everymoement with words.

Companioning is about respecting disorder and confusion;
it is not about imposing order and logic.

Companioning is about learning from others;
it is not about teaching them.

From: Alan Wolfelt

and after dinner we ended up in the hot tub….

fabulous…

After sensing into the first part of M’s map the I of the leader we shifted our attention to the We part of it. This wasn’t as clear as the first part, so this posting might be a little of ‘bits and pieces’… we will see.

I remember speaking vividly about the difference of feminine knowing and masculine knowing. It was more a showing than a speaking actually! Masculine knowing is taking a step back (see me stepping away) from the experience, it is talking about something, it is building a concept after the facts… Feminine knowing (not to be confused with women’s knowing! men know this too!) is knowing IN the experience (see me stepping into the center again). While drawing ‘getting something’ you never understood before; while walking in nature ‘getting’ what you need to do next. The knowing IS in the totality of your being, not just in your head; it is as if your cells understood something.

We spoke about what Collective Presencing really meant. It can only happen in a combination of together holding a question, being in collective inquiry with a collective holding space, a connection to source or soul. As women we are wired through our wombs – to bring the Source back into the world. In doing so we, as women, become more whole, but men become more whole too. We are in this way healing across gender.

I remember taking M. in the middle of our circle, taking her in a collective hug, where she could ‘get’ – in a feminine, experiencing way – that she was welcome in this We. The We is not a headplace, the We can only be experienced. This brought up the entanglement of ‘being intimate in a physical way’ with ’sexuality’. It is important to make the difference between them. Another entanglement showed up in a constellation that emerged out of the question: What would my womb tell me? How do I/we move from the womb? It was an entanglement between womb and sexuality, which blurred right relationship with men. There was confusion – held by so many women – : To be a powerful woman, I can’t be sexual, I can’t be attractive to men. In the constellation the woman could take her womb and her sexuality next to her, which made her feel powerful and complete. This is my home. Bringing in the element of the World gave her a larger perspective, much broader than the relationship with the man only. It was inspiring for the man too! The relationship with your purpose, freed all my creative energy! The constellation was complete.

The constellation also showed that we, as women, have to step forward with what we know is right to do. We can stop complaining that men don’t do it in the right way; but step forward and say: I/we know something here; at least the next step. Are you willing to come along?

This is my spontaneous writing as answer to this question:
What is longing to emerge is a new kind of wholeness that hasn’t exited before. A wholeness that can’t be grasped or grabbed by the mind. So the mind has to surrender to something more, something bigger… into a network of knowing on the spot.
The being is not identified in identity (or personality), it learns to be identified with the field present and the context it resides in, in the moment.
The being of leaders is nothing that is related to personality, it is fuild and it is field-based.

What is ‘being a leader’ means in a biological eco-system?

There is no separation between being and doing;
it is living-as-the-system,
living-as-the-field.
It is living-what-emerges,
no separation between leader and what is led.
There is no border,
no precipice,
it IS.