Seeds for a happy planet

A poem that expresses what I see and sense, what I have come to understand lately – by a good friend from far away. Tenneson is living in Utah most of the time, and he is a good poet, among many, many other things!

New Story

It is said that the universe is expanding.
Billions on billions of stars and galaxies
further reaching out from a center.

I can see the spiraling, the clusters of order.
Phenomenal beauty at phenomenal scale.
Vastness living into vastness.

It is said that complexity is created from simplicity.
Simple pattern reiterated at scale,
expressed as fractal, to intricate whole.

I am learning to see pattern.
The unspoken and the spoken ones in strange attraction.
The way humans construct, knowingly or not, into structures.

I am aware that acorns become oaks.
Compelled into form,
unfolded from an inherent DNA.

I am aware that humans too
tumble forward in form.
Recreating familiar pattern of consciousness.

Yet doesn’t it seem like much is changing, now, in this time?
That there is awakening and churning
from a place that feels like more.

I tell myself that consciousness itself is expanding,
vastness into vastness.
And that we humans are into a new scale.

I tell myself that from simple pattern,
our fundamental identity is iterating
into new species.

Familiar, yes.
Related, yes.
But very new.

Seeing wholes in what was parts.
Seeing the visible
in what was not visible.

I don’t know if the Oak is becoming something new.
But we are expanding. We are fractaling.
We are compelled forward into new form.

It is a new story.
Or an old one if you prefer.
It is invitation.

Plugged in, recharged.
A core center moving out to wider circles.

Energizing parts of ourselves,
Revealing relationships.

A wandering, spiritual guide.
On the edge, showing differences.

Things getting clear, moving forward
With more light to be shed.

Rooting and grounding,
Continuing to grow wisdom within ourself, within systems.

Powerful, hopeful.
Creating intentions.

Up there on the edge,
Only way off to fly.

by Madeline shared at the end of the check in circle, after a one day Systemic Constellation workshop.

Here is more harvest from our latest mini Women Moving the Edge; made by the same participant as the previous one. You can sense the different energy of that afternoon…

Vibrations of Joy

Holding back,
Resisting,
Letting it soak in.
Not pouting in a corner

The freedom is always there.
It depends on us taking it.

Self-organization.
We are going to collage!

Sensing the subtle.
Jump over and get the brush!
Juicy.

What’s behind the veil?
An extended horizon.

Honor the mystery.
Be childlike, even in power.

Balance.
Impermanence.

Be open to every joy.

A few days ago we had a mini Women Moving the Edge gathering, starting with an outside circle on Midsummer – with lots and lots of musquitos! As these gatherings go, it is sometimes hard to share later what happened and what we actually talked about, or what emerged out of the collective inquiry. I was more than happy that one of the participants shared a collective harvest after each major part of the gathering! She learned – or maybe remembered? – this skill while attending an Art of Hosting training, and seeing others doing it.

To get a full sense of this, picture a circle of women, sitting outside in the evening, next to a beautiful pond…
or inside with some candles lit and beautiful flowers in the middle…
and take your time to read the sentences slowly…

Soapstone Balance

Balance, stepping back to savor, feeding the spirit.
Embodiment of the subtle
Experiencing sound, a coursing energy,
Feeling nourished, curious beyond the realm of present.

Can I hear it now?

Living a fulfilled life.
“Tell the people”, a recipe for replenishments.
The Power of Now.
Moving something on the surface, being open to the mystery.

In awe of how the universe works.
What will it take to remember the beauty on the other side?

Synesthesia, senses intertwining
Sharing a dream of being rushed, missing the bus to Finn.
Do you feel like breaking the temple?
What rhythm do I want in my life?
Moving into a cycle that I want to be in.

Why does singing bring joy?
Why does creating something bring joy?
Measuring a multi-vibrational harmony.
Joy and Beauty, a point to measure ourselves against.

Natural rhythm, new manifestations, a specific way to perceive the subtle.
Seeing, hearing, sensing, knowing.

What are we perceiving as right or almost right?

Sitting with excuses, not open in the morning.
Experiencing how the universe flows through me & the group.
Joyful or staying with whatever is in us.

Resilience, fatigued but not stressed.
A capacity to hold things when we have an alignment with our soul path,
Fully engaged in life.

A sacred circle to invoke and welcome the space.
Tuning in, however belatedly.
Things walk through our space, braiding things that happen willy nilly.

An ever fading and replenishing creation.
Being and seeing in different ways.
Vibrational essences, a mix of random patterns.
Different ways of experiencing life and joys and place.

The earth in larger cycles that we don’t understand.
Chaos as a natural rhythm, subtle sensing.
An ever evolving alignment.

The Future calling us to step up, be present.
Seeing or not seeing, we sense.

Part of the “Us”.

THE LESSON

When young, it was the first fall from love.
It broke me open the way lightning splits a tree.
Then, years later, cancer broke me further.
This time, it broke me wider the way a flood
carves the banks of a narrow stream.
Then, having to leave a twenty year marriage.
This broke me the way wind shatters glass.
Then, in Africa, it was the anonymous face
of a schoolboy beginning his life.
This broke me yet again. But this
was like hot water melting soap.

Each time I tried to close
what had been opened.
It was a reflex, natural enough.
But the lesson was, of course, the other way—
in never closing again.
- Mark Nepo

Reading this poem for the first time, it brought me back to a decision I took after a ten year old, and very intense relationship. I would not close my heart (again)! And I didn’t. I kept it open, letting all the pain be there – old and new.

Sinnéad O’Conner sings:
Thank you for healing me,
Thank you for seeing me,
Thank you for …
Thank you for breaking my heart,
now I have a strong, strong heart.

I think she is right.

Recently a new book was published – my copy is still on its way – written by Meg Wheatley and Deborah Frieze: Walk Out Walk On. They wrote stories about many friends and people that I know of, so I can highly recommend this book (even I haven’t read it yet); and you can check out the website that is build around it to check for yourself!

The writers asked another friend to write a song about it; and that is what Tim Merry did. This is what he writes:

Here is a song Marc and I wrote to to support Meg Wheatley’s and Deborah Frieze’s new book. It will also accompany an RSA video coming out soon.

In this era of increasingly complex problems and shrinking resources, can we find meaningful and enduring solutions to the challenges we face today as individuals, communities and nations?

In Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now, Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze invite you on a learning journey to seven communities around the world to meet people who have walked out of limiting beliefs and assumptions and walked on to create healthy and resilient communities. These Walk Outs who Walk On use their ingenuity and caring to figure out how to work with what they have to create what they need.

– By the bestselling author of Leadership and the New Science and Turning to One Another

– Provides an intimate experience of how seven different communities took on intractable problems by working together in new and different ways

– Immerses the reader in the experience of each community through stories, essays, first-person accounts and over 100 color photos

This film tells the story of a shepherd who repairs the ruined ecosystem of a secluded valley by single-handedly cultivating a forest over a thirty year period.
A nice piece of art and a true story from a man called Elzeard Bouffier !