Freddie deBoer’s article, The Resentment Machine, speaks of the monetization of human practice, specifically, consumption as achievement. Caught in valueless times, products of competitive households, the current Internet generation having nowhere to go, seeks solace in investing consumptive cultural goods with meaningful importance. Could it be true that they have gifted away their passions and with that, any hope of revealing a true self?

Just recently, my son called to say that he was dropping a theory class to join a salon for poets. Prior to reading this article, my response would have been quite different. I would have hedged on the side of resume, grad school, and job possibilities. Only now can I recognize the urgent need “only to create for the sake of creation, to build something truly your own for no purpose and in reference to the work of no other person.”

Of course, I gave him my blessing. ~ Sdukes

Image: Tdukes, 2011

What you hold, may you always hold.

What you do, may you do and never abandon.

But with swift pace, light step, unswerving feet,
so that even your steps stir no dust,
go forward
securely, joyfully, and swiftly, on the path of prudent happiness,
believing nothing
agreeing with nothing
which would dissuade you from this resolution
or which would place a stumbling block for you on the way,

so that you may offer your vows to the Most High

in the pursuit of that perfection

to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you.

by Clare of Assisi (1193? – 1254)

When working one-on-one with my clients, I am dependant upon the “other” to be fully present. I am also dependant on the “other” to enter into the shared experience in order for it to be fully energized. An open mind allows for this phenomenon to unfold. A closed mind: too much judgment, doubt, fear or laziness shuts down the field and disallows the ever, evolving context.

When communication does occur at this level, when the field is open, the entire universe of possibility within the organization, business, or professional pursuit is clearly available. Each moment unfolds naturally. The interrelatedness between me and my client becomes the context which reveals how the organization can evolve efficiently and elegantly. For the artist, his or her passion returns. For the professional, goals and objectives reveal in an obtainable format.

“The basic word I-You establishes the world of relation.”

Buber, M. I and Thou. p.56.

Creation is the beginning. As we cycle through the evolutionary development of our life, creation is always seeking its presence. It is signified by beginning, renewal, refreshment and so much of what is valued in our daily routine. We also find a deep reservoir of inspiration when we are open to creation. Creative inspiration may seem an easy and rewarding impulse, easier to express than some of the other forms of inspiration. However, without the means to express creative impulses, we may find ourselves caught in a frustratingly brief and aborted process.

What do we need to express our creativity? For some, it is a pure expression using dance, fine arts, music or words. Others may bake, empathize with a child’s play, or design a conceptual or literal edifice. For the creative impulse to remain fluid, it needs to be energized by our inspiration taking a form all its own.

In The Ship of Gold, Gary Kinder wrote about a team of adventures who recover gold from a sunken ship resting in the deepest part of the sea. The success, he recounts, was due to one man’s willingness to open to his dream, his inspiration, and move through all of the associated obstacles:

“You just had to shed old ways of thinking and reexamine old assumptions and do it smart from the beginning. You had to keep diverging, even beyond the point where it all became difficult and confusing. That’s where [he] lives, and he made those around him live there, too, some for far longer than is comfortable for most people. Yet just on the other side of that juncture is where impossibility sometimes vanishes and the world can be seen in a new way. . . if you do that . . .  all kinds of things can blossom.” (Speaking of Tommy Thompson in Kinder, Gary. (1998). The ship of gold: In the deep blue sea. pp. 506-507)

Do you have a dream or an inspiration? What will you do today to recover and embrace the “possibilities” that await you?

I once knew a man who believed that he could only do two things at a time. This was not true, of course, he could do many things and he did them well. However, he believed that he could only do two during any given period of his life. He could be a painter and raise his children, but he could not work on his relationship with his wife. Before being married, he was a sculptor and his future wife’s lover, but he could not contemplate marriage and children. As his children grew, he could work to support his family and father his children, but he could no longer do his art.

He lived each day always with an essential piece of himself missing. The stress, over the years, proved too much for his marriage and things fell apart. In later years, he had new lovers, new art, parented his older children; he even wrote a book. However, he continued to only do two of these things at a time never recognizing that:

Little fields have big fields

Upon their backs to bite ‘um,

And big fields have bigger fields

And so ad infinitum

(in Watts, A. The Book)

What does it mean to recognize your worth? In the Purpose and Value section of my website, I suggest that this is one of the benefits of our work together. However, often an inner critic can be so predominate that feelings of doubt and insecurity cloud our feelings of value. We can question if what we say or do really matters. We can feel further diminished if how we are treated by others affirms this.

So what do we do? Well first, recognize that it takes courage to face these obstacles in ourselves. Then begin to start with what you can control, where things are easier, and build out from there. In other words, control what you can and greet with curiosity what remains.

Control what you can: Begin to organize your life in 10 small ways.

1. Get a grip on your sleep patterns. Try to create a sense of rhythm and stick to it for two weeks. Go to bed at a reasonable time and awaken early.
2. Prepare for the day. Have your clothing arranged the night before.
3. Eat a meal and take time to enjoy it.
4. Be on time for your  appointments and meetings.
5. Prepare for today, yesterday.
6. Take the time to breathe with awareness in every situation you find yourself in and remember that we are mostly disturbed when we are making a transition, i.e. leaving this to get to that.
7. Listen deeply to those around you and recognize that they too are moving through their own personal challenges.
8. End your meetings or work periods on time and gain a sense of completion for what was accomplished.
9. Organize your thinking and behavior with notes and create and adhere to your calendar as you move forward.
10. Give yourself a break.

Greet what you can’t control with curiosity:

1. Make room for the unexpected.
2. While arranging your tomorrow, today, factor in an extra 10-15 minutes whenever you are in a transition.
3. Adopt this practice: When things feel outside of your control silently say to yourself; “this too is ok.” Breath and relax.
4. Shift away from your thoughts and return your awareness to your body and simply feel what is going on here.
5. Recognize that a balanced life does not mean that things are easy or that they feel good. It means that you find it within yourself to make room for all that is happening and recognize that as you do this there may be a sense of balance in the background that you can embrace.

So, what does it mean to recognize your worth? As we gain a handle on managing the struggle of simply getting through our more challenging moments we may find underneath it all that there resides a deeper sense of intrinsic worth. We don’t have to invent or produce it. Your worth is a birthright. Allowing it to emerge may reside in those softer feelings of belonging that become increasingly evident as the noise begins to quiet.

Timothy Dukes, Ph.D. and Santjes Oomen, HHP hosted the teaching of bringing clarity into daily life, a continuation of their cycle of teachings – Spirit in Practice™.  As one world is crumbling another is emerging. A group of 15 very talented leaders on Nantucket Island  joined us to explore how we can move away from a world of speculation, step out of confusion, and recognize distractions to become clear and present during these extraordinary times.

Recognition

• Lori Corry and Sandy Walsh assisted and participated as part of an emerging community of leaders who are in service of developing their own work, supporting Spirit in Practice, and gifting consciousness to the Earth.
• We recognized other teachers in the group and invited them to speak about their work: i.e. Katherine Baugh and Craig Kay.

Framework for the Ceremony

Our culture is changing, moving from a “taking and consuming” culture where we have placed our individual self at the center, to a culture of “giving,” where we recognize the Self as the center. We are moving away from seeking the self in the outer world to recognizing the Self in the inner world and sourcing from its guidance. In order to live in accord with the Self we need Clarity and Healing so that we can Progress in manifesting a world that recognizes the Self at the center of all things.

Our work today is not for self understanding, improvement or help. Rather today, we work to deepen our capacity to gift our consciousness in service of the Self that is seeking to emerge.

Teaching: Themes and Guidelines

Inspired by Nepo, Mark (2005) and Santjes Oomen

• How do we listen?
  • Give up expectation.
  • Empty and open. (Rilke quote_ Have Patience)
  • Give our attention completely, freshly and openly.
  • Lean in softly with a willingness to be changed by what we hear, by subtle feelings of recognition and by being recognized.
• Open to:
  • The sacred pulse of all things.
  • The Universe is alive and seeking union with our consciousness.
  • Allow brief illumination and allow all to move through our consciousness in these privileged and enlightened moments.
  • Greet the outer world with our inner being and open to the mystery.
• Allow
  • The nature of the universal dance as it cycles us from being self-centered to being other-centered.
  • Recognize that we are an integral part of an integrated whole in an ongoing process of reciprocal engagement with all that is.
  • Everything inside of us and between us is a circulatory – it is an ongoing exchange of what matters.

Bridge  

• When we can connect to what lives at the heart of our problems and at the heart of the problems of others, and listen to those connections, we become bridges to each other, the world and to the spirit that informs everything.
• When we speak integrity, we are speaking of how we care for the tender bridge between the innermost being and the common life of all beings.
• Yet, being a human bridge- a living tool that puts things together- is not easy. Everything from erosion to fears tries to wear us down.
• This is nothing new. Birds have always flown in the face of gravity, and fish have always made their way to the bottom despite the buoyancy of the sea.
• It is simply part of our calling: to be a bridge, to lie down and to stand up, so that living entities can join and realize that they are one

Gifting

• Give the world the best you have.
• This work is active service to that which is seeking to emerge and to inform us that we are all one and deeply and intimately connected.

Entering Ceremony

• A call to all participants to recognize that which brings them here today and what intention they carry within.
• We invited them as a group to approach the toys and to allow themselves to be selected by a toy which symbolizes what it is that wants to be known.
• Toys are placed in the center of the circle on an alter, candle burning, as one by one everyone in the room shares.
• Ending moment: hold and recognize what has joined us in the room.
• Embody all that is being revealed.

Deepening Ceremony

• We move back together as a group and allow ourselves to deepen the process of opening to all that is seeking our consciousness.
• Highlighting the themes of:
  • Bridge
  • Connection between Cosmos and Earth.
  • Removing obstacles
  • Transitioning
  • Change
  • And actively healing and gifting our consciousness to that which we are in service of.
• Embody all that is being revealed.

Closing Ceremony

• Sounding and Affirmations.
• To include gifting the merits of our work today to all sentient beings.
• Sending blessings.
• Requesting healing for self and others.

Reference

Nepo, Mark (2005). Exquisite risk: Daring to live an authentic life. New York: Random House

Rilke, Rainer Maria. (2008). Letters to a young poet. www.BNPublishing.net.

Lynch, David. (2006). Catching the big fish: Meditation, consciousness, and creativity. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin.