The Right Kind of Urgency

There’s a right kind of urgency. And, there is a wrong kind. A woman, generally, knows the difference. She feels it in her body, especially if she has borne children. Even more so, if she has reared them too.

The right kind of urgency comes of the fire in the soul, forging a new life form. Something tangible grows out of the effort; something that may even be beautiful, at least, to its mother.

The wrong kind goes round and round, feeding off itself, with nothing genuine to show for its efforts. Like a tiger chasing its tail. The wrong kind of urgency keeps us relentlessly on edge, like warriors poised for a battle that will have no true victor, nor any end in sight.

I don’t want that wrong kind of urgency infecting my space, especially when generated by others. It’s bad enough when I bring it in myself. Thus I am moved to speak out on the issue of urgency, at least, until I feel I have made myself “perfectly clear.”.

Nonetheless, I didn’t realize, until my Divine ZOP Sistah, Sandi, I and were head deep into passionate discussion, that it was the wrong kind of urgency that was prompting me to bring up that highly toxic subject; the coming elections of 2012, during a nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon chat.

Oops. Make room for the bad kind of urgency. If our armed, goddess-guards do not protect the gates, it can slip in anywhere. Damn!

“You know, Sandi, the politicians are going to tear us apart in this coming election. They’ve already started.”

“Yeah, I know, said she. But what can you do?”

“I don’t know, said I, back to her.”

Hmm, I mused to myself, was dear Sandi already defeated by the campaigning still to come? Well, it already could be daunting, especially if you opened up the internet. And, who could totally avoid that in this day and age?

“But, said I, you know, I/we can do something. We cannot just sit back and do nothing.”

(I, had no idea, yet, what that might be, of course.)

"Well, said she, I know you don’t like to just sit by. As for me, what I can figure out for now is just to not let them hijack my goodness!"

Is that a priceless statement or what?

I could feel in my heart as well as my body, these were the words of a wise woman who had, determinedly, made up her mind how to protect herself. So I had no more to say to at the moment to my dear Sandi.

Still, I could not quite let the subject drop inside of me with that as enough of a conclusion just yet.  Today, the spark from that exchange, already igniting a sense of injustice made right, thus found me pulling down women-power books, left and right.

Some of them from as far back as undergraduate women’s studies, others (relative to the progression of my life’s journey) as recent as "Women Who Run With The Wolves."  I would not be daunted!

The flaming, warrior woman, creative goddess within was readying herself to not be held hostage, again, by the lies and manipulations of my good life by politicians and the media that feeds off them. The political had become personal, the personal political!

Sarah Palin is just not my ideal of what I wanted out of my fight for equal rights for women and a woman in the White House. I would have to move into woman warrior mode now myself.

Question: How can a sane person navigate the coming election and happily support a winning side come November, 2012?

Answer: Somehow find a means for women’s way, the way of the feminine heart, to win.

Question: Does anybody else notice that women running for office are playing a man’s game in politics, even in a skirt.

Possible Solution: Somehow assist our democratic process to truly be feminized. Not just a new face for the same old, same old patriarchal games.

That means an election outcome with a good bit of awe. Not awful!

Question: Who knows how? And, if not now, when? (Words of a wise Jewish statesman.)

Urgency: Part II

Yesterday (July 3), after I had written and posted the blog that follows, I almost immediately wanted to take it down, delete it, disconnect myself from it, as quickly as I could. I felt ashamed of the article I had written.

Yet something in me said, “Wait, hold off, consider, contemplate the writing of the piece and the wanting to be rid of it.”

Though I read and re-read it, eventually doing so twenty or thirty times, I still could not put my finger on what was amiss for me. The best I could come up with that from my post that was as spiritual and vulnerable a piece as I had ever written, the progression to the July 3 blog seemed stilted and false. It seemed as if I had gone and put some kind of mask over myself; somehow left a part of myself behind.

Perhaps I had created what ego-infused “urgency” can do; erected a barrier between my outer self and my inner self as I wrote the blog. Or, perhaps the excitement generated by our last, power-packed “Climbing The Mountain Of Awe GAME” group (June 30) had not been adequately channeled.

Perhaps I was simply feeling pushed by my self-imposed deadline to post, at least, one piece before 4th of July and just wasn’t up to par. Or, perhaps I had gotten so many, precious accolades from that post (I truly did love it myself) that I felt stymied as to what to do next; “a tough act to follow.” Maybe so much change, both positive and challenging, is presently going on in my life that I just do not, consistently, have me together.

Anyway, our blueprint stage GAME group (now meeting almost weekly) was a richly rewarding experience on Thursday, June 30th and brought with it some exciting news that is posted here below.
 
To help us make the impact we are after, SABA Direct, Inc. has donated a starting supply of the first (of ten parts) of my unpublished, unedited “Random House Trilogy” manuscript for our new fundraising project, specially designed to overcome areas of polarization in communities.

“Surviving Addictions: “On The Origins And Cure Of Adrenalin/Excitement Addictions In Contemporary American Life” makes a strong case for the power and impact of the New Horizons’ approach to community development and violence prevention. Hopefully, our readers, followers and supporters will want to know more about our theories, perspectives and strategies from here forth and will be as excited to purchase a copy of this first manuscript portion as we are to now make it available.

Centennial Memorial United Methodist Church overcame the polarization their congregation was experiencing with the guidance and support of our unique community development approach. In danger of their doors closing, they not only overcame divisions to keep the church open and operating, they took what we provided and created that enviable outcome I call awe. Of course, Centennial drew upon the authority of that best-selling book, The Bible. That was the main source of their awe.

In the secular world, however, something further seems to generally be needed, if one is to reach awe, personally and collectively. We are "excited" (hopefully in the healthiest of ways) to introduce you to the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of the New Horizons’ Small Zones of Peace community development and violence prevention model through the pages of this held-too long in abeyance material.

Thanks to Saba Direct, Inc. we will now have copies of my manuscript (part one of ten) for our participants to use as a handbook for that trek up the Mountain of Awe should you want to join us or try it on your own.

See this link for details on how you can purchase your own personal copy and support our developing “Climbing The Mountain of Awe GAME” project and our other projects yet to be announced.

Urgency

“Urgency is what you need to get across to people!”

Bob Hanson is stressing this point to Sue and I. We are meeting with Bob and his partner, Barry Hinton, of Saba Direct, Inc.,* direct marketing specialists. At this particular moment, we are the recipients of their bountiful wisdom on how to run a successful community visibility and fundraising campaign.

I am happily challenged. Sue is just happy, especially as she is the one that brought these generous, wise men to us.

Yes! To gain the impact we are after through our project we must convey the urgency! What good sense that makes.

But, urgency is an addiction. Along with addictions to power, anger, lying and excess materialism, defeating these addictions on a community-wide level is one of our program’s prime objectives. (i.e. Addictions other than to alcohol and drugs.)

And, yes, trust me, if you don’t already know it, urgency when infused with repeated hits of adrenalin fuels many of the ills of our society (i.e. excitement addictions).

Exceptional communities are founded on other than adrenalin highs. So how can we build healthfully generate “excitement”? Be “of it (i.e. the problem), but not in it”; solution builders, not addiction enablers?

One of the prime objectives of our project is to teach people how to strengthen and/or form small community pockets that are exceptional in nature. That means we are after something more elevated in character than fostering the mediocrity of the masses, the shallowness of living in an addicted society such as our’s.

My heart and my mind, like most Americans on the 4th of July, yearns for the majesty of our country at its best, not the messes we seem, also, able to create.

So when the fireworks go off, as they already started to last night in my neighborhood, along with celebrating the holiday, I will be asking myself:

What are the fires our Small “Zones of Peace” initiative wants to particularly dampen at this time?

And, how can we present ourselves as proponents of “urgency” without addiction; that passion for integrity, social justice, creativity and commitment that infuses our best?

You know the “good guys” urgency; the urgency that is based on genuine survival imperatives, not the ego-generated ones!

Perhaps we could even attempt to make a dent in overcoming the polarization of politics that looms ahead with next year’s elections?

Such are the issues our New Horizons Board of Directors will ponder with me when next we meet on July 17.

Sub-Text

Climbing The Mountain of Awe

For years, every morning when I awakened, I reached out in my mind for the land of awe. Most of the time I was able to get there, no matter how difficult were my days in semi-darkness, even if it took me to mid-day and just for a moment to attain it. Those were the years, 1998 – 2006, when I was blind and recovering from being blind.

The whole of the ordeal; being blind and recovering from it, was like being out of this world, yet in it somehow; a place where the physical and the spiritual were one. They had to be, if I were to survive. The adventure, if one can appropriately call it such, made a shaman out of me.

Now having recently lost the sight in my right eye, I am faced with the possibility of living this way again. The shaman’s journey is always one of birth-death and rebirth. I would not have purposely chosen it. But here it is.

So how does someone even begin to describe what it was like to be blind and to recover from it? And, what it is like now, again?

There is no language for that which is so completely unseen; the being in a place where the physical and the spiritual must be entwined, if one is to survive. Yet I want to reach out to our readers with whatever language can allow to speak of it here and now as best I can.

And, with this telling, help you to come to know and understand why it is that the New Horizons Small “Zones Of Peace” Project model for building exceptional communities is both so viable – and – so critical for all people in our time, here and now.

Language – and – a few graphics and photos is all we have here. And, it is more important than ever that I do my utmost to convey what it is that makes the climbing of the mountain to awe so imperative to me that I would risk this sheer nakedness here as I am doing.

You see, climbing the mountain Of awe in my own mind was not the only ascent I made during my term of blindness and recovery from it.

During this time. I was inordinately blessed, almost miraculously, to meet Murat Yagan. And, to find a near-by community that was learning the practical application of the ancient ways of Murat’s heritage, the ways of the Abkhazian peoples of the Caucasus Mountains. This too was a pathway to awe.

Because I was limited in my ability to travel due to my eye problems, I decided to connect with this close-by group and learn what I could by making myself a visiting member of it. This affiliation which was to last, from start to finish for about seven years, combined with my previous twenty-five years as a psychotherapist, running a therapeutic community, is how I learned that “awe” is a place one can reach not only on one’s own, but also with others in a community, purposely, as a way of life. I want you to know this!

Thus was the New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” Project first envisioned in my mind when seeing in my mind was about all I had.

I hope you will want to know more of this tale and its lessons, as myself and my hearty, new team of Climbing The Mountain of Awe GAME players strive, under challenging circumstances, to climb, once again, the mountain of awe together.

More to come.

This Isn't Exactly Easy, But,,,,

The American way is win or learn. 

Life always in process.

Visit Anastasia The Storyteller for an update.

Two Schools Of Thoughts On Emotions

I was intent on giving myself time off, at least through next week.

Losing my eyesight, even though I still have sight in one eye is not an easy death. I am scared And, up and down in an array of other primitive, dealing-with-significant-loss emotions.

Sure, I hate not to produce my quota of blogs per week. I should strive to do two apiece for each of our two blog sites each week. But you can see I have often fallen far short in recent months though I do, at least, think about writing my articles. 

Still Lisa reassures me that quality is better than quantity. With these words from on high, at least in my small world, I relax, secure in my belief that the long-term goals we have defined for writing these blogs will be met; contributing whatever we can to social change for the better.

Nonetheless, here I sit at week’s end, not far from sundown (the Jewish Sabbath which I give myself permission to celebrate whatever time on a weekend that I feel to be most sacred for me), contemplating whether or not to add a piece when I had already decided to give myself a well-deserved break. 

I don’t think, however, that I will say much on the topic that now demands my commenting; “the two schools of thought on emotions.” But I do feel compelled to, at least, "name" the issue though I would rather not.

A long held debate topic, this one about emotions. And, certainly not one I even truly care to debate. However, apparently forces beyond my control beckon my statement of position.

So let me state my position and invite you to tune in again soon as I elaborate on the subject. And, please do comment, if you have your own thoughts, feelings and experiences to contribute.  That would be so valuable. This topic is quite relevant to the period of ritual mourning I am embarking upon with this loss of the eyesight in my right eye.

Since commenting directly online to the blog seems to be almost an impossibility, please send me your comments and I will post them at the end of this, or any other relevant piece at:

zonesofpeacenh@aol.com

Two schools on emotions:

One school of thought holds that emotions need to be controlled. Corollary to that school is the strong focus running rampant in our society to “just get over it.”  Whatever "it" is that feels distracting to one's higher purpose.

(Perhaps my words, here, hold judgments though I do try to be fair. Actually, upon reflection, there is strong, even very strong, judgment in my statement.

While I do think that guiding one’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors and intentions is a critical discipline for healthy daily living, sometimes enough purposeful guiding is just too much!

More to come.)

The second school of thought on emotions is that emotions are to be honored as gifted, organically-based markers that guide us to emotional, spiritual and physical health.

Obviously, I am a proponent of the second, presently intent on healing and transforming the challenge and emotional anguish of the loss I am facing by heeding my emotions and using them to bring me to a higher plane in this human existence of mine.

Will I succeed?

In spite of the fact that I frequently feel awful these days, I have every reason to believe that I will succeed.

Based on my past experiences, I strongly believe that, if I use my present, primitive pain as guide posts, I will come through this ordeal transformed.

In support of that, my spirit sister, Sandi, a strong proponent of the first school of thought on emotions, wrote the following to encourage me yesterday.

From: Sandi Lee

Your dark night of the soul will lead you through a tunnel where, as you emerge, you will find that you have more Light in your life than you've ever had before.

The walk through this darkened tunnel is the only way to the Light.Release and let go of anything that may be keeping you from walking quickly and with great strength and courage..............

What you will discover as you step out of this tunnel is the REAL YOU.

I love you. Sandi (and she really does)

Stay tuned into this adventure of a life that I would truly prefer to have missed.

I will have more, perhaps much more, to say on the subject of the two schools of thought on emotions in the days ahead at the pace that I am able to keep.

Thank you for being among my caring supporters.

A Death In My Family

Visit Anastasia The Storyteller

blog posting, May 30, for update.