Podcast and Notes
For all that joined us this last Tuesday night at myc yoga studio… wow! What a wonderful time with such beautiful people.
The dialog will speak for itself!
Here’s the link to the notes.
2010-01-19 – Outline for Chapter 3
Hey there folks! I am very pleased to announce that you can now tune in online to our weekly dialogs at Spiritual Integration (Mandala Yoga community).
We are going through Bill Plotkin’s book, Nature and the Human Soul - Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World. This book could change the trajectory of our community. Highly recommended… highly transformational.
Here’s the link to the podcast site.
And the actual podcast link is HERE.
I will also be posting the notes for each week / podcast’s discussion. Chapters 1-2 are HERE. 2009-01-12 – Chapters 1-2
I heard yesterday that President Obama ordered another 30,000 troops into Afghanistan. Frankly, I am not surprised. I have probably written too much on my blog already about politics (“Creating our Own Kingdoms“) and “Why I don’t vote” and other such controversial things (“Post-election thoughts” and “Fear-Mongering“… I try to stay out of it and focus on what is happening in my local community and how that can change the world at large (which is entirely possible if we can tune in to the message of Christ and other universal teachings of love and peace).
But this?!? Seriously…
This is why I chose not to vote for any political personality, right or left, republican or democrat… I do not need to choose the lesser of the two evils… and I do not have to divide my allegiance or be disappointed by the choice of any president or political leader. For those of us who are seeking a world of love, peace, and unity, we will always be disappointed by a political leader of our choosing. Always… Peter Block writes in Community: The Structure of Belonging,
We love our habit of dependency and accept the culture of retribution because it reinforces the case for strong leaders – “strong” being the code word for autocratic, a message our culture is increasingly willing to accede to. We are fascinated with our leaders. We speak endlessly, both in the public conversation and privately, about the rise and fall of leaders. The agenda this sustains is that leaders are cause and all others are effect. That all that counts are what leaders do… That they are foreground while citizens, followers, players, and anyone else not in a leadership position is background. This is a deeply patriarchal agenda, and it is this love of leaders that limits our capacity to create an alternative future…
The effect of buying in to this view of leadership is that it lest citizens off the hook and breeds citizen dependency and entitlement. It undermines a culture where each in accountable for their community… In its own way, it reinforces individualism, putting us in the stance of waiting for the cream to rise, wishing for a great individual to bring light where there was darkness…
If we do not change the way citizens come together, if we do not shift the context under which we gather and do not change the methodology of our gatherings, then we will have to keep waiting for great leaders, and we will never step up to the power and accountability that is within our grasp.
I can no longer speak out without offering my own commitment to making a change for the future, for my children and their children. Protesting does not seem to make a lasting change as it is devoid of relationship and focused on fixing the perceived problem rather than living into a different future. I recognize that to lessen war, there needs to be less people who will accept war as an option… less in the military and less in the government. What I know I can do now is to begin raising and teaching new generations to have an abhorrence to war. That’s right…
We must raise generations of children who abhor the concept of war, who do not even see why killing someone for their ideals would make any sense whatsoever. We must encourage our communities and our children to be far more used to love than competition, vengeance, retribution, violence, or slander. It will happen slowly, unfortunately, but slowly is often the best and most long lasting way. It is the way of subversion.
I have been earnest about more things than I can remember. I AM earnest now about a number of things. But I am starting to realize that the more earnest I am, the more damage I will do. Isn’t it true that the most hurt and pain in communities and the world has come about because of people’s (religions, governments, etc) earnestness for their specific way? We need others to see the world from our perspective. We need them to believe what we believe. We need them to live like we live. Ok, maybe we wouldn’t say we “need” them to be a certain way. Maybe we “demand,” we “insist,” we “plead”… and then we try to fix… or persuade… or imply…
Because, we know better than the other how they should live their lives. Or we know better what God wants for someone’s life. I think the easiest thing the earnest do is to pray. Oh yes, they pray and pray. They feel the pain of their prayers… they pray in earnest. But how do they know that what they are praying for, what they feel so strongly, is what God really wants? I am not saying that I don’t believe in prayer and I’m not saying we shouldn’t pray in earnest… we just must be aware of why we are doing it.
As soon as we NEED someone to be a certain way, we are in trouble. As soon as we NEED God to do make a certain change, we are in trouble. When we NEED something to be a certain way, it is no longer about the other, it is no longer about the Earth, it is no longer about God… it is about US!
Religion, economy, and government have been the prime perpetrators of this earnestness throughout our history… or should I say money, power, “Truth,” and sexuality… we have done so much harm in the world. Something, something must change.
We need to start taking responsibility for ourselves, being accountable to each other, as citizens… not relying on the “leaders” to get the job done (the “right” pastor, the “right” president). We need to start talking about the possibilities of what we can do together rather than the problems (of the other guy, or of ourselves) that need to be fixed. We need to practice hospitality rather than fear (of our neighbor… globally… other religions, nationalities, economic class, etc).
Do I say these things in earnestness? Well… I suppose I do… although I don’t NEED everyone else to be this way in order to do it myself, in order to change the conversations we are having in our own community. I can say, though, that the world itself needs people to shift their perspective. I can say that matter-of-factly, without any personal agenda, that if we do not change, if we do not, we are in serious trouble.
So much going on these days. I suppose it is a good thing to be spending so much time actually doing things for, with, and in light of community that I don’t have much time or energy for the writing. It’s hard to sit still long enough to think through a blog post. I think the base, the foundation, for where my (and many in the community) thoughts and action take grounding is in food. Really, this is where it should be with those seeking out the village experience, as it is the means for our survival and the focal point of our gathering.
We gathered for Spiritual Integration class last night at myc yoga and our friend Jill shared her experience with food sourcing and local food security. We’ve been going through a three month dialog series on Foundations in Sustainable Community. Last night was profound… It really is pretty overwhelming to think of the rising problems of food scarcity and how we can increase our resilience as the times change. As a community, we have all that we need. With a little organization, some personal and community gardens, and more conscious spending, the possibilities are endless.
One of my favorite things that was said, thanks to Chris, was that he sees “food as church.” I guess I really do see that. Especially after our Saturday morning breakfasts. With 20-30 plus people showing up, music playing, kids running 
around, and food in abundance, I see it as a beautiful example of the community (the village) celebrating the gifts that we all have to give. No one has to be any certain way or believe any certain thing. All are welcome with embraces… late or early or right on time.
As we begin to pay closer attention to our bodies and what we put in them… in light of what I wrote about in the last post, it is so essential that we begin focusing on food and giving it a very important place in our communities.
