photo: flickr

I want to share a post on that site that’s gotten a lot of attention from friends, and I believe it can help us to achieve the kind of world we want. The inspiration for this post was a two minute video that articulated something that I’ve always felt, but had a hard time putting into words. It seems a lot of people agree with the sentiment. I’ve embedded the video and I hope you’ll take the two minutes it takes to watch it.

Here’s the post. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope you take the time to explore the rest of my new website.

I hope you’re well.

photo: flickr, Dennis Cowals' photostream

I found a great way to celebrate this day and blogged about it on my new site, Occupytoolkit. I hope you’ll take the time to check it out and sign the letter declaring ecocide an international crime on behalf of the earth.

This short video by Polly Higgins explains the action.

Wishing you a lovely day!

photo: wiki images, Erixsen's photostream

So this morning, teary for no apparent reason, I decided to meditate in order to be productive for the rest of the day.

Here are the thoughts that came to me, and I feel they’re worth sharing:

• Honour all feelings
• Find the love at the root of them
• Relate from that place of love

photo: flickr, JCC Photo Collection

Times are changing, and we need to do other things besides trying to manifest through creating an abundance mentality, or whatever you want to call it. There is great value in having a positive attitude and being able to receive. There’s also great value in looking honestly at our economic situation and seeing what we can do to collectively address our problems.

During times like these, it’s so important to reach out to our communities to see how we can help and be helped. As times become leaner, we need to share resources more. I think this is a natural step in the process of changing our world for the better. How and what can we share? As we answer this question, we build relationships with others and the trust that comes with those relationships.

That trust and those relationships are the foundation of a kinder, cleaner and gentler world. As we get to know each other, we learn from each other. The bonds we create give us support and strength, and from that strength comes the courage to make changes.

Now is a time to reach out, to explore ideas together, and to be helpful. It’s a time to celebrate community and to see each other’s beauty. Not the Hollywood kind, but the kind we see through the lens of compassion, warmth and familiarity. We’re in this together, and we’re each other’s support system. It’s a beauty based on authenticity, and is commercial free!

May we manifest the abundance that community brings. It’s a source of true wealth, power and happiness that we’ve only begun to tap.

It’s the best movie I’ve seen about where we are, why, and what we need to do next to replace our current system which is literally insane.

One of the terms used in this movie that jumps out at me is “value system disorder” which describes our fundamental problem. In the context of our current economic system, it makes no sense to find clean energy sources or cures for diseases or to end poverty, since none of these make a profit which is what drives our global economy. Clearly, this is insanity at a systemic level.

photo: wiki images, Cjbvii's photostream

I like that this movie presents a rationale that makes sense and offers practical solutions to our problems. I like that it addresses the importance of planning. And I LOVE the ending — it made me cry.

Most inspiring is the realization that when we create a system that enables health in its broadest sense, we will be able to explore and share all of our many talents. When everyone has enough to eat, roofs over our heads and time on our hands, we’ll be poised for a renaissance the likes of which this world has never experienced.

It’s time for us to collectively grow up, shed a system that serves no one and nothing, and embrace a healthy and fulfilling alternative. Humanity is capable of being so much more than what we are now.

photo: wiki media, Bill Booth's photostream, geographic.org.uk

As a fan of Carl Jung’s, I believe there are things to be known in our collective consciousness that reveal themselves when they’re most needed. When messages are repeated synchronistically in different forms, it seems to me that it’s time to take note.

As an example, today the value of being able to live with uncertainty has been conveyed to me in a variety of ways, so I’m paying attention. Uncertainty can be very stressful, and the times we’re living in are uncertain to say the least. I’d like to share some words that are comforting and beautiful from the soundofheart site that ring true for me. If uncertainty is getting you down, maybe they’ll help you to feel better.

I believe we’re attuned to what we need to receive. These days, we’re inundated with so many messages that we block out many of them in order to avoid being overloaded. We only allow those in that resonate with us. This process makes sense to me: it means we’re exercising discernment, and allowing our deeper knowing to choose what it needs. We’re aligning with the wisdom of the universe as it reveals itself.

More than ever, we need what’s beautiful, mystical and poetic, since these qualities are the essence of synchronicity. We need the grace and inspiration they provide to help us through these challenging times. May they wash over you, bring you the special comfort only they can give, and inform you in the way only they can.

But these days how do you know who and what to trust? In the age of facebook “friends” and networking, how do you find this sacred state?

photo: wiki images, Durova's photostream

I feel so lucky to have a few people in my life that I trust completely, and try very hard to be worthy of the trust people put in me. ‘Trust’ is a word more powerful than ‘love’ for me, since we readily understand what it means.

Every day, we have dealings with people who haven’t earned our trust. So what can we do to protect ourselves? I had this conversation with a friend recently, and we identified a few things to prevent those painful breaches of trust.

The first thing was to learn to trust ourselves and our instincts. Often when we look back on a situation that involves betrayal, we realize that we ignored some important warning signals. We need to listen to our inner voices. Often when things don’t ring true, it’s for a good reason.

When we have dealings with others that involve money, we can write up a simple contract. A co-worker once told me that in her family they always did this to prevent misunderstandings. They learned their lesson when two of her relatives had become bitter enemies over a money matter. Clarifying a situation beforehand made sense to me as a way of preventing unintentional betrayal.

Doing all we can to be trustworthy, and adopting trustworthiness as a core value, helps us to be discerning about who and what we allow into our lives. When we hear malicious gossip or witness habitual acts of dishonesty in others, we need to take note.

Finding a balance between being too trusting and too suspicious can be tricky, but I think forming a few good habits can help.

I wish everyone the sacred state of trust, from which so much beauty blooms. But it’s fragile, so handle with care.

It’s a way of deeply appreciating life in all its splendour: tastes, smells, colours – all the glorious pleasures life offers us. When we honour what is sensual, we allow the moment to fully embrace us. When we abandon ourselves to the magic of falling snow, the thrill of a loving look, or the pure musicality of a bird’s call, we’re truly alive.

photo: wiki media, MatthiasKabel's photostream

Deep immersion into life is the fullest form of appreciation for this enchanting experience we share. Sensuality is our pathway into the sacred. Life experienced joyously blossoms into profundity at every turn. Each moment can be a sparkling jewel when it’s appreciated wholly.

Listening with care, watching with absorbed attention, allowing ourselves to involve all our senses as we move through our days – these are the acts that elicit life’s treasures.

And when we can fully appreciate the treasure life really is, we almost automatically commit to its care and protection. Respect, kindness, activism and responsibility come naturally when seen through this lens. Our everyday activities become infused with spirituality when they come from this place.

So let’s drink deep, and open ourselves to the magic and beauty that’s all around us. The sacred reveals itself when we give our rapt attention.

I just finished watching a film called The Money Fix. As a member of a Columbia Basin wide local currency group, I watch a lot of these movies, but what I liked about this one was the way it compared monetary systems to ecosystems.

The commonly accepted cultural myth is that money is a neutral means of exchange. This film pointed out that each culture projects its commonly held beliefs onto their monetary systems. Many of these often subconscious beliefs are based on fear, scarcity, domination and inadequacy to name a few. Maybe it’s time for us to do better.

photo: Communitydollars.ca website

Why not have monetary systems that have us interacting more like inhabitants of an ecosystem? Ecosystems benefit all and are highly collaborative, interdependent and organic. They’re based on abundance and not scarcity. They embody the concept of right relationship. All participants contribute what they can, take what they need, and flourish. These systems are not based on fear or control.

As our societies evolve, maybe one of the most important steps in our evolution will be changing our monetary systems. We can start by adopting local currencies. What’s wonderful about them is that they have caring built right into them. They stay in our communities and enrich all they touch. They encourage trust, generosity, collaboration and creativity.

Our local currency group has adopted the Community Way model developed by Michael Linton, and Michael has been kind enough to mentor our group. The Community Dollars system is up and running in Kimberley and Fernie, and will be launched in Nelson some time in 2012.  It doesn’t replace the existing monetary system, but augments it and keeps more of both kinds of dollars in our communities.

I like these concrete steps we can take together to build a better world. They all start with examining our assumptions, seeing how they are reflected in our lives and then doing something about them.

I look forward to seeing what other systems we can transform as we grow, change and evolve.

What made the biggest impression on me wasn’t just the incredibly innovative reuse of garbage to build beautiful dwellings, complete with fully self-sustaining infrastructure (power, heat, water and sewage all off grid); it was the inability of regulators and bureaucrats to appreciate the benefits of this type of design. What was Mike Reynolds’ reward for creating these amazing buildings? He had his architect’s licence revoked, demonstrating a stunning lack of vision by the powers that be.

photo: Flickr, The Library of Congress' photostream

As 2012 approaches, I wonder about that inner bureaucrat in all of us who wants to play by the rules; the selfish one who misses the big picture, who always seeks to control, who misses the forest for the trees. How do we give that stuffy old fart his proper due without losing our ability to work towards the greater good? More concisely, what can we do to put more energy into love than fear?

Many of us are struggling under a system that’s collapsing: so how do we love it to death? How do we allow the walls to crumble — inside and out — while nurturing what needs to grow? How do we protect ourselves, while supporting each other through all this crumbling? What do we need to bless and let go of? How do we recognize the outmoded, and joyously release it to the universe? And what will this make room for in our lives, individually and collectively?

Here are a few things that come to my mind:

I’m happy to let go of the need to be right – in a time when we’re so desperately in need of solutions, how about if we give all our ideas a chance? Why does anyone need to be right? I’d like to replace ‘right’ with ‘useful’ and ‘constructive’ and even ‘wonderful’ — there’s something so rigid and sterile about ‘right’.

I’d also like to get rid of that inner balance sheet that only returns a favour for a favour. Let’s face it: some of us are more needy than others, and we go through times when we’re more able to give or receive. As they say, an eye for an eye just leaves us all blind.

Next into the dustbin is all that’s inauthentic. That includes everything from responding in ways that are artificial, to using less plastic, to being in denial. I know that’s a tall order; sometimes we need that new electronic device, and we often don’t realize we’re in denial, or can’t muster the courage to be as authentic as we’d like to. But why not try?

I also want to intentionally get away from marketing schemes, sales pitches and their more subtle versions, like networking. In their place I want to establish relationships that are authentic, loving and deep. I want to be sensitive in all my dealings with others, to their feelings, needs and to the truth of who they are with the truth of who I am.

The phrase “Go with the flow” drives my inner bureaucrat crazy. He wants permanence: a house made of stone, stability in all things. But nothing in life is permanent, and when I really allow that knowledge into my consciousness, I can appreciate the beauty of each moment and really be present for it. The sound of melting snow, the ambience of a space, the subtlety inherent in each unique time of day. What makes life precious is that it’s ephemeral, a concept my inner bureaucrat will never be able to comprehend.

We’re at a time when the world needs our very best. Maybe if we can give our inner bureaucrat the stability of a few solid relationships, some good habits and a simple routine, it’ll give us enough slack to use our desperately needed ingenuity and creativity to transform our world.

How’s your inner bureaucrat doing these days, and what will you do to appease him?