Easily Amazed

michael j. has posted the photos that charles maclean took at the giving conference, have a look.

 

also i am working on putting together a website that will be a resource for connecting youth programs around the world. if you’re interested in seeing what i’ve got in mind and would like to add your own comments, PLEASE do so. click on the connecting youth programs link. read through what’s written there and then at the bottom of the page you will see Edit text of this page. click that link and add your comments to the bottom. i’d love input from you.

Just BE a lot, but do very little. And in a funny way the less you do, the better it is for everybody. 

Have fun!

Harrison Owen 

comments:

here’s a great one from Therese Fitzpatrick.

“I believe humanity is undergoing a big shift in consciousness and more and more people are aware of the shift. . . we hear it creaking and cracking like the ice breaking up in anticipation of spring. I hear it often in open space.

ashley | Email | Homepage | 07.21.04 – 1:55 am | #

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Ashley is a blessing…

I too am eaily amazed! Ashley, your inspiration has encouraged so many to be easily amazed as well!

Thanks for being who you are!

Peace,

Shawn (3foote)

a new fun and playful link. check out boyz-in-da-pond, click on a frog and hear the talent they have to share! you can also click on “the ‘real’ thing” and hear the true sounds of these frogs. i must admit, however, that i am still partial to the horses a cappella. you really must play with them if you haven’t already.

my personal practice of living in truth includes plenty of dialogue with myself. i like to check in and see what’s happening on the inside. i love to explore my inner terrain, discovering and connecting with my inner world…forming an intimate bond with my own truth. i believe that the relationship i have with myself enables me to engage more fully with the rest of the world. with greater ease, i am able to live from a place of authenticity and genuineness, maintaining presence. except, of course, for the times when i slip out of ‘it’, i’m still learning! asking questions is a great way of tuning in. here are a few questions i’ve gathered from some friends.

thomas shared these:

• how do we find that balance between extending into the world and drawing into our sense of self?
• what are the priorities and missions that focus our intent and inspire our action?
• what are the places that snag our flow and distract us from our deepest purpose?
• how do we say no to something of intrinsic worth if it’s not aligned with our deepest flow?

and christy passed on a this one:

• how do we create an outburst of alive, radiant people throughout the world?

“opening into the beauty of our truths is an ocean of light in the depths of my soul.” ~thomas arthur

a constant joke at the giving conference was amazement at the fact that people actually showed up, from locations far and near. the joke revolved around the “why”. popular opinion seemed to find the invitation fairly vague. what made people come? and who were the people that were moved to be there?

from my perspective, two prominent pieces were the main attractors of this conference. the theme, opening space for giving to flourish, attracted a group of people whose visions included the gifts they personally had to offer and extended beyond themselves to giving for the greater good. the sessions generated were quite impressive, here’s a few of them:

• Social Venture Bank — how to establish a “social venture bank” that could provide seed funding and planning support to help new, long-term, sustainable collaborations get off the ground.
• Better World Project Stories Online Giving Auction Market — inviting stories from all kinds of people, networks and communities, with all kinds of purposes and passions generally aligned with simple principles capturing the essence of “highest good” and enable them to offer their visions in an efficient marketplace where they can get the funding and other kinds of support they need to realize their dreams (large and small) of a better world.
• Essential Foundations For Sustaining Giving — What is essential in an organization/community to encourage and sustain giving and flourishing
• Building Bridges between the Left and the Business and Professional Communities
• Giving As Meaning/Purpose
• Gift And The Property Of Movement — If one of the essential properties of a gift is that it must keep moving, what does this mean or how do we relate to this?
• Living In Truth

the other attracting component that i noticed was that everyone who showed up had deep respect and admiration for the person(s) that they knew who had extended to them the invitation. the power of networks and personal connections was very evident as this eclectic group mixed with one another, sharing wisdom, resources, connections, and much more. i continue to be moved by the possibilities and the increased efficiency of action that is made possible when the right people are connected with one another.

during one circle, a participant asked, “who are we?” if you’re curious about the priests, educators, facilitators, writers, techies, philanthropists, inventors, entrepreneurs, activists, financial advisors or other types that showed up, peruse the list of participants.

as i settle back into being home, it is this question that continues to echo inside my head: “WHO ARE WE?” i think about all of the people that i am connected to. i think about all of you who have mentioned the kavanah post, who are we that choose to be intentional, aware of our actions, directing our hearts to Spirit, living in truth, sharing our gifts and passions with ourselves, our neighbors, our communities? a shining network of truth livers. WHO ARE WE? and how do we continue to connect and unite with one another so that the ripples of our actions spread wider and deeper into the hearts of beings all across this planet?

comments:

love my southern blood. i can’t help but read “a shining network of truth livers” and think about a shining network of chicken livers!! feels like more of a comment statement, than words for the actual post!!

ashley | Email | Homepage | 07.14.04 – 8:27 am | #

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Chicken livers!! or, Truth and Onions…

The echo inside your head resonates with a couple of phrases rattling about in mine: one is from the Pragati Foundation’s Radiant Networking conference being spun out by Anne Stadler and Arun Wakhlu and their other Spirited Work colleagues, where they ask “how do we create an outburst of alive, radiant people throughout the world?” (“outburst”!)

and the other phrase fragment is “connective tissue”. One meaning is: skin and bone, tendons and ligaments, that which keeps our structure intact and flexible, & the “ground substance” matrix that is the medium via which cells talk to each other and are nourished. Another meaning is, all the many ways in which people connect to one another (in which life connects to itself).

Christy Lee-Engel | Email | Homepage | 07.14.04 – 8:39 pm | #

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(cont’d)

I’m just beginning to do some work with my herbalist-wizard friend Rowan, who has developed an amazing botanical topical cream (http://www.rowanbotanicals.com) and whose company motto is “doing business with friends” –so he is addressing both meanings at one go. It has been breathtaking to watch how the connections between friends and kindred have led to unexpected, and immediate, opportunities and treasures.

So: Who Are We? My astrologer friend Eric Francis asks, “For whom does We mean *all of us here*? All of us who drink water? All of us who breathe air?”

love, Christy

Christy Lee-Engel | Email | Homepage | 07.14.04 – 10:36 pm | #

this morning i feasted on the wisdom and direction that chris (from the north) corrigan shares about Living in truth, emergence and giving. of course, i can’t resist some cut and paste…

I want to pick up on this idea that living in truth is about looking around you and doing what needs to be done.

My friend Harrison Owen, the man who created OST says that the essence of empowerment is figuring out what you want to do and then going and taking care of it. Focusing on this takes us out of the traps we create for ourselves when we say “someone should do something.” Complaining is perhaps the most powerful way to disembark oneself because it puts you in a position of arguing with reality. Anytime we use the word “should” we are saying that reality is wrong.

For individuals, arguing with reality also creates a state where everything lives in the external world. We look outside of ourselves for both the source of problems and the solutions (“somebody should do something”). We abandon our own resources and skills and desires and give away our power to change anything. The antidote to this is hurricanes moment of introspection. Simply stop and say:

*What do I really care about?

*What can I do to take care of it?

Kurt Hahn, the man that founded Outward Bound says:

There are three ways of trying to win the young. There is persuasion. There is compulsion and there is attraction. You can preach at them; that is a hook without a worm. You can say “you must volunteer.” That is the devil. And you can tell them, “you are needed” that hardly ever fails.

This is not to say that it is always easy. It is rather to acknowledge that living in truth need not be daunting. You don’t need to have the big picture in your head. In fact doing so will probably lay you out in a catatonic state, unable to contribute anything. Small actions influence neighbor’s who provide feedback that can keep these activities going.

This finally points to one other characteristic of living in truth that I feel is important. To make an impact in human society, whether it is overthrowing a dictatorship or simply launching an initiative to improve things, the answers to hurricanes two questions must be true both for the individual and the larger society. Citizen engagement, democratic empowering and living in truth works if you subscribe to the worldview that the self and the community are connected and that what is good for one is good for the other. In other words, you undertake personal responsibility for change because you know that it improves life for others as well.

don’t you think it’s time to stop giving away our power? take a moment to look inside and feel all of that power radiating from within. imagine the possibilities and potential of intimately bonding with that power and sharing it with the rest of the world. this, to me, is part of living in truth, living in love… connected to our individual and collective power… connected to one another. and remember, the key is starting small, one step at a time, and inviting in support from those around you.

chris (from the south) weaver and i have been dreaming about and envisioning the grid of connection, potential and possibility that evolves within a community of people living in truth and love. the local context that we speak of is a therapeutic camp setting, the global context is… the connections between you and me and and and and ….

lets say that each individual living in truth is like a crystal, radiant in our unfathomable power of simply honoring WHAT IS and accepting ourselves and others AS IS. we are proud of and own our talents, gifts, resources, skills, and desires… along with our weaknesses, longings, fears, and promising areas of growth.

when all of these people living in truth are linked up it becomes a grid of shining lights, an electric net through which healing energy gathers and dances, a field generated by living in-love in which potential and possibilities turn into action and reality. one of the keys to generating this net is having each individual living in truth, living in love, tuned to one another, and tuned to the total field. it is also imperative that the individuals and the group remain available. there is an open invitation that others who are following their truth and passion can join in the giving, dreaming, and creating. the space remains open.

some questions:

how do we clean off our dirty crystals buried in the ground?

how do we link up with other radiating people living in truth?

how do we tune in with one another and maintain that frequency?

how do tune the field so that it is fully available for others to join and add to?

how do we work with & invite healing energy into this field?

how do we encourage dreaming… and believing in our dreams?

and in pondering these questions, i’m left with an ear to ear grin as i notice that there’s no end to any of this…

these are some questions on my mind as i get ready to head out to chicago (again) for the giving conference that begins friday morning. i’d imagine that you can follow what is happening there through the wiki… or stay tuned to this easily amazed network of folks!!

if you have comments, thoughts to share that you would like to travel with me to the conference, do so today because i leave tomorrow!