Monday April 30, 2012
In my work with those of multi-generational financial stability (the very wealthy), I’m ever-struck by how their comfortable separation from Earth & the work of creating daily sustenance has broken their personal & communal stability. There’s much wisdom to be gleaned from the process of integrating what’s true & now – a constant emphasis on lifestyle – with what we already know about multi-generational sustainability. For myself it’s a constant inquiry, one that leaves me hungry & empty until I remember to step outside, to step into the dangerous spots where I then don’t know where to step, I don’t know what to touch & I don’t know what I’ll find. The questions I carry for myself & my community come in answers gifted by the great breeze, ancient insights that come in through the breath of what’s true & has always been true.
Whether I come to witness…
To settle…
Or to gather,
There’s always an opportunity to consider balance.
To reclaim my place as a moment. Big in detail, small in scope.
The impacts still occur. The mysterious, unlikely impacts that happen over time, when I’m watching & when I’m gone. Others still find shelter in what I leave behind.
I still live in community. My relationships still require a dance of engagement, gratitude & reciprocation. A challenge of boundaries, humility & opportunities to give, fully & completely. I do my best.
Life is always underfoot. I will never run out of miracles to discover. And I can’t resist looking for them.
And there is still a constant of inspiration, chaos, happenstance piles & to-do lists.
So when I am moved, when I reach out, when I receive,
Let me always offer.
Let my moment, this part of me die & be used completely for the whole.
And in that space, let me please notice when something more beautiful is born. A mess of uncertainty. A comforting confidence that I just don’t know exactly how it’s going to go. But it’s exactly, exactly right. Sometimes I can replace the rush & pace with intention & curiosity. By consciously closing my own cycles, I get to take part in the epic cadence while things move into balance on their own time. Let me stay awake as the process unfolds.
And be reminded that even the tangled nest we make. The giant mess. It’s also useful. And beautiful. And perfect. Evidence of many impassioned gestures. That too soon will return from where it came. I refuse to miss the great*full*ness.
lifecycles over lifestyle
In my work with those of multi-generational financial stability (the very wealthy), I’m ever-struck by how their comfortable separation from Earth & the work of creating daily sustenance has broken their personal & communal stability. There’s much wisdom to be gleaned from the process of integrating what’s true & now – a constant emphasis on lifestyle – with what we already know about multi-generational sustainability. For myself it’s a constant inquiry, one that leaves me hungry & empty until I remember to step outside, to step into the dangerous spots where I then don’t know where to step, I don’t know what to touch & I don’t know what I’ll find. The questions I carry for myself & my community come in answers gifted by the great breeze, ancient insights that come in through the breath of what’s true & has always been true.
*******
At my studio desk it’s terrifying to consider priorities past “lifestyle,” but I ask myself to consider that concept as outdated: a mainstream Western offering to itself, circa 1980. What’s both fresh & eternal is a return to LifeCycles, moments that last both never & forever, a context that gives more access to life, more access to love, more access to beauty & spirit. Stepping outside & accepting the seasonal, temporary quality of cycles requires me to be grateful, to honor what’s not mine & to give back in a way that provides everything I might hope for. Nevermind that the degree of abundance is laughable, the reality of sufficiency is shocking & the level of vitality is that of an exquisite love. If I’m present to it.*******
It applies to every aspect of life & work, at any moment. It doesn’t require materials or tutelage. Just consideration.Whether I come to witness…
To settle…
Or to gather,
There’s always an opportunity to consider balance.
To reclaim my place as a moment. Big in detail, small in scope.
The impacts still occur. The mysterious, unlikely impacts that happen over time, when I’m watching & when I’m gone. Others still find shelter in what I leave behind.
I still live in community. My relationships still require a dance of engagement, gratitude & reciprocation. A challenge of boundaries, humility & opportunities to give, fully & completely. I do my best.
Life is always underfoot. I will never run out of miracles to discover. And I can’t resist looking for them.
And there is still a constant of inspiration, chaos, happenstance piles & to-do lists.
So when I am moved, when I reach out, when I receive,
Let me always offer.
Let my moment, this part of me die & be used completely for the whole.
And in that space, let me please notice when something more beautiful is born. A mess of uncertainty. A comforting confidence that I just don’t know exactly how it’s going to go. But it’s exactly, exactly right. Sometimes I can replace the rush & pace with intention & curiosity. By consciously closing my own cycles, I get to take part in the epic cadence while things move into balance on their own time. Let me stay awake as the process unfolds.
And be reminded that even the tangled nest we make. The giant mess. It’s also useful. And beautiful. And perfect. Evidence of many impassioned gestures. That too soon will return from where it came. I refuse to miss the great*full*ness.
Offerings:
0
Saturday January 21, 2012
In celebration of life, & the luck that I’m still here loving it, the boys took me to Ubuntu, Napa’s double-Michelin-starred wunder*factory where Executive Chef Aaron London plied us with hours of extra on-the-house culinary magic. How does this happen, one might ask? I’m not sure. The host let him know we had arrived, then the waitress, wearing her Mission Statement while espousing the joys of farming & pickling our meal, would only share that “Chef loves surprises!” While usually I might want to go on & on, explaining how the crunch of the stew crouton gave way to a melting chew of gently baked butter & how the caramelized fennel lit on my spoon next to the smoky corn on polenta, I’m currently filled & fulfilled on the pretty of it all. Brilliant vitality to celebrate grateful, unlikely-but-nonetheless overjoyed & here-to-stay vitality.
Michelin-Starred Comfort Food
In celebration of life, & the luck that I’m still here loving it, the boys took me to Ubuntu, Napa’s double-Michelin-starred wunder*factory where Executive Chef Aaron London plied us with hours of extra on-the-house culinary magic. How does this happen, one might ask? I’m not sure. The host let him know we had arrived, then the waitress, wearing her Mission Statement while espousing the joys of farming & pickling our meal, would only share that “Chef loves surprises!” While usually I might want to go on & on, explaining how the crunch of the stew crouton gave way to a melting chew of gently baked butter & how the caramelized fennel lit on my spoon next to the smoky corn on polenta, I’m currently filled & fulfilled on the pretty of it all. Brilliant vitality to celebrate grateful, unlikely-but-nonetheless overjoyed & here-to-stay vitality.
******************************
For those new to me, I’m speaking of my two near-terminal pregnancies in 2000 & 2005, real-deal initiations on what it takes to live authentically. Because, if I wasn’t authentic, honest & true in thought, deed & practice, well, the big boys & I weren’t going to live. It was deep, & they were the ones causing it. First thing on their list of changes? Be vegetarian. The second boy wanted me to eat poultry. Regardless, they wanted me to eat clean. Clean. Kind. Vibrant. Electric. (There’s more on all that in the archives of Urban Organica.) Ubuntu’s food is the ultimate expression of that.
Offerings:
2
