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Archive for Ceremony – Page 6

Oscar

This year the Oscars seemed to radiate a new, fresh energy. It was exciting to see Al Gore(‘s film crew) and Melissa Etheridge take Oscars for An Inconvenient Truth, and (even though she glowed on the day in jewel-encrusted chiffon), I found it refreshing to read Helen Mirren’s pre-Oscar disdain for the prevailing culture of Oscar Couture critique.

I really wanted  Peter O’Toole to win best actor, because I loved him in Venus (I even reviewed it here when I first saw it) and because it would feel good to send an actor of his caliber off stage with an Oscar, but then when Forest Whitaker took it, I had to change my mind. Even the swiftly-controlled moment of disappointment and resignation on O’Toole’s face did not eclipse my joy hearing Forest’s acceptance speech.

Apparently Whitaker has received a lot of criticism for his lack of verbal polish in the past, but this simple honest moment touched a vibrant chord in me. For those who missed it, the gist of what he said is that the reason he became an actor was because even as a child he believed every person has a light inside them, and he wanted the chance to connect with that light in all of us. Uttering that kind of simplicity and beauty before a billion viewers takes courage, and my heart swelled in pride for him.

Perhaps we’ve turned a corner, and our collective spirit is starting to open up in optimism for a new day. It certainly felt like that to me on Sunday night.

Beauty Walk

I’ve started taking time each day, usually first thing in the morning, to get outside and walk for a half-hour or so with the express purpose of noticing the beauty around me.

I almost always bring my camera, which gives me such a feeling of joy because it allows the astounding beauty I see to be shared with others. Today I was really aware of spring coming…

I was shocked to find I’d almost missed the ornamental cherry blossoms – already the outer petals are starting to turn brown and curl away.

Pink

Spark to the Fire

We just finished another amazing Thought Leader Gathering on Friday, produced by the west coast
Restoring Wholeness team of Heartland Circle, Resonance and myself –
this one was held in San Francisco, in the Golden Gate Officer’s Club at the Presidio.

Our conversation starter (so called because rather than a keynote
speaker or presenter, their words are truly a spark to fire the
group conversation) was Eamonn Kelly, CEO of the Global Business Network.

Eammon’s perspective about the state of the world (outlined in his excellent new book, Powerful Times) was in complete accordance with my own, but he used such a different analytical matrix to get there that it had the effect of blowing the top off my conceptual limits and letting in more light, illuminating my understanding with different hues than I am usually aware of. I heard variations of this opening and quickening in others as we engaged with Eamonn’s words in small group and whole circle conversations.

The group assembled for this TLG was one of our largest ever – 55 of us sitting in a circle around a centerpiece of beauty created by Pele Rouge of Resonance. We had to lean in a bit to hear each other at first, but with our ‘outdoor voices’ on it was soon effortless and the morning’s experience was extremely full and rewarding, in the unique way this event has of creating magic for us all.

I am continually awed by what happens in these sessions… it seems that no matter who the conversation starter is, who shows up, what the weather or external conditions are (we met the week of 9/11 in an almost unbelievable confluence, given travel limitations in the US at that time), there is always ‘something’ that occurs to make the morning seem like a special gift to each of us. I have the feeling this one will be reverberating in me for some time…

Restoring Wholeness in Lake Superior

Sunrise

This week I’m in a ceremonial retreat in a cottage on the shores of Lake Superior with some dear friends and colleagues. We are engaged in an emergent endeavor that has brought us together several times over the last year to contemplate the sacred task of restoring wholeness in the world.

The first part of this task is of course to restore wholeness in
ourselves, and spending these days and nights cradled in the rhythm of
nature feels like a crucial step in that process for me. I’m reminded that waking each
morning to the sunrise is an amazing restorative, completely free and
available to all…

Each of us have work and lives that take us to the heart of restoring wholeness
in our own part of the world, and yet we realize that none of us can make the
difference we want to see alone.  We feel that the crucial call of
our time is to come to consciousness about our relationship to each
other and to the earth. To recognize that we are individual parts of one
living organism, one body, and that all our actions, even our thoughts, effect
the other parts of this shimmering web. As a species we’ve wandered off that
path of knowing and our subsequent actions have effected the very air
we breathe and water we drink. It is imperative that we find our way back to consciousness, and to the love that is the very core of life, the motivation and reward and purpose of all. To the wholeness that is our true nature.

So we meet, and strengthen our bonds, and develop the microcosm of wholeness within and between ourselves and take the next step in doing what’s ours to do in manifesting wholeness in the macrocosm … I take an enormous amount of heart in knowing that we are not unique (and of course we ARE unique). All over the world there are others, too – gathering, restoring wholeness, repairing their part of the great web of life. I know many of you, and hear of more every day. One of my passions is shining a bright light on each of us so we can find each other and make common cause, because our time together here is precious and all too short, and there is much to do.