Monthly Archives: October 2014

Being Present vs Bucket List

25 Saturday Oct 2014

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Dear Biddy,

I’ve notice a lot of ticking off life’s actions as if they are items on a business agenda – the bucket list phenomena is being the worst offender for me. Savouring the moment, in the moment and enjoying anticipation, holding on to the present, not just ticking it off a list seems to be in short supply around me. Moving from one agenda item to the next with every minute scheduled leaves little room to relish simplicity and revelling in the moment.

As an event during The Changemakers Festival this week, I was part of a little community engagement pop up action this week asking passers by to tell us how they are being the change they want in the world. Those who stopped by were thoughtful and challenged by the question – how are you being the change you want to be in the world. Overwhelmingly people told us the simple things – being kind, smiling, looking after their family, being a friend. These are not items to be ticked off on a list: there I’ve smiled today (tick) changed the world today (tick) – they are ongoing consistently applied actions – they are a practice – they endure and have to happen over and over again. In fact, they can’t be done just once and ticked off so you can move on. The people who stopped by reflected thoughtfully and carefully. They were challenged by the question and showed their pride and commitment by being willing to put their name to their comments and most took a further step by having their photo taken with it as well.

My guess is Biddy you were the change you wanted to see in the world. Your offerings of a listening ear, healing and hope would have sent many a traveller on in better shape than they arrived.

Those who passed by our chalkboard and took the time to stop by, all left brighter with a spring in their step – affirmed for their individual giftedness and being part of something bigger than themselves – and what could be better than changing the world by being that change!

 

Jan - Be the Change #!

Jan – Be the Change #!

 

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Redeeming Rewards

20 Monday Oct 2014

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Dear Biddy,

The fairies found a friend in you, faithful to receiving their gifts and a channel to pass on their wisdom to us through potions or foresight from the blue bottle. It has got me thinking about redemption this week. I am visiting Austin, Texas this week and there seems to be a lot of re-purposing going on amongst the wealthy and elites trying to redeem the rewards of their capital raising activities through philanthropy, impact investing … a kind of atonement … not quite a reckoning though. I wonder too about indulgences of the past, a theological paying forward to the next life.

There are so many types of capital and currency. Politicians trade in the currency of fear, I think you Biddy traded in the currency of charms and most days my currency is made of coins of creativity and bills of imagination.   Your pledge to take no money from your gifts is inspiration – no commodification to be seen at your place in the countryside of Ennis.

How I share my gifts freely and offer them at the service of those who seek them is a constant challenge in a market economy and so I am also reflecting on how I redeem those rewards too.

Rewards redeemed

Reckoning requests

Gifts bestowed

Steinbeck at the Longhorns Game

Steinbeck at the Longhorns Game

The Longhorns game echoed Steinbeck (he was one of the first American authors I read, and the novel was The Grapes of Wrath). Steinbeck said about writing that novel:

I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects] … I’ve done my damndest to rip a reader’s nerves to rags.

I am tempted to put this book on the reading list of all the impact investors I heard about this weekend from the US, to help them connect back to the deepest roots of their gifts of time, talent and resources. My blessing is that deep in the heart of Texas a potion to forgive the debt of the rich will deliver a redemption deeper than indulgences.

 

 

Lunar cycle

11 Saturday Oct 2014

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Dear Biddy, You were in my thoughts this week as the waves rolled in off the ocean and started to blow summer to our shores – knowing in your part of the world the cool breezes were starting to take hold. Cycles of the seasons constantly instruct and hold me close to the earth and the skies, as I wander as a pilgrim. There was a full lunar eclipse and the moon turned red. I can imagine in your day this would be been cause for some magical and mystical ritual, for me I grabbed my little digital device and took a photo and stood in the cool after an evening of poetry at a local pub!

Blood Moon over Willunga

Blood Moon over Willunga

The moon has been spectacular this year and I seem to have been able to witness many of its movements in the heavens. During Lent, the first of the four lunar eclipses spaced six months apart occurred and I penned a piece of twitterverse (it was one of my 40 day little poems).

Tetrad of tangos Earth, moon and sun Trio of dancers Eclipse number one.

There is a dance for three called, Shepherd’s Crook it is Scottish, so maybe you did see it in Ireland? Being a shepherd is one the oldest occupations in the settled world and surely that makes the crook one of the oldest implements in our human story. (I love how we use the word ‘crook’ in Australia to describe someone as a criminal, I guess from the fact a crook is bent! ) But there is nothing criminal Biddy in how the moon and sun and earth were doing their own version of the Shepherd’s Crook this week in our skies.   You probably did a good trade in illicit whisky as the season started to turn to winter and perhaps you needed to stock up before your visitors started to dry up as the nights grew longer. This week’s complete lunar eclipse occurred on my birthday eve. It was a perfect backdrop to reflect on the year coming to a close and a new one beginning.   As the dawn arrived so did a plethora of messages to welcome the next year of my life and I felt many waves of love from all corners of the planet and from my nearest and dearest. I have been bathed in kindness and this blood moon, the second of the four in the series, is yet another reminder of love, light and the wonder of the UniVerse and the connections I have that hold me close every day and in every cycle of my life.

My moon In tune.   In step with my blood Another cycle begins And another ends.   My moon In tune.

Birthday flowers and Sparkling Shiraz

Birthday flowers and Sparkling Shiraz

Friday

04 Saturday Oct 2014

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Dear Biddy,

While my government’s actions leave me speechless, I am encouraged by the nonviolence in Hong Kong, sunsets and the trio of people, places and technology weaving together to connect me to past, present and future.

On Friday: I go to my local library on line and collect essays from Margaret Attwood after receiving an email from the library the book was ready and waiting for me. An hour earlier an SMS from a friend sends me a quote from Margaret about twitter. During the morning I receive private facebook messages from a relative by marriage I haven’t seen for more than a decade, in the flesh, and later in the day we sit in the sun with the octogenarian sulphur-crested cockatoo (he remembers from his childhood), laugh and reminiscence with his family over fading photographs from the last century. I book my dinner over facebook and collect from a couple who greet me like a treasured customer from the kitchen at the front of their seaside home. I watch the sunset to honour my Dad as it is his birthday and the prayer card for his funeral has a sunset. I notice a tweet from a mainstream TV evening news presenter of another sunset further north up the coast and send one back with the sunset I am watching. It is acknowledged and re-tweeted. I get a few more followers. Returning home emails waiting for me tell me news of progress on an international research project I’m doing, while a downloaded song provides a soundtrack and read about the post-its on the embassy from Chinese students in Australia. I trade a few direct messages with one of my offspring via twitter. I catch up on a couple of shows on iView. In between all this personal activity, I trade calls, emails and co-work on a shared platform to develop an event for the Changemakers Festival, (notice that my friend – who sent the SMS earlier in the day – is in their promo page!) pay my insurance for another event for the Festival, hear news of two more happy pregnancies (adding to one heard via facebook earlier in the week), collect posters for a Christmas concert co-designed and printed off around the corner with someone I didn’t talk to, listen to an audio file, upload photos from a consultation I did earlier in the week (a 600km round trip), update my work schedule and give thanks for this seamless pilgrimage.

People, places, technology.

Turn, turn, turn.

Revolution

 

 

Post-its for Democracy

Post-its for Democracy