BeautyDialogues

Europe's Resourceful Orientation

Having been in Europe (Dresden and Brighton) for the last two weeks, I notice everyone here is a lot more resource-conscious than we generally are in America. Every home I’ve visited has a half-flush toilet, and in both downtown Dresden and Heathrow airport they’ve installed absolutely beautiful (and energy-saving) fountains – public art that uses mere spurts of water shot up at different heights at regular intervals; all of the drama and beauty of a public fountain at only a fraction the cost in water.

It’s not that we don’t have resource-saving programs in America, but in Europe they seem to be so much more widely accessible and adopted by the average person, something we really need to see happen here too. For example, while it's becoming a popular practice in America too, almost everyone in Europe brings their own shopping basket to the market and in England you even have to pay for bags as an incentive not to forget. You also bag your own groceries, which saves the cost of a bagger.

It's not about deprivation, either. As a Northern California “Foodie”, I always assume we have some of the best food in the world but Waitrose, one of the regular high street stores in England - a country that has in the past been thought a bit of a slouch in things culinary - is as good as most anything we have. I couldn’t help popping in to pick up some of my favorite foods that are hard to find at home – individual portions of gooseberry fool, strawberry trifle and tarte tatin, shrimp in marie rose sauce, taramasalata, Prince Charles’ stem ginger cookies and clotted cream. Oh yes.

The Discipline of Peace

Every Monday night a group of us have been gathering in the Medicine Wheel in Third Life where we are guided through a process by the amazing FireHawk Hulin. Each month we focus on one of the eight directions, following a pattern called the Discipline of Peace, articulated by RainbowHawk and WindEagle of Ehama Institute.

These two wise teachers have written a book on this pattern, a handbook for creating circles of what they call the First Peace, peace within ourselves. My copy arrived yesterday. The multi-talented FireHawk designed it and I am totally enchanted by its beauty.

Here's what WindEagle and RainbowHawk have to say about the NW, the direction of the wheel our group is exploring this month:

THE UNIVERSAL RELATIONSHIP OF
CO-CREATION EXISTS THROUGH
CAUSE AND EFFECT

Through cause and effect the spirit
consciousness co-creates the Universe.

CONSCIOUS DREAMING
From the diamond of the true self,
step on the high path of
higher consciousness,
open to all potential,
align all thoughts, words
and deeds to be life affirming.

Co-create with the spirit of the Universe.

Sharing the Gift

There's something tremendously satisfying about really helping someone. These days my joy is in helping others navigate their way through web 2.0 challenges. Maybe that's because I know what a little knowledge and confidence in that realm can open up for them.

In the last few days I've helped several people get their bearings in Second Life - get their avatar to look the way they want it, learning to move around and use the menu controls, etc. I love seeing people gain confidence in themselves and enjoy participating in that magical world, but I think my favorite thing is helping people get to grips with blogging.

Each blog is as unique as its author, so it's important that the design and structure of a blogging platform be totally aligned with what the blogger wants to say; what kind of experience they want to convey and evoke in their readers.

Whether it is something as simple as customizing an RSS feed or helping someone through the initial stages of conception, there's something fascinating for me about my work with blogging. Blogging is so personal in many cases, so creative and authentic and raw - something new venturing out into the world, a harbinger of fresh wisdom and beauty and knowledge. There's a particular thrill for me in having a part in introducing these new voices and their new visions.

One thing I've found is that no one knows it all. We can always learn from each other, and I love being part of the chain of sharing what I have learned as much as I enjoy learning from others. This flow of generosity and freedom is really the essence of the gift economy upon which so much of web 2.0 rests, whether or not money is involved.

There's something deeply magical about this, and it goes far beyond web 2.0. In fact, part of the power of web 2.0 may be in its awakening of this deeply human impulse to share what we know with each other. Whatever it is, it sure feels good to me, and I plan to continue being of help when I can, as long as I can.

It's a New Day!

Like about 300 million other Americans and countless others all over the world, I spent much of this historic day glued to the TV for the inauguration ritual celebrations. Like so many others I found myself choking up with tears and the courage to hope for a new day in America. I felt pride and a sense of gratitude towards my countrymen and women who helped elect this good man.

In his powerfully direct yet compassionate and inclusive inaugural speech, Obama didn't balk at the immense amount of work in front of us, nor did he give us false promises that it would be easy. But I couldn't help but feel if anyone can pull this self-obsessed nation together and inspire us to make the changes that are imperative for our survival, and the survival of others on this planet, he can.

Part of the excitement for me is how beautifully Obama's election is galvanizing the people and organizations I am part of. Basking in the glow of the new president's idealism, there seems to be an explosion of optimism and a feeling that this is "our time"... to have the conversations we've needed to have, to reach out to each other, work together, and begin to rebuild our country.

Just this evening, I received this video from the new Soul of Money website, revealing the silver lining in the current economic crisis that no one seems to be acknowledging yet.

"Most Beautiful" in 2008

The end of another year... 2008 slides back into history and we march forward into 2009. But before she disappears from view, I want to stop and contemplate the abundance of beauty I experienced in 2008.

Here are just a few of the those moments that provoked the "beauty response" in me this year:

~ Learning that Oprah Winfrey had produced a 10 part series on Ekhart Tolle's A New Earth and was offering it free online to the public

~ Watching the grace and power of all those synchronized bodies in the opening ceremonies for the Chinese Olympics; experiencing the pride they felt as hosts and the warmth of the hospitality they extended to the world

~ Sharing in the wave of relief and joy that spread throughout the world when Barak Obama won the election for US Presidency

~ And most recently, waking up to a Winter Wonderland in Eugene

We are so blessed! To be surrounded by all this beauty!

How about you? What was the Beauty that stood out for you this year?

This year I made panforté

This year I made panforté* for a number of my close friends and neighbors, and passed them out on Boxing Day, the traditional day (in England anyway) to exchange neighborly gifts.

As I ventured out this morning on my beauty walk, I passed the homes of two others I realized I want to share my panforté with. One of them is my fabulous neighbor, John Paul, who so generously decorates his front garden for our collective amusement, even after he had one of his prize succulents stolen a few months ago. Here's a glimpse of his latest tableau.

*Panforté is a rich Italian confection - literally translated as "strong bread" it's kind of like a dense fruitcase - made of nuts and dried fruit, spices & honey. It's crunchy (nuts) & chewy (dried fruit & honey) & you have to slice it quite thin. This year's version had almonds and pistachios, figs, white raisins, cranberries, cherries, pineapple, apricots and candied ginger.

My Kind of Leader

I've been engaged in a seven-month leadership journey process called the "Heart of Leadership", offered by my friends FireHawk Hulin and Pele Rouge Chadima of Resonance, in partnership with Heartland.

One of our first assignments was to write a letter from the vantage point of having finished the course and achieved all our goals, and this is a 3.5 minute video I made from that letter. It tells not only what kind of a leader I want to be, but why.

Bridget Brewer

Today I want to talk about my dear friend Bridget Brewer, an amazing architect and landscape designer who creates homes, purposeful buildings, gardens, parks and other landscapes in harmony with their surroundings and the laws of nature.

One of the things she's doing right now that I'm really excited about is designing plans for state-of-the art green collaborative housing. This kind of thing is SO what we'll all be looking at in the future, and Bridget's thinking about it now.

I'm proud to announce the launch of her new website, Brewer Studio Architects. I can't wait to start building her blog - the one she's going to be writing to share her unique point of view and give us a glimpse into the Brewer creative process!

Harvesting Lightning

This image came at the end of one of those "state of the world" PowerPoint slide-shows that are being emailed around. The material was fairly predictable until this last slide, which I found myself totally enchanted by - an image of ma and pa - two regular folks - harvesting lightning.

I don't know where it came from, so I don't know how to credit it, but there's something so cheerful and matter of fact about this image of harvesting lightning, light-filled bolts of inspiration that are emerging from the cloud-saturated skies of these dark days. Regular people watching for the ideas and dreams that are appearing now, and harvesting them like canned peaches for the winter when they will be most sorely needed; a time that is coming fast upon us now.

Meet you in the root cellar!

My Country

photo by Marxchivist, from Flickr

As some of you may know, I spent 13 years in England fairly recently. I loved England. I love her still, that green and pleasant land will always be home in my heart, but at some point I knew I had to return to the land of my birth. Not only because I wanted to see my niece and nephews grow up and spend time with my mother as she lives into and through her 8th decade, but because my country was in such trouble (ok, I admit it. I also had a wicked craving for blueberry pancakes and maple syrup, but that was secondary; honest!).

In Europe, news of America comes mostly through the distortions of popular media and let me tell you, we look pretty bad. There is absolutely no coverage of citizen dissent or alternative views and after a while I began to question my own memories of the country I had grown up in as a somewhat low key rabble rousing radical. Even though I'd held the same views when I lived in the US, I felt like a coward criticizing her from far away, distance and shadow projection giving me the illusion I had no responsibility for what all with eyes could clearly see was wrong.

I came home in 1999 because I wanted to make a difference and address some of those wrongs. Because I wanted to be one of the voices here speaking out and sharing the positive change movements that have always been part of the idealism and drive of this country; my country.

I was in Europe during the last election returns, and I was a little surprised to see how my own abject loss and disappointment over Gore's defeat was felt just as keenly by all around me. The world clearly has a stake in the US elections, and this one more than most as the world's threatened fortunes are linked ever more closely together.

On this day, the day of the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, I am filled with the anticipation of a change for my country and for my world. I'm voting for the change Barak Obama is standing up for - a change from war and corporate interest and the trickle-down theory of economics, to a healthy international and national relationship of respect and equality and the belief in the goodness and integrity of regular human beings. For green energy and a primary relationship with the earth that sustains all life. For education and health coverage (God, I miss the National Health Service!) and a way of living that respects natural limits on spending and protects our long-term interests without dismissing others'. That's the kind of change we can live with, wherever we are.

So on this day, in tribute to Obama and the creativity and optimism he inspires, I wanted to post one of my favorite videos from his campaign because it makes me tear up for gratitude and pride in the human spirit.

May our common humanity and the spirit that inhabits it carry us through this day and guide us in all the days to come.