The Direction of Intention

121.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Mark is traveling the United States and Canada this summer with a documentary film crew. He is asking about changes in the way people are doing business, about how the changes in the world are impacting the way business is done. He is on a quest looking for a heart in a world of business that denies the existence of heart.

His quest might at first seem a fools errand until you consider that old assumptions like “business is business” or “time is money” are outdated industrial era notions. Admittedly, these old saws are still held everywhere by CEO’s and political leaders; it is not uncommon for the leadership, invested in conserving, to be the last to let go of what was and notice that the world has changed. It has changed.

In fact, change is the only constant. Efficiency is now an aspect of relationship, not of the clock. Revolutions are facilitated through Facebook. Disgruntled customers and employees tweet their discontent. Happy customers and employees tweet their satisfaction. Social responsibility is profitable (there are departments of social responsibility with vice presidents of social responsibility in many large companies). People buy green, buy free range, and attempt to be carbon neutral.

Business can no longer afford to pretend that it operates in an ethical free zone. Business is not just business anymore. It impacts people’s lives, the environment, and the future. The world has eyes and ears as never before: cameras in every phone, networks of individuals that know no borders, and an insatiable 24 hour news thirst that delights in sharing scandal.

The smartest thing business can do is to loosen its tie, unbutton its shirt, and check to see if something is beating in there. Mark believes contemporary business is like the Tin Man following the yellow brick road; it can’t go on living without a heart.

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119.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Sarah told me over breakfast that she’s spent the past few years making some changes in her life. One day she woke up and asked herself, “Is this the person I want to be? Is this the way I want to live my life?” Her answer was no.

The truth is I’d tried to get out of having breakfast with her. I hadn’t seen her for a few years and I didn’t much like her. The young woman I knew needed drama. She needed attention. She lived behind a big wall, screaming for attention and hiding when she received it. In the past, I always felt tired after spending time with her. She thrived in her brokenness.

In the woman sitting across the table this morning I saw none of that. I saw someone who’d given up needing the opinions of others to define her self. I chatted with a woman who was as interested in the lives of others as she was in her own path. I experienced the generosity of spirit that was there all along, the availability that comes when someone at long last puts down their idea of who they should be and allows who they are to be seen.

I do not underestimate the courage and tenacity it took for Sarah to allow herself to be seen. I left breakfast feeling the simple joy in having met her at last. I like the person she is so much more than the person she pretended to be for so long.

Profound life change begins when you are ready to ask the simple questions.

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118.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

The crows are with me again. I woke up very early this morning and decided to take a walk. The sun was just peaking above the Cascades and the day was already warm. With fresh coffee in my favorite mug (the one the potter debated throwing away because it leans but fired and finished anyway. Its imperfection is what makes it perfect. Wabi Sabi!), I set out for a slow meditative walk.

Until a few weeks ago I would have traced my usual path but now I avoid a certain stretch of beach because of an assassin crow. This crow wants me dead. It’s personal. The crow doesn’t attack other beach walkers, only me. The crow has been trying to murder me for a few years and I have grown fond of the game we play: he puts me on notice when I approach his territory, he chases me and has taught me not to turn my back on him, if he actually makes contact with my head he gets 3 points, if I make it through the gauntlet untouched I get 3 points. There is nothing like an assassin crow to teach you the finer points of presence.

Recently, the game changed for me. I have a shoulder injury that makes sudden movements VERY painful. Did I say painful? Excruciating might be more accurate, the big ouch, the I-don’t-have-words-to describe-this-kind-of-pain pain. A few weeks ago, after passing through the gauntlet, I relaxed and let down my guard; the assassin flew away as usual so I thought the game was over. I was not prepared for the sneak attack. My assassin got 3 points and I lay on the beach unable to move for several minutes. I’ve avoided that stretch of beach ever since. I’ve become afraid.

Today, for some reason, I needed to walk that stretch of beach. As I walked I steeled myself. I replayed the sneak attack. I prepared for the inevitable onslaught. I practiced not moving my shoulder. I developed strategies to react without hurting myself. I told myself I was an idiot. I questioned my sanity; why not wait until the shoulder thing was no longer an issue! I imagined the inevitable attack and played all the possible scenarios.

I was ready when I reached the assassins territory. And no attack came. In fact, my assassin gave me a free pass, not even a warning caw. Nothing! When I arrived home I laughed. I’d spent the entire walk worrying about and preparing for something that never happened. I walked into today, filled with assumptions and telling myself the story of yesterday.

Maybe this crow is not trying to kill me. Maybe it is trying to wake me up.

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116.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Today is the day of the osprey. In mythology and some spiritual traditions, the osprey is associated with the sun and the healing aspects of the sun. The sun hasn’t shown itself much in Seattle these past few months so it is especially auspicious that today, of all days, a clear bright, sunny Seattle morning, an osprey would be in the neighborhood.

I have walked the shores of Puget Sound every morning for eight years. There are eagles that live in the neighborhood, crows, seagulls, pigeons, finches, swallows, ducks, and geese of many varieties that migrate through; this is the first time I have seen an osprey. Their markings are distinct, Egyptian to my eyes, and they have the unique ability to hover unassisted by the wind. They are magic.

I stopped and watched it soar up the coast riding the shoreline looking for prey. Then, just as it was passing in front of me, it scribed a small circle, tucked its wings, and like an arrow pierced the water. The fish it caught must have been feisty or too big to lift; the osprey sat, wings spread flat atop the water, bobbing with the waves. And then, it tried to lift itself, wings flapping, pulling the fish into the air, and collapsed back into the water.

News of the potential feast spread fast and scavenger birds of all shapes and sizes appeared crying their cry of entitlement, jockeying for position to collect their piece of the prize. The osprey tried again to lift itself with no luck. And, again. And, again. After several more attempts (and much complaining from the scavengers) it finally released its grip. The fish swam free and the osprey took to the sky, first hovering to flap its wings free of water before continuing on its way down the coast.

I was exhausted from the struggle and wondered how the osprey had the energy to fly after such a heroic effort. What story would the fish tell its school pals? Surely they had run for deeper water thinking their schoolmate was abducted by an alien.

Grateful for my front row seat to this ballet of opportunity seized, lost and gained (oh lucky fish!) I closed my eyes and faced the sun, drinking it in after so long an absence. This ballet needs no interpretation.

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115.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I am walking down California Avenue, a very busy street, one of the main thoroughfares running through my West Seattle community. Suddenly cars stop in both directions, drivers intentionally blocking traffic. Patrons come out of cafes and coffee houses, many carrying ropes, some with spare leashes. Then I see the dog, a lab mix prancing down the center line excited by the spontaneous game of chase unfolding on his behalf. He wants to play, too! So many nice people chasing him, he runs to and fro, sprinting down the yellow lines then turning back to give his pursuers a chance to catch up.

I sit to watch.

Responsible citizens run down the long line of cars backing up the avenue behind the now empty lead cars to explain the reason for the traffic stoppage. More people jump from their cars to see if they too can lend a hand and corral the playful dog.

Among the many miracles of this moment is that everyone involved is cooperating. No horns are honking. No obscenities are launching. All the hurry-up-and-get-there is put on hold; a higher purpose has presented itself and everyone wants to help. There is laughter amidst the concern. It is a self-organizing team, no meetings or debates necessary. All this generosity for the safety of a dog playing in a dangerous road.

We have this generosity in us. This is who we are. Imagine what we might create if we extended the same consideration to ourselves that we offer our dogs. Try this experiment: look around and see who in your life is playing on a dangerous road. What courtesy will you extend to them? Will you leave your café seat? Will you stop traffic? What will you do to keep them safe? What will you do to enter the game?

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113.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

I am flipping through old notebooks, the small kind that fit in a coat pocket. I carry them all the time because I do my best thinking when I am walking. I can struggle at the computer all day, take a break to walk a few blocks and by the time I am at the end of my street I am scribbling notes.

In a small notebook with a red cover I find a drawing. The image is horizontal on the page. On the far left I wrote the word “Hero” and scribbled a circle around it. On the far right I wrote, “Anti-Hero” and also scribbled a circle around it. Between the two there is a line. I must have been explaining this to someone, I can tell by how emphatically I scribbled the circles.

The Hero and The Anti Hero was a revelation that Harald shared with me a few years ago. Harald’s first language is German so his use of the term Anti Hero instead of villain or devil or “big dog yapping in my brain” is actually more appropriate than any term I might have used.

He told me that he’d spent much of his life trying to rid himself of his inner Anti Hero. It had consumed much of his life, this powerful inner voice of criticism and judgment. It plagued him and the more he resisted it the stronger it became. One day, exhausted by his inner turmoil he realized that the way to rid himself of this Anti Hero was to stop expecting himself to be a Hero. In fact, his expectation of being a savior, being perfect, being everything to everybody was the very thing that fueled the Anti Hero. Letting go of the Hero dissipated the Anti Hero and what was left was…human. Beautiful and flawed and funny and messy: a human no longer at war with himself.

This is a great description of the path to becoming the truly powerful. Power is not something you attain; it is something you reveal when you let go of the clever parts, release the tug-of-war, and let the human part show up full.

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