Open And Experience

Posted on December 27, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Walking through a driving rain in downtown Seattle, I had my hood up and eyes down and stepped into a flock of pigeons just as a bus passed spooking the entire pigeon squadron into taking flight – straight at me. I was suddenly and completely engulfed in a swoosh of wings and riot. I don’t know why but I closed my eyes, not for protection, but because I wanted to feel the experience of so many wings flapping around me. The sensation was as if being lifted, stirred and then returned to the ground. After having so many crow attacks I am generally skittish when birds fly at my face; my first reaction is to duck and cover. Not today. For some reason (that is beyond my capacity to reason), rather than close and protect, I opened and experienced. Lift, stir, gentle return to the ground. “The pigeons took me with them,” I thought as I opened my eyes and laughed.

I flipped back my hood and looked up into the rain. The pigeons vanished and I was getting soaked and awakened. It was as if I left this plane of reality for a moment and needed a cold splash of rain to bring me back. It was just a few days ago, upon Marilyn’s request, that I went outside to pick a fight with the crows and instead of having a good crow bout I ended up doing the same thing, hood back, looking into the sky as the rain soaked and cleansed me of my dark mood. This time, staring into a steel grey sky, rain running down my cheeks and off my forehead, I remembered a phrase that I read this morning from Thom Hartmann’s book, The Prophet’s Way: “You must behave as if your every act, even the smallest, impacted a thousand people for a hundred generations. Because it does.”

I stared into the sky surprised at my reaction to the birds and asked myself, “What ripple would I send through a hundred generations if my first response to any situation was to open and experience rather than close and protect myself?” And, an even better question followed, “How different would I be in the world if I lived open to any experience?” Isn’t that another way of saying, “be present to what is?” Flipping my hood back up I discovered in a chilly rush that my hood was filled with water that poured down my back so I took flight a second time, howling and dancing my own version of the pigeon launch, chanting, “open, open, open…!” Of this I am certain: a hundred generations from now they will most likely still be laughing!

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Shine

Posted on December 25, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

656. 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 woke up this morning thinking about lights under a bushel; hiding your light. Now, I’m not really a bible guy. I think there are many paths up the mountain and the higher you go the more distinct and individual is your path – and the more universal are your revelations. The path is yours and the recognition is oneness. So, it always piques my curiosity when I have a distinct image pop into my noggin, especially in this season steeped in metaphor and with the portent of transformation.

A week ago I put out an offer for 10 free coaching sessions and was delighted when over 30 people responded. I decided to try and honor each request. I have been bah-humbug during this holiday, looking for some way to reconnect with the deeper meaning and rituals of this season; I wanted to create a ritual for myself that was truly a gift of giving and receiving. I bumbled into my ritual with these calls. Each was rich and warm and magical. Each call in one way or another was about removing the bushel from the light – these amazing brilliant, beautiful people recognizing and desiring to offer without inhibition their gift to the world. I was more than once moved to tears at the yearning and courage and simple perseverance of their impulse to life. In every case, they wanted to share their light. Think about that for a minute. Isn’t that true of you and every person you pass on the street? The impulse to offer yourself and your gifts without inhibition is at the core of each of us. As Joe once said, “Our impulse is to wholeness.” What would it take for you to remove the bushel and fully share your light? I ask myself that question, too.

I realized that the light-under-the-bushel image was actually my wish – for myself and for you. If you are hiding it is a good bet that you think you will be judged. If you are hiding it is a good bet that you think your light is not worthy. Or, perhaps you have invested in a mistaken idea of humble. In any case, why are you blunting the light? I no longer believe in angry judgmental gods (they seem particularly human to me – gods worth worshiping certainly must live beyond the fields of judgment and selection); these notions live at the heart of separation and the need to hide. My wish for us in this new era is to share our light, without inhibition or editor, to throw away the debate of worth, to know unequivocally that the whole of nature needs what you bring, how you bring it, and masking it robs us all of the magnitude of our collective brilliance. Put down the bushel. Show up for me and I promise I will show up for you.

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Leave Yourself Behind

Posted on November 26, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

My grandfather is 103 years old. Last time I saw him he said, “Heaven don’t want me and hell won’t have me.” He feels as if he is ready to go yet remains in an earthly limbo. He eats. He sleeps. He waits. He has outlived two of his four children, his wife and all of his peers. He still flirts with the ladies in the lunchroom though it is more out of habit than from ambition.

In every story cycle there is a place where “what once was” no longer exists and “what will be” is not yet come. It is in this in-between place where the old identity dissipates: you are no longer a child though not yet an adult; it is the time of first pregnancy, you are no longer singular and not yet a parent. In a story, the in-between is usually told through the metaphor of a journey; you must leave behind everything that you know to find what has always been within you. Frodo leaves the Shire as one being; he returns to the Shire as another being, having discovered his darkness and his capacity to persevere. Journeys are bitter sweet.

Rumi said, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” It is ironic, isn’t it, to leave yourself behind so that you might find yourself? To think we will find love in another person only to discover that it is the love within ourselves that we seek.

I am not yet half of my grandfather’s age and yet I already know that heaven and hell are both here – not some other place – and we choose which we occupy. We are both the seeker and the gatekeeper. I am perfectly capable of dividing myself against myself and, therefore, occupying hell. I am also capable of knowing myself as whole, regardless of my circumstance, and that is the door to heaven. And, there is a third “place” that is neither heaven nor hell but the space of the journey; all life is movement after all. There are no arrivals; heaven and hell are rest stops, the occasional oasis along the way.

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Live Like Riley

Posted on November 8, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Riley the black Labrador is 15 years old and fetches logs from the Puget Sound. Riley’s human has a tough time lifting and launching the logs for Riley to fetch. He doesn’t throw them, they are too big to throw; he launches them. Riley waits until his log is really far from shore and then he does what retrievers do. It is a beautiful thing to watch because Riley’s mouth is not big enough to bite the log. He has to find something at the end to chomp and then, rather than swimming the log to shore in his mouth, he tugs it inch by inch until he drags it back onto the beach, wagging his tail the whole way. His task seems impossible but he finds a way. The enormity of his task is a source of his pleasure. Riley will no longer fetch little sticks; they pose no challenge.

We are like Riley only rather than retrieving logs we tell stories. We wrap stories around our challenges. Riley would never think, “That stick is too big!” If he had language (and who really knows, he might), he’d think, “Let’s see!” or “What’s next!” Riley is not invested in what the other Labrador’s think or how he measures up with the other pooches. He does not spend time wondering if he is a good enough retriever. “Launch the log!” he thinks wagging his tail in anticipation of his task. Our challenges are rarely too big – the actions necessary are rarely difficult; only our stories make it so. Do you wish to write a book? What is the story that prevents you from writing? Do you yearn for more space? What is the story that leads you to pack your days so full? Do you love your humans? What is the story that prevents you from letting them know?

There is no greater point to Riley’s task; the purpose is in the relationship with his human. We derive our purpose from much the same thing. And, not unlike Riley, we find great pleasure when the sticks we fetch are just beyond what we believe possible to achieve. If the stick is too small, like Riley, we get bored. Unlike Riley, however, we will tell a story justifying why the small stick is just the right size of challenge, safe, and good to fetch because we already know how to do it. I admire Riley. When he sees the too small stick he sits on the beach, looks at his human, wags his tail with pleasure as if to say, “Oh, we can do better than that!”

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Exit The Mind Field

Posted on November 6, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

There is a self-judgment that I often hear from clients, “I should be in the world in a more dynamic/expressive/productive way. I am not fulfilling my potential.” Probe a bit deeper and inevitably I find that there is also a world-view supporting the self-judgment: “I live in a minefield.” I love this term, minefield, or, as another client used to say, more to the point, “mind field.”

How can you possibly expect to fulfill your potential if you believe you live in a field of mines? If you exist in a minefield, you step lightly if you step at all. The expectation to fulfill potential does not match the world-view. In a minefield, survival is the best you can do.

The expectation of fulfilled potential comes from the desire to be in the world in a different way. The question is rarely about potential and is usually about safety. A child that does not feel safe will not play. An adult that does not feel safe will not bring their best offer; they cease to express. To be more dynamic/expressive/productive you must first decide to exit the minefield. It is not fulfilled potential but freedom of movement that we seek; “fulfilled potential” is an abstraction; freedom to move and breathe and speak is tangible.

Identify the mines. Do you compare yourself with others? Who? Why is this other person the standard bearer for your life? Have you set an absurdly high expectation or invested in the notion of “perfect?” Who set the bar that is impossible to clear? Whose permission do you seek? What story do you wrap around your choices? There are legitimate minefields in this world and then there are mind fields. Learning to distinguish between the two is a great first step. If you are truly in a minefield retrace your steps and get out. If you are in a mind field, retrace your steps and get out. Reclaim your safety.

The rivers of creativity cannot flow through you if you are afraid to move. Potential is not a vessel to fill it is a quality of movement in your life.

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Fly Back Together

Posted on October 26, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Lately, I have this image of myself that makes me laugh. I see it in sleep, sometimes while daydreaming, and today I found myself doodling it. It is as surprising as it is welcome. It is one of those images that I did not manufacture; rather it came to me. I see it so often now that I re-run it, enjoy it; I am playing with it.

It is as if I am seeing a film running in reverse, like a jalopy losing pieces all over the road, when seen in reverse, the pieces fly back together. That is the image. I am standing very still in a meadow and all of my pieces are flying back together. I did not realize I’d lost so much along the way!

I giggle when I see this image. Rather, this image is visceral and it tickles – all of those pieces coming together delight me and literally tickle me.

Because inquiring minds want to know and I have one of those inquiring minds, I’ve tried to identify the pieces; I want to know what I dropped on the highway of life. Yet, the moment I pay attention to the individual pieces I lose the image. The tickling stops, the image dissipates. Apparently I am not meant to focus on the fragments; it is the whole that matters.

In class today we talked about the verb “to heal.” It has roots in an old English word, hælen, which meant, “to make whole.” To heal is to make whole. As I close my eyes and see myself standing in the meadow, all of my pieces flying back together, I giggle, arms extended and say to myself, “Welcome home.”

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Sneak A Peak

Posted on October 10, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

580. 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 sun is rising much later now than before I went on my travels. I was gone for two weeks and was shocked when I got up to take my walk this morning and it was still dark. It happens every year. There is always a day when I wake up and am surprised that the sun is rising two hours later than a few short months ago. It is magic and completely predictable and still I am surprised. If I watched the news each night I’d know the exact minute the sun was scheduled to rise the next morning. And, isn’t that a shame: we’ve somehow in our language reduced the sunrise to a schedule – as if we made the schedule. I imagine a celestial stationmaster working out the timetable, “Yep, I think 7:02 today, 7:13 tomorrow. We must have the illusion that we make the trains run on time.

I watched as the east began to glow, the clouds burst into orange fire, the dark sky dissolved into a turquoise blue and then put on my coat and walked to the end of the block. I am fortunate to be so close to the water’s edge. I was not prepared to see the moon so high in the sky. A harvest moon, full and vibrant was still hanging high in the sky.

This was not defiance. It was more of a greeting, a rendezvous. The sun peaked over the ridge and must have been just as surprised as I to see the moon, like a young lover waiting at the school lockers. We stood there, the sun, the moon, and I for several moments until I realized that I was a third wheel and should probably move on and let them have this rare and precious time together. They were both looking at me and I was slow to catch the hint. I turned and smiled and promised not to look back. I can only imagine that they reached across the sky, each touching the cheek of the other. I did sneak a peak and can report with confidence that all is right in the world.

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Commune

Posted on October 9, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Harry and I talked into the night about communion. Most cultures have their unique version of the communion meal. For the Makah, the whale is their god. To hunt and consume the whale is to take the body and blood of the god into their body. In return, they perform rituals to resurrect the god. For the Mayan, it is the corn that gives life; corn is a god. The people take it into their bodies and become god like; their commitment is to create the conditions for the gods return. They tend to the god. The god feeds them. It is a cycle of life. There is no end, no outcome. There is no rapture. There is a relationship. “This is my body. Take it and eat. This is my blood. Take it and drink.” The form is different; the ritual is the same.

Harry pointed out that regardless of the form the purpose is to commune – thus a communion meal. The people commune individually and collectively with their godhood. They take it in; they become the god. They, in return, perform the rituals and ceremonies; they live in such a way as to give rebirth to the godhead. It is a cycle of renewal. It is a participation sport: it is personal, intimate, an infinite game.

At its most potent, it is a way of living. It is not something confined to a single day of the week or an observance performed once in a while. It is not something you can leave behind when you leave the church. The whale chooses you because you are worthy, because you live each day an existence worthy of being chosen to consume the body, take in the god, and have proven yourself capable of performing the rites necessary to give rebirth to the god that feeds you. It is a mutual responsibility: I will feed you if you will attend to my re-creation.

And, at the heart of this relationship, is this thing we call art. The rituals, the dances, the music, the images are (were) meant to facilitate the communion; the coming together of human and muse to reaffirm the community's identity, to transform and transcend the everyday. Wear the mask and you become the god. Pete told me that he picked up a brush for the first time and froze; to make a mark carried an enormous responsibility. He put the brush back in the can and thought, “I am not yet ready for all that this will unleash and I want it more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

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String The Bow

Posted on September 20, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

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

Robert Fritz writes that between “What is” and “What you want” is a tension and this tension is the energy necessary to propel you toward your vision. This tension is not manufactured, it is not imaginary; it is specific, dynamic, and real. The common mistake we make is to try and relieve the tension by telling a story of “not so bad” or “this is good enough” or “I’m not ready yet.” The arrow cannot fly if there is no tension in the string. The arrow will never reach the target if there is weak tension in the string.

This does not mean that “what is” needs to be miserable. If you are alive you are on a quest; human beings are seekers. We are always engaged with what might be. We are creators. A yearning heart is an alive heart; desire is the spice of living.

In one of the versions of the Prometheus saga, Zeus created people so he’d have someone to worship him. Apparently, gods need us as much as we need them. Zeus assigned the task of human creation to Prometheus and gave him explicit instructions: make these humans crude and ugly and stupid. Zeus didn’t want people to be god-like. He wanted worshippers, not competition. Prometheus sculpted his human couple beneath a tree so Zeus couldn’t see them. Prometheus, like us, couldn’t bear to minimize his creation: he started with lumps of clay (what is) and sculpted beautiful beings (what he imagined might be). He knew Zeus would never approve so he stole the fire of life to ignite the hearts of his humans. Zeus could have squashed the new creatures but instead decided to punish Prometheus by infusing his creation (us) with doubt and contradiction; he gave us the capacity to make music and war.

Our hearts are alive with gods fire. We are more like Prometheus than Zeus. If our lives are our greatest creations we can, like Zeus, aim for ugly or follow the example of Prometheus and make something threatening in it’s beauty. String the bow, use the tension and let fly a whole quiver of possibilities!

Filed under: Metaphor, Possibility, Truly Powerful People | 1 Comment »

Shatter

Posted on September 1, 2012 by davidrobinsoncreative

541. 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 revisited an old Joseph Campbell lecture the other day and as always happens a specific image captured me. Once captured, I linger in it – or it lingers in me – until each layer opens. The image was this: The universe is a dynamic undifferentiated whole that “shatters” when it comes into form. You and I are little fragments of the shattered whole. And, through the course of our lives and experiences, we shatter ourselves so that we might come to realize that we are merely forms of a dynamic undifferentiated whole. It is divergence and convergence. It is a tide motion of consciousness. It is the Hindu image of the god opening its eyes and a universe comes into being – and then closing its eyes and all forms dissolve into the dynamic undifferentiated whole. It is the cycle of birth to death to birth to death.

I learned in my 11th grade physics class that energy doesn’t go away it merely changes form. The word “shatter” is a very specific action; it is abrupt. It is non-negotiable. I’ve shattered wine glasses and windows and more than one coffee cup. Once, I bought a box of ceramic plates so that one of my students could release his anger by throwing them at a brick wall. There was some serious shattering and laughter that day. I have shattered myself more than once and will likely do it again. My friend Jim once asked me, “What is it with you and the need to live so close to the margin, with this desire to leap over edges?” I did not have an answer for him but now I know: I’m getting glimpses of the undifferentiated whole.

Today in my assignment, Megan asked, as we leave August on a blue moon, a magic time: “What will you carry forward? What will you leave behind?” This has been the summer of shattering. I am leaving bits and shards everywhere, the tide goes out, the goddess closes her eyes; what I take with me is the understanding that after a period of undifferentiated wholeness, the tide will come in and the goddess will open her eyes and I will surely emerge in a new form.

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