Do One Thing!

February 2, 2010 by Larry Glover

Woke in the darkness

of my life with hands busy

trying to organize and do

Mind racing there and here

as if eyes might see

how to control the Unknown

Woke in the darkness

of the night sensing

no pretense of control

to be found anywhere in Life

“Do one thing!” desperation urges me

“One thing,” as if that single act

must change my life

One thing, with presence

mindful awareness bowing

to Mystery.

The busyness of modern life almost seems designed to prevent us from noticing those things most important, those qualities of living that actually add value and meaning to the depths of existence: love, and simple presence, for example. What if our sustained thrivability, our wild resiliency, personally and collectively, is actually hinged upon the courageous willingness to become present to ourselves and to each other, to the sensorial experience of being simply and vibrantly alive in the world?

There is a definition of enlightenment I like: The ability to do only one thing at a time.

Is it possible you might be able to do ‘just one thing’ today?

NOTE: An intriguing exploration of how technology is affecting our lives is available the the PBS site, airing on Frontline: Digital_Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier. The program explores many arenas, however, as one researcher says, “Multitaskers are terrible at multitasking.”

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Posted in 3 The Power of Arrival, Dimensions of Resilience, Emotional Intelligence, Models of Resilience, Personal Resiliency, Poetry of Resiliency, Spirituality, Varieties of Resilience | 1 Comment »

the reciprocal nature of our being

January 13, 2010 by Larry Glover

There is at times so much chatter in my own living that listening to the resource of the deep silence  is… challenging. And there are times when the level of chatter in the world is so hyped up that I hesitate to add anything that does not arise out of access to stillness.  Listening to the currents of Life, to and for what it is that wants to emerge—is a more vital activity for me than adding my own noise to the collective buzz.

Such has been the busyness of my own living of late: the construction of a new office and studio  space; travel for the care of aging family; an environment of political discourse entrenched in narrow power-oriented thinking; exploding technological arenas, including web 3.0 social networking; the noise of the holidays; an incredible array and diversity of human impulses seeking voice and alignment for the well being of the planet and our human future…; and me wondering how to more effectively be who I am — in the world; wondering how to sort out my writing, what belongs here on this wild resiliency blog and what might better serve in other presentations….

With all these currents of my life still sorting themselves out, I want to reenter this blog with this acknowledgment of absence, and with the following reflection upon our wild resiliency:

Our wild resiliency arises out of the impulse of Life for itself, out of our innate belonging within the family of ‘all our relations.’ Our own flourishing and thrivability, consequently, is hinged to the realization of this belonging and to the flourishing and diversity of our other than human relations. Stillness, listening to the deep silence, is one portal into the realization of this reciprocal nature of our being. It is an exit ramp out of the noise of confusion….

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Posted in 6 The Winds of Change, Models of Resilience, Navigating the Narrows, Resiliency, Self-Change | 1 Comment »

On Freeing Oneself — D. H. Lawrence

December 9, 2009 by Larry Glover

“I am not a mechanism, an assembly of various sections.

And it is not because the mechanism is working wrongly,

that I am ill.

I am ill because of wounds to the soul, to the

deep emotional self

and the wounds to the soul take a long, long time,

only time can help

and patience, and a certain difficult repentance

long difficult repentance, realization of life’s mistake,

and the freeing oneself

from the endless repetition of the mistake

which mankind at large has chosen to sanctify.”

— D.H. Lawrence

A coaching client who struggles with environmental illness passed this quote to me. That we all, in our own ways, struggle with the experience of separation from self and from Nature is part of our cultural legacy — “which mankind at large has chosen to sanctify.” D.H. Lawrence captures this challenge we each face of claiming back our own lives beautifully in this quote.

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The Wild Resilience of Jane Goodall

November 28, 2009 by Larry Glover

The Old Wisdom by Jane Goodall

When the night wind makes the pine trees creak
And the pale clouds glide across the dark sky,
Go out, my child, go out and seek
Your soul: the eternal I.

For all the grasses rustling at your feet
And every flaming star that glitters high
Above you, close up and meet
In you: the Eternal I.

Yes, my child, go out into the world; walk slow
And silent, comprehending all, and by and by
Your soul, the Universe, will know
Itself: the Eternal I.

I have often written here on the question of, “How large can we allow ours self to be?” Jane Goodall captures this question and her wildly resilient answer to it in this lovely poem.

You can listen to her read it in the context of a provocative interview with Bill Moyers here:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11272009/watch.html

I’m reminded also of this quote from John Seed.

Once we have …”fallen in love outwards,” once we have experienced the fierce joy of life that attends extending our identity into nature, once we realize that the nature within and the nature without are continuous, then we too may share and manifest the exquisite beauty and effortless grace associated with the natural world.

Also see: “My job is to give people hope,” in the Guardian.

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Posted in 1 The River of Life — The Art of Living, 2 Our Ground of Being, 4 The Ecological Self, Beyond Sustainability, Cosmology, Deep Ecology, Eco/Positive/Depth Psychology, Emotional Intelligence, Indigenous Science/Wisdom, Inspirations & Strategies from Nature, Models of Resilience, People, Poetry of Resiliency, Quotes, Resources, education | 1 Comment »

Running from a Post!

November 24, 2009 by Larry Glover

I seem to be running from a post! The thinking within it is waking me in the darkness while the moon is now set; the emotions within the writing will not let me sleep.

Yet I run. I am afraid. Like Jonah perhaps, one of my favorite childhood Bible stories, am I running from a god of my own and fears of my own creating too?

I have no excuses. Are there ever really any that justify our not living fully? Not arriving into the belly of our whales with courage to face the darkness?

Is this darkness that is spread upon the land of my own creation? People losing their homes to Bankers we ourselves finance. Husbands and wives and sons and daughters and fathers and mothers returning from wars haunted by nightmares… if returning at all? Oceans choking in discarded plastic and human relatives on the Tree of Life dropping… falling from the grace of existence while the costs of health care and clean energy are debated….

And yet… and yet I am both afraid to look at this human world of my and our creation… and intrigued and fascinated with it. We are living, as one friend says, during the most exciting time of the movie: the climax. Will we make it? Will I make it? Will you?

I only know my heart must grow larger if it is to hold this world… and my own humanity. This wondrous power and mystery of choosing Life — is too grand to fit in the small container of a little self. Yet this being digested in the belly of my whale… is this where we all are?

Are digestion and composting and gestation and transformation really all that different?

What shall we give birth to then?

This night, I shall start with compassion, compassion for this self and Self I inhabit, and for all my relations, all here within as well.

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Posted in 1 The River of Life — The Art of Living, 5 The Fires of Renewal, Climate Destabalization, Community Resilience, Eco/Positive/Depth Psychology, Emotional Intelligence, Mythology, Navigating the Narrows, Personal Resiliency, Personal Stories, Raves, Religion, Shamanism, Story | Leave a Comment »

When the Holy is Under Our Feet!

November 6, 2009 by Larry Glover

Our mission at the Wild Resiliency Institute is to “nourish inspirations and strategies from nature for thriving in turbulent times.” We work with individuals and organizations toward that end, through our coaching, consulting, training, resiliency research, Learning Journey Adventures and Take-a-Hike! programs.

Yes, we provide these services for the financial rewards; the deeper rewards are those that come from the lives that are touched and renewed, from people and organizations re-membering that they already stand upon holy ground.

We’ve recently completed, in service of this, our annual Aspen’s Ancient Wisdom free public presentation Aspen Goldand a charity fund raiser Aspen Hike for the Fyera Foundation. Below are a couple of unsolicited comments from Aspen Hike participants.

I am in a place I have not been before.

Can I stay, or must I go?

The beauty is ethereal. The silence is deep.

Is this for real?

What prevented me from being here (or there) before?

I know the answers: The Dollars;

I never had time; I lacked imagination;

I liked hotels better; Whatever.

I will go, but I will return.

‘Next year – not in Jerusalem’ -

but instead in Pecos Forest -

with Larry, of course – so I can return.

— Andrew Weinstein

“To tell you in words how much the Aspen Hike meant to my spirit,my eyes and heart is difficult. I’ve not written before now because… I was speechless. No words seemed adequate/ right/ enough to convey what I felt and feel. Now I have a new vision, memory, to hold onto when I begin to meditate or want to relax or just be in that moment…. Oh Larry, it was a holy moment, the entire day!” — Cathy Barber

What strikes me in these comments is this: When we realize that we are indeed standing upon holy ground, in that is the experience of our own holiness as well. And that is one path to our wild resiliency.

The poet David Whyte articulates this beautifully in a poem from his book, Crossing the Unknown Sea.

THE OPENING OF EYES

That day I saw beneath dark clouds
the passing light over the water
and I heard the voice of the world speak out,

I knew then, as I had before,
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages in a great book
waiting to be read.

It is the opening of eyes long closed.

It is the vision of far-off things
seen for the silence they hold.

It is the heart after years
of secret conversing
speaking out loud in the clear air.

It is Moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.

It is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven
and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love with solid ground.

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Posted in 3 The Power of Arrival, Deep Ecology, Inspirations & Strategies from Nature, Poetry of Resiliency, Quotes | 1 Comment »

When I look into your eyes…

October 30, 2009 by Larry Glover

“When I look into your eyes I see nobody other than me.”
— attributed to Bob Dylan, from Modern Times

A recent post here, entitled Not Two!, received appreciative comments and in response to one I promised to follow up with the lines of inspiration for the title. The lines below are generally attributed to a Zen patriarch, Seng-ts’an, and are from a piece that is translated into numerous titles. This excerpt of of the longer piece is from a translation by Stephen Mitchell.

In the world of thing as they are,

there is no self, no non-self.

If you want to describe its essence,

the best you can say is “Not-two.”

In this “Not -two” nothing is separate,

and nothing in the world is excluded.

— Seng-ts’an, The Mind of Absolute Trust

I encountered the opening Dylan quote while incubating and doing some research for this post… and of course it fit perfectly. My mind will not stop here however, determined as it is to find another quote itching for association:

Once we have …”fallen in love outwards,” once we have experienced the fierce joy of life that attends extending our identity into nature, once we realize that the nature within and the nature without are continuous, then we too may share and manifest the exquisite beauty and effortless grace associated with the natural world. — John Seed

And now, at 3 AM with a the rays of a nearly full moon illuminating the darkness of my office, I am also reminded of a post here titled Self-Love: A Radical Political Act. It closes thus:

“This Self seeking birth is, I believe, the experience and knowledge of our Wholeness. We are not separate. We belong. To gift our selves with such love as this? This is the most radical political act any of us can commit!”

From the perspectives of Bob Dylan to Seng-ts’an to John Seed to my own, we have come on a long journey in this brief post, full circle we might say. It must be the moon tonight because now T. S. Eliot wants his say too.

We shall not cease from our exploration
And at the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

“Little Gidding,” pt. 5, Four Quartets

Note: Mitchell’s The Second Book of the Tao is a beautiful reference for Seng’ts’an’s poetic writing.

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the heart of resiliency

October 21, 2009 by Larry Glover

I’ve been writing on the heart of resiliency of late as I clarify my own thinking in this regard. Following is a brief excerpt from that writing… and then a synchronistic quote from Gangaji sent by friend and colleague Sheva Carr; it was to benefit the Fyera Foundtion established by her that we provided a recent Santa Fe Aspen Hike benefit: Our Hunger for Nature.

We  live in times of tremendous challenge, threat and opportunity, all of which require our resilience if we are to find a path through to sustainability and thrive-ability.

Not all resiliency is created equal however. Some resiliency serves only the past, disavowing all that is not orthodox and stamped, “Pre-Aproved.” Some resiliency would disconnect itself from the past altogether and serve only the future. Then there is that resiliency that honors the ancestors and the past while serving the future too; it does so in service of ‘all my relations.’ This is a wild resiliency whose potentiality lives innately within each of us.

It is wild in that it arrives with an increased opening of our hearts in some way; this opening and embrace potentially extends to the Oneness of all Life—in celebration of diversity. And once a heart opens into such vulnerable strength, there is no telling where it will take you. Or me. Or us. There is no telling what future of thrive-ability we are capable of dreaming into creation from here.

This is the heart of resiliency. It looks and behaves differently in each of us and at different times in our lives and in history itself. It’s grounding however is in loyalty to the love of Life, and in the courage required to find a voice of our own in affirmation of a wild joy and wisdom within.

If you give yourself to love one hundred percent you cannot know what the outcome will be.

Giving yourself to love is laying yourself bare without knowing how you will be used; knowing that however you are used, you are given to love, in service to love. Whatever your mistakes may be, however you fumble, however you stumble, if it is in service to love it teaches you something. You pick up and you serve love even more strongly. You marry love, and you say, “I am yours.” Then whatever beautiful temptations go by, you say, “I am taken. I have given myself to love.”

There are moments of extreme difficulty in all lives. When you really give yourself to love then you are not concerned with difficulty or ease. You may not like difficulty but it is here. How is it serving love? Where is love in this, where is silence? Where is truth? Then life is the teacher of love. —Gangaji

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Posted in 1 The River of Life — The Art of Living, 2 Our Ground of Being, 3 The Power of Arrival, Cosmology, Deep Ecology, Dimensions of Resilience, Eco/Positive/Depth Psychology, Emotional Intelligence, Leadership, Memes, Models of Resilience, Navigating the Narrows, Personal Resiliency, Quotes, Resiliency, Resources, Spirituality, Varieties of Resilience, Wild Joy, Wild Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

The Entangled Human: Health & Resiliency

October 12, 2009 by Larry Glover

We are indeed social beings whose well being and resilience is entangled with our human community. Excerpted below are two recent and interesting articles from  Scientific American that speak to the value of social connectivity. Is it not  naive however, to assume such social connectivity to the other than human world is any less vital to our well being and resiliency?

Here is David Abram on this, from his essay, Speaking with Animal Tongues:

We still need that which is other than ourselves and our own creations. We are human only in contact, and conviviality, with what is not human. . . .

Groups as Therapy?–Socializing and Mental Health
Membership in lots of groups–at home, work, the gym–makes us healthier and more resilient…

Membership in a large number of groups was once thought to be detrimental because it complicated our lives and caused stress.

Now, however, research shows that being part of social networks enhances our resilience, enabling us to cope more effectively with difficult life changes such as the death of a loved one, job loss or a move.

Not only do our group memberships help us mentally, they also are associated with increased physical well-being.

When the Economy Is in the Red, Are People Really in the Pink?
A recent study finds that economic expansion could be worse for your health than a downturn, revealing a possible upside to today’s recession

Unemployment reached 23 percent and the GDP shrank by as much as 14 percent, so it’s hard to imagine a silver lining to the tumultuous years of the Great Depression. But could the general health of the U.S. population actually have improved when the nation’s economic fitness took multiple nosedives? And, if a floundering economy improves longevity, what does this say about our current recession?

It turns out that the bleakest years of the Great Depression, as gauged by GDP and unemployment rate, saw the greatest gains in life expectancy and drops in mortality rates. And during the years that the economy perked up, the nation paid the price in terms of health, according to a study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…

…social support has slipped in recent history. For one, the average size of the U.S. household is smaller now than in the 1920s and ’30s. Also, a 2006 study in American Sociological Review found that the average person now has a smaller number of people in whom they could confide than folks typically did 20 years ago. Greater isolation among U.S. citizens could make us more vulnerable to economic stresses, and thereby to greater peaks and valleys in health, Tapia says, citing a body of research showing that people who are integrated in their communities tend to enjoy a greater degree of protection against premature mortality.

Surely, as we open to and re-member the larger social networks of Life out of which we arise and are embedded within… our well being and resilience will respond with the reciprocity that all life is woven of.

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Posted in 4 The Ecological Self, Aspen-Body Wisdom, Business, Community Resilience, Dimensions of Resilience, Eco/Positive/Depth Psychology, Emotional Intelligence, Indigenous Science/Wisdom, Inspirations & Strategies from Nature, Models of Resilience, Navigating the Narrows, Organizational Resilience, Resiliency, Thrivability | Leave a Comment »

Aspens going viral? Help the tree…

October 10, 2009 by Larry Glover

This in a short time ago from Bob Shaffer, President of santafe.com:

“…Check out this link:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22soul+medicine+for+our+time%22&btnG=Search&hl=en&sa=2

It’s a Google search for “soul medicine for our time”.  First hit up is tweetmeme, which is a compendium of the “hottest links on twitter”.  It’s there from both us and SantaFeTraveler.  That means it’s started to go viral.”

So let’s Aspen lovers unite… and help the beloved tree… and help ourselves too. The original article, Aspens: Soul Medicine for Our Time, is here: http://www.santafe.com/articles/soul-medicine-for-our-time

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