Denial: I have to wonder what this is really all about.

Over the decades, as psychology has gone more mainstream, it has infiltrated every aspect of our lives culturally and socially. It’s in our health coverage plans, employee benefits, in the movies, sitcoms, and even more in the advertisements. I’d say they’re having an influence upon our self and group consciousness.

Earlier, I caught myself asking a question to seek the opinion of someone else about my skill, rather than just toot my horn which was what I was inspired to do in the first place. I had just finished work on a project that made me feel pretty good, and true to joy, a little cocky swaggering was called for. Instead, I censored myself and tried soliciting accolades rather than be boastful. I puzzled over this turn-about and what influenced this censoring.

As I have studied and observed the human condition over the years, it has been noted that a steady surge has broken down communion among people by placing more emphasis upon personal satisfaction and fulfillment. With so much individuality pushed in the marketplace, advertising relationships, etc., the subliminal influences shift our value-base unconsciously. With there being so much negative media created to ’sell’ to consumers, the personal identity and place of the individual in context to family and community becomes obscured, questionable, and finally, burdensome, to many.

On yet another side, the self-help industry is so full of individual band-aid stories, that the people seeking solutions typically find themselves discovering more personal problems than they bargained for. It’s like reading the horoscope. There are enough generalities and commonalities among people that we can buy into a prognosis which we then make more real through our own belief. In addition, rational and healthy human behavior ends up falling under close scrutiny while answers are sought amongs all the expert opinions, programs, and books.

As I found myself concluding these thoughts, only one question remained. When will simply being a joyful and sharing human being be okay again?

The death of a culture, or society, is not a pleasant thought. Yet, looking at history, it can also be seen as an evolution of people. From world wars, civil wars, civil unrest, and demonstrations, we have been witness to major influences upon the course of history through cataclysmic events of varying degrees across various levels.

In our culture, of self-improvement, performance measurement, education, business, and politics, there has been a shifted focus from people to systems. With systems and improvements we strive to simplify and streamline life, and in doing so, put people into the boxes that make the streamlined system go. The round pegs are filling the square holes.

Getting people excited about change is difficult, and initially we have done well in our history. As we focus more marketing, motivation, mentorship, education, and relationships based upon fear, lack, and respect, we lose the value-add element of the creative human. Looking over the past decade or two, I can see the increasing levels of conflict in the human psyche. There is a cost to making people conform to a system.

The flaw is simple. Humans are evolutionary creatures. Creative by nature, creative by design, and creative via the creator, the human animal exercises its creative imagination to the process of survival, which has long-since included the discoveries of tools and systems that increase abilities and efficiencies.

Traditional thinking about business, management, and leadership, generally adhere to the premise of people aligning themselves along one path and towing the line indefinitely. The smartest and most successful leaders have learned something contrary to this long ago. People are what co-actively bring about change and make change easy or difficult. Knowing and understanding this makes a world of difference.

Rather than creating a system that forces adherence, create systems that can grow and evolve with people. The whole foundation of every organized system, whether an organization, technology, or process-flow, came about from the original desire in man to create something of value that makes life easier in Community.

Who is serving who?

As part of my work, my professional experience with analysis, business, and technology, I had found more and more that I was getting asked by those who know and interact with me, how to do things with the web and technology. Where I’ve been able, I’ve been quick to answer. Where I’ve not, my own curiosity often lends itself to wanting to check it out regardless if I have time or not. The outcome of all this developing activity launched OMC Social Media Solutions (OMC is One Man Can).

From OMC Social, in partnership with iXLd Media Inc. and their technology, I have been able to offer and do much more. The business has grown, the new product and pricing is soon to be online, and the focus upon educating and empowering the do-it-yourself’ers of our technologically advancing culture.

As an artist, you can be sure you’re going to get some culture.

Hudson Valley Art Incubator

Project by Kelly Demers

Arts Development and Mentor Centres are in rare supply. Kelly Demers fundraiser project for the Hudson Valley Art Incubator is to see the creation of a downtown Artists Community Hub where the artists receive access to an environment that is both supportive and inspirational.

The centre would provide the level of services that coach and mentor artists to become equipped with the skills and knowledge to conduct business successfully. In addition, tools and services that give access to creative outlets still left untapped will find new talent emerge in the community. This activity will offer positive results within the larger community’s socio-economic status.

As Kelly Demers writes in her Kickstarter campaign page:

We’ll provide the tools, business resources and equipment – AFFORDable shared studio facilities such as a print shop and photo lab as well as editing equipment for low/no budget filmmakers and computer workstations for writing, scanning, graphic design & desktop publishing. In addition we’ll give artists regular gallery exposure and opportunities for networking within the community and beyond. The goal of this project is to not only help artists support themselves, but also to directly support the creative economy by creating jobs and opportunities for artists and people within the creative cluster, and to actively engage and enrich several community networks through outreach efforts and regular exposure to the arts.

This modest, yet impactful project holds tremendous promise with the right level of support to ensure its successful launch. You are invited to visit and lend your support at any level you can. The trick with the Kickstarter fundraising is that it is an all-or-nothing gamble. Not reaching the goal, all monies donated are returned, and the challenge is to surpass that goal, which only you can make possible.

Participating can be both financial to reach the goal, or in sharing so the project fundraiser is seen by more people across the web, increasing its opportunity for reaching the right audience able to see this vision through to success. Make a difference, one man is inviting you to join Hudson Valley Art Incubator and support this vision’s goal.

Video interview below.

British Columbia, Persons With AIDS Society hosted today’s (September 20th, 2009) fundraiser WALK through historic Stanley Park for the last time. Next year, as they work with the Vancouver Parks Board, the plan anticipates a more publicly visible location closer to the city’s Westend neighbourhood where more of the public will be able to see and participate fully.

This move comes about as the need to raise awareness in Vancouver increases, particularly as the HIV/AIDS issue continues to grow, not only in the gay community, or drug-user community, but also within the “mainstream” heterosexual community. As Glyn Townson, Chair of the BCPWA states, “The virus doesn’t care about your sexual orientation, it is only looking for a host.”

After encountering the event already underway today down at Stanley Park this afternoon, I recorded a video interview with BCPWA Chair, Glyn Townson, to share on the Live in The Westend (Vancouver) community website. You can view the post there, watch the video, join the community and make comments, as well as add your own voice to the cause of increasing public awareness. Included with the post is the BC Persons With AIDS Society media release containing more information and detail.

Donations are still being accepted: To make a donation, please visit the AIDS WALK for LIFE Vancouver website.

BC Persons With AIDS Society
The British Columbia Persons With AIDS Society (BCPWA Society) is dedicated to empowering persons living with HIV disease and AIDS through mutual support and collective action. It is Western Canada’s largest AIDS organization with a membership of more than 4,600 HIV-positive individuals.

There I was hovering over a busy ant-hill when thought I heard something. I leaned in a little closer to see what it was. You won’t believe it, but I’ll share it anyway.

“Do you suppose there is any rhyme or reason to any of this?” Dweedle-Ant posed.

“He He He! Of course, Mant! Of course! Just take a look at that cute little heiny and tell me that ain’t no reason. That’s a reason!” bellowed and guffawed Sext-Ant.

“Sure, if all that matters to you is thorax and antennae, Perv!” stated Iman-Ant. “Of course there is a point to it all, Dweedle-Ant.”

“Each and every one of us is a piece of a larger whole. The whole is the colony. While a colony can continue without us, it is no longer the same colony. The whole keeps changing, and yet, it depends upon us for its own existence. It is the nature of Life. Before the flower came the bud, before the bud came the stem, before the stem-the roots, before the roots-the seed, and after all is said and done, all that was the flower is returned to multiple seeds. These seeds varying in the sum totality of the experiences in the journey of the flower’s life.”

“So, you see, we don’t know and experience the future now. We pour ourselves into the now, knowing that a future self that is the sum of everything before (self-included), and aspires to even greater, will have more of the answers than we have now,” finished Iman-Ant.

Sext-Ant yawns and exhales, “Well you mucks can do whatever you want, or believe whatever you want. Me? I’m just going for more T & A, baby, T & A!” And sauntered off with a howl that dwindled to a chuckle.

Wow! They’re not much different than us, eh?

How can we change the world?

This is such a big question upon so many people’s minds as they look around them to a world with so many issues that seem apparent to each particular individual. Note it is issues that seem apparent to each particular individual, as the experience of one reflects issues important to the individual. Each of us has a sense of heart-driven desire to see a positive outcome occur for our pet-world-issues, or causes. Does the enormity of the issues cause your heart to pause?

You can make a difference. We can all make a difference. It is so much easier when we can see where and how.

One Man Can, One Woman Can

Getting the changes we’d like to see happen in the world meet resistance as politics, cultures, and business appear to create blockades to creating change. When Princess Di passed, millions bought flowers, crowded streets, and lamented her loss and the lesser impact for change that represented.

And yet, were each of these millions to pick up one actionable item, to donate rather than buy flowers, the impact of these millions would have dramatically impacted the causes Princess Di pursued. The little things we can do, do make a difference.

How to Get Volunteers

Many organizations seeking to create positive change are often challenged to find the support in their communities. Getting volunteers out is a job that also requires financial and human resources, along with creative ideas to reach out and find the hearts that beat.

We the People create change, have power, as the old adage “United we stand, divided we fall” reminds us. Amassing ourselves to support our causes with real intent…. well, imagine the impact.

TimeRaiser: A Vision Whose Time has Come

First noted is the Vision of TimeRaiser:

Our vision for the Timeraiser is to make it the most memorable, engaging and impactful civic engagement program in the country.

Our hope is that, in a few years, thousands of Canadians will be able to trace their engagement in their community back to the Timeraiser. We want to plant the seeds of life-long civic involvement.

From 2008 through 2010, we will host 16 Timeraisers across the country, that generate 250,000 volunteer hours, engage 5,000 Canadians in the charitable sector, invest over $300,000 in the careers of emerging artists and enable the valuable work of hundreds of nonprofits.

The expansion to other Canadian cities does not come at the expense of going deep in the communities we are already in. The Timeraiser will play the role of catalyst, bringing the emerging concepts of community development to the audience of volunteers and agencies that participate. Our experience shows that when given the right opportunity, people who get involved, stay involved.

Finally, we will be developing really cool strategies to leverage the involvement of professionals in the fields of Human Resources, Accounting, Organizational Design and Information Technology to elevate and expand the Timeraiser programming.

Second, visit the TimeRaiser website to learn more, and Vancouverites, be ready for more.

Getting involved your community isn’t always easy. That’s why VOLUNTEER VANCOUVER and FRAMEWORK FOUNDATION are proud build on the successful 2008 program to co-host the 2nd Vancouver Timeraiser. The Timeraiser has made it simple for Canadians in their twenties and thirties to find meaningful opportunities to fit their busy lifestyles. After successfully launching campaigns in six Canadian cities, the 2nd Annual VANCOUVER TIMERAISER will be held on Thursday September 24th at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Yaletown.

What Others Say

Volunteer Vancouver’s Chair states:

No other Vancouver event impresses the depth of impact and richness of innovation. If the arts inspire your heart, community engagement uplifts your soul, and camaraderie nourishes your being, then Timeraiser is where you need to be” says Chilwin Cheng – host of the 2008 Vancouver Timeraiser, Chair of Volunteer Vancouver’s Board of Directors and Principle/founder of Legal Process Solutions

Download 2009 Vancouver Timeraiser Press Release of August 26th, 2009 for more details.

Tama’s Musings

The Secret to Healing: Feel the Pain

When we are on the path of creating the work and life we love, we will encounter pain. That’s a given. Yes, we will follow our bliss, and then rejection, fear, and confusion will find out where we live. How we deal with the pain will determine our success and joy. But most of don’t love dealing with pain.

Recently, I had a fit of insecurity, a bout of self-comparison, and then a melt down. It’s the same sorry broken record that plays again. I don’t want this pain to return. It has come so many times to my house and broken the dishes and kicked in the walls. But when it comes I feel as though I have little say. All my years of therapy and spiritual growth, and even teaching, seem like postcards from a foreign land. I know that this “pain is optional.” But in the moment, it’s the only dish on the menu.

Ironically, I am at a beautiful retreat center when this experience happens. There are ongoing workshops on meditation and healing taking place. I pause by a still pond. Barefoot meditators walk by me, smiling with peace. I want to trip them as they pass. I am not well, I tell you.

Heal my mind, I pray to any God who will listen. Take these thoughts away. I say the words, begging and demanding. I stomp my foot like a princess calling upon the powers of the heavens as though they are disobedient maid servants. Nothing happens. Evidently, I cannot even pray right in this pain.

“Try focusing on something positive,” I demand of myself. It’s almost embarrassing how much good there is in my life, and how I choose to lie down on a bed of nails instead. Seeing this makes me feel worse. There are children starving in Africa, and they’re probably singing, says my suddenly “spiritual” inner critic. Now I’m in more pain, thinking how wrong it is to be in pain.

That night, I talk to Nancy, a woman I have just met. She is a healer by trade. But more than that, she is a healer by the way she looks at me. Her face is as open as a window in springtime and her eyes have seen it all, yet look at me with burning interest. I feel the air slow down around her. I swear she is charming the molecules into sacred space. I start telling her about my situation, strategically inserting only the details that validate my cause, and make me look pretty good, not at all like the ragged and hostile character at her table. I ask her how to deal with the pain of the situation.

I am hoping she will give me some mantra or insight to make it instantly disappear. I am hoping she has some kind of talisman tucked up her sleeve. I am hoping she will say something to prop up my wounded, terrified ego, maybe something like— you’re obviously a rock star who deserves better treatment. Or better yet, here let me waive my magic wand, and don’t worry, just for you, I’ll waive my fee. Or worst case scenario, but still fine with me, I expect her to say, I know a woman who can tell you which mother in which past life did this to you. I know a guru, a therapist, a lobotomist, a drug dealer, I’ll get you connected. But she says none of those things. She says something I am not expecting. When I ask her “What should I do?“—she says quietly, “I guess there is nothing to do— but feel the pain.”

Part of me wants to say, “Come, again?”

But the wise part of me, the one that instantaneously recognizes truth, wants to giggle and toss jellybeans at her feet. That part understands and claps its hands.

“Feel the pain,” she says, and she says it with the kindness of a thousand years like water that has loved a jagged rock and smoothed it into shining. Her healer’s voice surrounds me with spaciousness, as though she can wait forever for me to take in this message.

I feel her recognize my sorrow and suddenly I recognize it—and I recognize that it’s okay to feel sorrow. I don’t need to deny it or make it wrong or try to sweep it off my doorstep and scrub away its shadow. The moment she says “feel the pain,” I feel as though the broken sorrows of the whole world are laid before me, the raw hearts of everyone, everywhere, meeting me in this single moment with knowing. Somehow we’re all in this together, and I would not make them wrong for anything—and, finally, I do not make myself wrong either.

This is what whispers to me in her words: stop running and come in out of the rain. Wrap your little girl in a warm woolen blanket. Let’s put on a pot of soup. Forgive your ego, your frightened one for its tirade, for demanding the moon as proof of being loved, for needing things to be otherwise, for taking offense because the wind blew a certain way—not your way. Take those tight shoes off. Why, you’ve been running away from your truth for so long, you must be tired. Here, let’s soak those feet in lavender oil.

The moment Nancy said, “feel the pain,” I didn’t feel lonely or separate from my life anymore. I felt as though I could be in this exact moment, in this exact state of mind. I felt as though she was asking me to allow God, the Eternal Lover of the Present Moment, back into my heart. I felt as though she was reminding me of my Real Nature, a presence so beautiful and vast, it could sit with pain of any sort, frustration, anger, betrayal, and welcome every wasp, spider, or aphid into the garden. She was asking me to give myself over to the medicine and instruction of this moment. Suddenly I realized I didn’t need Spirit to take away the pain. I only wanted Spirit to sit with me while I felt the pain. I needed to sit with this part of myself. I needed to hear her story, not to fix it, or agree with it, push it away, or try to change the circumstances that caused it. I needed to sit with this frightened part of myself. She needed to be heard. She would know how to go forward from there.

In the past, I have envisioned the Presence of Love sitting down by my side. It’s the Holy Spirit, Jesus, Buddha, the Hebrew Shekina, or the spirit of ten thousand sequoia trees. Strong Love sits beside me. Strong Love sits behind me, before me and above me and below me. Strong Love can contain anything. Strong Love can absorb the sting. Strong Love doesn’t want to be anywhere else.

In the end, pain opened my heart to myself. It’s always that way. I feel the love of the Universe when I feel my own love. I feel that love when I stop running away from any part of myself or any experience I am having. I am willing to feel the pain. I am willing to feel my love. I am willing to feel my life.

This month I invite you to sit with yourself in the middle of a feeling that is uncomfortable. Feel the pain. I hope you can hear me whisper this to you, with the love of the ages in my voice, a strength and gentleness that wraps around you. I have faith in your ability to heal yourself. I have faith in your ability to contain and absorb and dance with the truth of exactly where you find yourself in this moment. I have faith in all of us.

With my love and blessings,

Tama

©Copyright 2009 Tama J. Kieves. All rights reserved.

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Love is the first item at the top of the list, as it always seems to be a central core to what gets discussed. However, this gets to it from a different angle. Your worth fighting for.

Love starts at home, we all know and understand this, even if we don’t all come from perfect homes. Heck, as adult parents, we judge ourselves pretty harshly too. In spite of all the failings and misery, we have it in us to overcome and still love them, accepting what is and that we will never change them.

Love starts at home wants you to look closer to home. If all the money in the world evaporated, the buildings, the cities, the conveniences, and all the things we identify ourselves with, what’s left? What home remains that you still occupy no matter what is happening, or where you are?

Love starts at home is starting with you. You are worth fighting for.

When things aren’t always going right, and you’ve become accustomed to bridging peace, or any other behavior that allows you to remain in a place that is unhealthy for your well-being, or your growth, you’ve got to start at home. The change happens, you reach in so you can reach out; in healthier ways.

Just a little random thinking tonight.

Fortunate to visit an inspiring blog post today, the video is an incredible inspiration for anyone who is hitting a rough patch, and anyone who has a heart for humanity. I encourage you to first watch the video, then visit the blog-post and website to read more. I’m certain some of you might be inspired to lend a hand and information is there to show you how. Visit Teachers are Everywhere to find out more.