Walking Within Wisdom

Walking Within Wisdom #46 Michael Franti and Spearhead October 20, 2019

Not a surprise to people in my life, I am a HUGE Michael Franti and Spearhead fan, I may even fit into the “groupie” category 😁

Well, the STAY HUMAN HARVEST BALL, a full day of festivities that began at 3pm and went into their first show ever at the brand new mission ballroom in Denver… This was certainly my happy place.. Getting to hear Michael Franti on a panel about climate change with former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, do yoga and then hear a free concert with friends, even got a picture with J Bowman TOTAL JOY!

This prompted me to listen to their music and read their lyrics all weekend and thought what would be better wisdom than some Franti! For those of you who don’t know who Michael Franti is https://michaelfranti.com/ here is a bit about him from good ol’ wikipedia

Michael Franti - is an American rapper, musician, poet, activist, documentarian, and singer-songwriter. Michael Franti is known for having participated in many musical projects (most of them with a political and social emphasis), including the Beatnigs and the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. He is the creator and lead vocalist of his current independent project, Michael Franti & Spearhead, a band that blends hip hop with a variety of other styles including funk, reggae, jazz, folk, and rock. He is also an outspoken supporter for a wide spectrum of peace and social justice issues, and he is especially an advocate for peace in the Middle East.

Billboard magazine says, “Franti’s mission, musical and otherwise, is convincing people they can.” and I believe that is true…

For today’s wisdom, I thought their song "Good To Be Alive Today" (which he played) would be both great wisdom and a good reminder at least for me 😉

It's a long road, oh Everyday I wake up and turn my phone on I read the news of the day, just as it's coming down I do my best not to let it get me down I try to keep my head up, but this is Babylon This world's in crisis, we try to fight it, this changing climate With scientists and with politicians divided by it So many ways we could solve it but they would never sign it This mountain's tumbling down, but still we try to climb it It's in the Torah, Koran and in the Bible Love is the message but somehow we turned to rivals It's come to people always picking up their rifles Another school getting shot up; homicidal

Some people tryna look fly, some people tryna get high Some people losing their mind, some people tryna get by And when you look in my eyes, you'll see the sign of the times We all looking for the same thing

But what if this song was number one? Would it mean that love had won? Would it mean that the world was saved? And no guns were being drawn today? What if everybody had a job? And nobody had to break a law? What if everyone could say That it's good to be alive today? Oh, oh, oh, oh It's good to be alive today Oh, oh, oh Yes it's good to be alive today Oh, oh, oh, oh Yes it's good to be alive today Oh, oh, oh No matter what nobody say

People used to feel safer when they would hear a siren Like help is on its way but now they only think of violence Another youth in the streets and police is in a conflict And now they hear the guns click, yo Ebola crisis and ISIS is taking heads off A drone is bombing a village and now the kids all Signing up to be soldiers, but they all willing now To do the killing now, but are you willing now? Some politicians out there making up some problems And tryna tell the people that they can solve them With TV shows and soundbites and quotes But everybody knows that it's all about the cash flow They're telling you and me they're making progress But tell it to the millions of jobless It's like a players club with billions of dollars To get the votes you got to make it rain in congress

But what if this song was number one? Would it mean that love had won? Would it mean that the world was saved? And no guns were being drawn today? What if everybody had a job? And nobody had to break a law? What if everyone could say That it's good to be alive today? Oh, oh, oh, oh It's good to be alive today Oh, oh, oh Yes it's good to be alive today Oh, oh, oh, oh Yes it's good to be alive today Oh, oh, oh And we all say

One day, one day One day, one day One day, we all will say That it's good to be alive today One day, one day One day, one day One day, we all will say That it's good to be alive today

Walking Within Wisdom #45 What to Remember When Waking October 15, 2019

If you were wondering, I am continuing to walk EVERYDAY listening to or speaking with wisdom keepers as I walk. My dearest Ayruvedic Doctor Laksman Das asked me a question a couple of weeks ago which lead me to get curious about why I felt like I needed to post everyday. This inquiry gave me permission to reimagine how I am creating and curating this Walking Within Wisdom Library, and not posting everyday :-)... If you are interested in what I am listening to or learning and I haven’t posted in a bit, just send me a note <3

The wisdom I am called to share today is a poem by David Whyte that I heard through Jody England’s Wild Soul Medicine podcast (which I have been “binging” for about 2 weeks now) called “What to Remember When Waking” Although I have read quite a bit of David Whyte’s work, I had never read this particular poem (thank you Jody!) and I was drawn to share it. With all of that, I will leave this here...

What to Remember When Waking In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake, coming back to this life from the other more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world where everything began, there is a small opening into the new day which closes the moment you begin your plans.

What you can plan is too small for you to live. What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others. To remember the other world in this world is to live in your true inheritance.

You are not a troubled guest on this earth, you are not an accident amidst other accidents you were invited from another and greater night than the one from which you have just emerged.

Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window toward the mountain presence of everything that can be what urgency calls you to your one love? What shape waits in the seed of you to grow and spread its branches against a future sky?

Is it waiting in the fertile sea? In the trees beyond the house? In the life you can imagine for yourself? In the open and lovely white page on the writing desk?

Walking Within Wisdom #44

Yom Kippur - Easy and meaningful fast

October 8, 2019

“Every time we forgive, we open up the gates of forgiveness in the world. And we are the first ones to walk through.” ~Sara Yoheved Rigler

Tonight begins the Jewish High Holiday of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. It is also called the day of atonement, a day to fast, ask for forgiveness, wishing all of our prayers are heard and get inscribed in the book of life for another year.

My walking within wisdom was a bit different from my usual, because today I was more thoughtful as I headed to Trader Joes to get the makings for my pre-fast Yom Kippur meal with dear friends. 

Today I am spending time reflecting and praying on this:

To those I may have wronged, 

I ask for forgiveness.

To those I may have helped,

I wish I had done more.

To those I neglected to help,

I ask for understanding.

To those who helped me,

I sincerely thank you will all my Heart, I am so VERY grateful.

Wishing all who observe an easy and meaningful fast and a good Yom Tov and to everyone else may you and yours be blessed with all of the good things of life 💗

Walking Within Wisdom #43 - Prayer for our times - Jody England October 7, 2019

I spent more than an hour transcribing the prayer at the end of Jody England's Wild Soul Medicine Radio program about “Being Used” Here is a link to the whole radio program/podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/…/wild_soul_medicine_ra…/being-used

For my walking within wisdom today I am just going to leave this transcribed prayer here. Although England wrote this more than a year ago, it feels like our collective needs more and more of this now… Until soon when we walk again...

“G-d G-ddess we ask for your grace in this space of traumas unfolding. Voices made rusty through the atrophied eons of silence and hearts tender with the pain of violence ignorance and judgment. Help us repair the places in between us that yearn for safety and connection that long to trust again and be met with dignity and respect. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us over and over and over.

Bless us as we explore the fault lines of victim, perpetrator and rescuer and help us to remember that we are all of these things and also none of them. Initiate us in the ways of gentleness for we had become so consumed by the shadows of patriarchy that we have forgotten our own face, adopting and employing the tactics of seek and destroy, divide and conquer, win and lose.

We have grown confused about the difference between power over and EMPOWERMENT keeping us hopelessly helplessly outside the gates of our sovereignty. Meet us at these gates with the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Breathe life in our long dormant places that we might stretch and awaken with an ecstatic yawn of inspiration informing us of the new old ways of relating, seeing and knowing leading through compassion and building a world of cooperation inclusion and kindness-together.

Remind us how to dream and celebrate, grieve and rage, seek justice and allow restoration and honor our particularities in equal measure to our commonalities.

Open us to the higher wisdom of more love may we embrace the darkness and light in equanimity knowing that one thing is all things.

Resource us in our capacity for the great reconciliation that is underway because it hurts so much and in the midst of our pain unfolding it can be hard to tell a friend from an enemy.

Love us deeply as we make our messy divided projection awkward, righteous, flailing, militant, cowardly, courageously desperate way through the density of the house cleaning that is underway.

This project is much too big for us to navigate alone. Show us how to surrender to the inevitability of the evolutionary impulse for life organizing itself into higher order. Even in the chaos everything crumbling and everywhere the seeming impossibility of resolution, we pray for mercy as we offer the broken hallelujah of our stories, our stance, our visibility, our stillness and our presence to the fire of becoming.

Walking Within Wisdom #42 - "I AM" - Jody England October 6, 2019

During these “days of awe” I have been really taking time to walk, listen and absorb deep wisdom and hold off on “reporting” about it (aka not posting daily 😉)... I have just found Jody England, how I have only JUST learned about her I have NO idea! I literally stopped EVERYTHING to share this “poem” especially with my dearest sisters all over the world as you each exemplify aspects of this extraordinary work of art…

Here are some quotes that stopped me in my tracks (as I walked today)

THERE IS AN ESSENCE TO EVERY SOUL

A UNIQUE SIGNATURE THAT TRANSCENDS OUR PARTICULAR HUMANNESS

THROUGHOUT LIFETIMES, ACROSS JOURNEYS

AND BEYOND THE LIMITATIONS OF OUR STORIES

EXCAVATING AND EMBODYING THE TRUTH OF OUR INDIVIDUAL NATURE IS THE MEDICINE FOR OUR SOUL

THIS IS MY TRUTH, THIS IS MY MEDICINE

I am a medicine woman forged in the fire of despair, grief, loss and tragedy reborn in the wisdom of truth, strength, power and vision of a new life.

I am a healer of souls

I am a bridge builder, an architect of putting the plank in front of your foot just before you fall into the abyss

I am spider medicine weaving the interconnectedness of patterns into shape and form. pressing her children to hold the loom of their own creation as they let go of their webs of illusion and forge new threads born of their hearts desires.

I am the wild woman, truth teller, revolutionary, evolutionary, challenger of the status quo, I do not go quietly into that good night…

PLEASE WATCH HERE 💗

Walking Within Wisdom #41  

Rosh Hashanah - Shana Tova - Sweet New Year

September 30, 2019

“Let the old year and its curses end. Let this year and its blessing inspire and compel us… Let us welcome this New Year as a fresh start. Wrap her round seven times with a joy that fills your heart. Love and generosity are ever-present it is fear that suppresses, sweeten the curses of this past year, it is hope and joy that blesses” ~Kabbalah Experience Rosh Hashanah Service 2019

Walking today has me pondering Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year which started last night. Rosh Hashanah marks the start of the Jewish High Holy Days leading up to Yom Kippur. It marks the beginning of the 10 “Days of Awe,” in which Jews focus their attentions on repentance and reflection leading up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, considered to be the holiest day of the Jewish year. 

Unlike the festive celebrations of New Year in other faiths, the Jewish New Year is a time to reflect on where we have been, where we are going, and what we want to do differently in the coming year. This is a time of personal reflection grounded in the idea that each and every year we have the ability to change the way we live. “The power of personal transformation is not beyond us but within us” 

I spent a long time searching for a place to spend the high holidays, at that time I had not been able to duplicate the tribe of my childhood and being single with no children I hadn’t found a place to “belong”. About five years ago, my dear friend had taken classes with David Sanders suggested I join her at Kabbalah Experience for the High Holidays. I have been attending these services every year since.

In the context of the New Year in today’s service we had a rather robust discussion of “the meaning of life” and within that topic read this quote from Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning...

“Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it” ~Viktor Frankl

Today sitting in with an intimate group of about 25 people including David’s twin daughters and Lily and her extraordinary harp playing I realized, I have found a place that I am truly at ease and perhaps more importantly allowing me the space to really reflect and dig in to what I have been doing for the last twelve months and what transformation lay ahead for me. I didn’t realize that what I needed (and need) to do is surrender “For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.”

Wishing everyone who celebrates Shana Tova, a very happy, healthy, sweet and of course JOYFILLED new year.

Walking Within Wisdom #40 - Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye September 28, 2019

“Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing” ~Naomi Shihab Nye

This morning I was reminded that the world is full of difficult, challenging and even some of the most terrible things. We are in a time of deep transition and we are ALL being swept up in its current. As my co-conspirator in all things Ubuntu said, “We are living in a time of transformation and light is shining in all the dark places... this is happening all over the world. Impeachment process on the president of the USA is a pretty big one. This is not personal, it's transformational.”

I agree, this is not personal, it is not just happening to you or me, we are all in this soup together. I deeply believe we must be present for one another and the one thing we can all do and from my point of view MUST do, is JUST BE KIND. We have to have kindness, for ourselves and each other, especially in this time of transformation.

As I was walking this morning I remembered the poem my dear friend Tiffany Espinosa posted last night… I read it/listened to it again as I walked (https://onbeing.org/author/naomi-shihab-nye/) and was struck by how this really speaks to the moment we are living in, even though I believe she wrote this at least 20 years ago (I can’t find the date she wrote this)....

~ Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye ~ Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride thinking the bus will never stop, the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever. Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road. You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive. Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. You must wake up with sorrow. You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth. Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread, only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say It is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.

We are in a time where many of us are currently experiencing this: “all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness.”

I would like to ask for all of us to consider being there for one another and moving to the end of this poem where Shihab Nye describes “Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore”

Lets all have more of the wisdom that comes from Kindness…

Walking Within Wisdom #39 Anita Sanchez Four Sacred Gifts

September 27, 2019

I love it when I open an email from Y on Earth to find a dear friend being interviewed on its podcast, YIPPEE this is the best way to choose a subject for walking within wisdom!!!

I met Dr. Anita Sanchez in 2007 at the very first Pachamama Alliance Awakening the Dreamer Changing the Dream symposium in Colorado. Those three days and a trip to the Ecuadorian rainforest in 2017 with Anita changed the entire trajectory of my life. Anita and her husband Kit have been amazing friends and mentors to me in some of the most important times. It is with this that ANY wisdom Anita has to share is WELL worth your time…

I remember the day of her Four Sacred Gifts book launch like it was yesterday… I even found my post from that day!!!

“I am so excited for the launch of my dear friend Anita Sanchez, Ph.D. Book! I invite you to join me in reading and re-reading The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times. Inspiring and empowering guidance from Indigenous Elders from around the world, woven through the moving personal story of my dear friend, Anita Sanchez, a woman who overcame early life violence and trials to become one of our most visionary spiritual teachers and guardians of the earth. www.FourSacredGifts.com 

ps - this picture was taken of us earlier this summer on our way to the rainforest, down the avenue of the volcanoes in Ecuador ”

So this morning I listened to this podcast while I walked: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=DpYT9Zf-N-A

A bit about my friend :-) Dr. Anita Sanchez, Azteca and Mexican-American, is a board member of both the Pachamama Alliance and Bioneers. She is the author of four books, including the #1 international best-selling "Success University for Women in Business," and "The Four Sacred Gifts." She is also the TedX presenter of "Humanity's Hope." Dr. Sanchez discusses the Sacred Hoop of Life, the importance of intimate interconnection, and that, especially in these exciting and challenging times of the Eagle and the Condor, every thought matters and LOVE is essential!

From the Y on Earth episode notes… “In this episode, Dr. Sanchez discusses the importance of reconnecting to the sacred, of active stewardship, and of connecting with our hearts to all of our work. An organizational consultant who has trained thousands of leaders in global corporations and non-profits, Anita also participates in indigenous ceremonies with wisdom-keepers all over the world, including a 7-day retreat with women in Kyrgyzstan. 

Serving on the Board of the Pachamama Alliance, Dr. Sanchez works to help cultivate awareness of the sacred presence of Earth, Sky, and alliance with the entire Universe at all times. The Pachamama Alliance is dedicated to creating a socially just, environmentally sustainable, and spiritually fulfilling culture.”

This is a GREAT interview and I highly recommend you listen/support this and other podcasts on Y on Earth https://yonearth.org/community-podcast/

Honestly, I think you should just listen to the podcast and RUN don’t walk and buy Four Sacred Gifts Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times https://foursacredgifts.com/ AND despite all of my notes I thought I would share a few “brief” takeaways from this podcast…

Anita has spent time with some of the world’s most extraordinary wisdom keepers. What she knows for sure is that their wisdom is needed more now than ever before. Even the United Nations has made clear statements saying “indigenous people are essential to reversing global warming now” This all makes sense because indigenous wisdom has formed over thousands upon thousands of years and indigenous people all over the world were the first scientists. When you look at science a lot of it is about testing and observation and indigenous people are the best observers especially when you think of coming from the mindset that we are NOT separate from each other we are all PART OF EACH OTHER.

The earth is telling us it is time we all must speak up, Anita described… we need to bring our voices forward and be in positive action. We have to remember that we all are connected to the sacred at every moment, it really just has to do with whether we want to pay attention or not… EVEN scientists are no longer just looking at the physical world, they believe that “there is something more…and we just don’t know”

I would be remiss to talk about Anita and her book  if I didn’t tell you what the four sacred gifts they are:

 1) Is the Power to Forgive the Unforgivable... We do this because it is an energy drain. It does not mean we forget!  

2) Power of Unity 

3) The Gift of Healing - healing is more of a process than an event and it is something that we all have to participate in… 

4) The Power of Hope in Action…  thinking about the fires in the rainforest there’s anger, fear, sadness and depression, instead of going there it’s love that needs to be called forward. 

 Use these four gifts and you will soon remember <3

 Perhaps we can walk together Anita? 

Walking Within Wisdom #38 Elisabet Sahtouris

September 26, 2019

Today I needed some real BADA$$ wisdom. Listening to our youth especially Greta Thunburg,  I looked for someone that could frame the world in another, perhaps more disruptive way that may be a frame for the work of our youth… I went down an awesome rabbit hole listening to Elisabet Sahtouris, and spent most of my walk listening to this YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYslJEUyQM&t=2366s 

Elisabet Sahtouris www.sahtouris.com is an evolution biologist, futurist, author and consultant.  In her unique approach, called "Living Systems Design," she applies the principles of biology and evolution to organizational development so that organizations may become more functional, healthy living systems, with increased resilience, stability, and cooperation.  She wrote "Earth Dance: Living Systems in Evolution."

Sahtouris describes, “we are facing three simultaneous crises in the world today: crises in energy, economy, and climate. These add up to the greatest challenge in all human history.” Sahtouris is optimistic about the future and pointing to biology she says, “Life gets creative in a time of crisis.” She explains how the survival of bacteria, which have been on the planet for over four billion years, has given us a model of how we may evolve into a mature species. In the best case scenarios in evolution there is a move towards cooperation and co-creation. She points out, “It is literally cheaper to feed your enemies than to kill them. And, in the best case scenario in evolution, those cooperative ventures become the next larger unity.” 

It is these words that sent me down the proverbial rabbit hole. 

In the above YouTube video she illustrates how ecology and economy are actually the same. Nature’s economy is all about recycling and because we have never learned economics from nature we are in the position we are today.

I listened with awe as she described ecology and economy using the human body as a metaphor

Nature has billions of years of experience, so suppose you look at your bodies economics.  Imagine the northern industrial organs are above the diaphragm and they have the ownership of the rest of the body so that the raw material blood cells that form in the bone marrow can be mined and shipped to these northern industrial organs. Then the heart and lung system gets into play and they clean up the blood and oxygen is added and the heart distribution center announces what the body price for blood is. You ship the blood, only to the organs that can afford the blood price… So you can see very quickly that this sort of ownership and pricing system would not work well in a healthy working system. In fact that those bones that were mined (like countries where we do our mining) may not be able to afford the final product. So there is a lot to learn from nature about economics. Your body is gifting currency into the economy all the time, is to monitor the economy to with no repayment demanded and certainly no interest charged. The credit line goes up if there needs more currency in the system and goes down if there is too much… There is no reason why we can’t copy this human system.

She went on to describe evolution in both the East and the West… Darwinian evolution, survival of the fittest, is taught in the west. Darwin’s evolution is an endless struggle and competition for resources. In the east, Russia in particular teaches a different type a different system. A system of cooperation. Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a 1902 essay collection by Russian naturalist and anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin. Nature doesn’t do either or’s… Nature is a conservative ecosystem of cooperation nature is not only going to do competition or cooperation it’s a balance.

Sahtouris gave an example about this kind of cooperation when she discussed going to a basketball game in China. The person sitting next to her cheered for both teams getting baskets where we in the west believe in competition cheer for only one team, those in China cheer for excellence not competition.

The way to talk about the transition from competition to cooperation she describes the metaphor of the butterfly. The caterpillar consumes 100’s of times it weight in one day until it is so bloated that it hangs itself up and goes to sleep. Dormant cells that have been hiding in the folds of the cells… the cells melt down into a nutritive soup. 

The competitive phase happens under the first genome and the cooperative phase under the second. She loves this as a metaphor because it means the future world is going to look very different. We are in huge crisis and we get to reinvent everything now. We get to build that butterfly world, that lives lightly on the earth instead of the heavy overconsumption mode. We can live a lifestyle everywhere that is appropriate to this planet that will keep the ecosystems healthy.

When we humans are faced with crises like fire, flood or earthquake we don’t just go to competition and survival of the fittest our first inclination is to actually roll up our sleeves and cooperate with one another, competition isn’t the first or only way.

The last thing I will write about here (believe me there is HOURS and PAGES MORE!) is Sahtouris describing how indiginous communities choose leaders. 

Our country's “forefathers” specifically Ben Franklin befriended what the white men named the Iroquois tribe where we got the United States Constitution… The tribe had great laws of peace where they had kept peace for a thousand years. And the best form of gender balance, and perhaps the best way of choosing leadership that Sahtouris has ever seen… Because when the US adopted the constitution they didn’t adopt the Iroquois ways, they put in voting which NO indiginous culture EVER uses voting to elect leaders, or none she has ever heard of.

The way they did choose leaders was through the grandmothers.  They choose the Chiefs because they watched the boys grow up and they knew who was best serve society, they had the backing of community… If they didn’t do well, they would get one warning and the council of grandmothers could remove them from office. The grandmothers didn’t need to be in public and be the politicians, they had the choosing rights. This is an AMAZING way to do this because of their lack of vested interest by the grandmothers they wanted a society to work well. 

Economies used to be run to feed everybody and give children a safe place to sleep. Somehow men have taken economics into a global casino gambling game that just should NEVER EVER HAVE HAPPENED!

So grateful to have walked in this wisdom today with this amazing woman…

Walking Within Wisdom #37 Edgar Villanueva - Decolonizing Wealth - A Vision Towards a Hopeful Future September 25, 2019

“Even institutions that exist to do good must examine how they relate to money and how their actions impact vulnerable and historically marginalized communities” ~Edgar Villanueva

On my walk today I listened to some AMAZING wisdom from Edgar Villanueva. I have been hearing so much about Villanueva, his work and his book for a while in the DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) community and I was so excited to get a chance to hear his talk.

The introduction to this interview describes, “In this conversation with Dr. Tiffany Jana of TMI Consulting, Edgar shares stories and examples of how we can make the moves we need to achieve healing, reciprocity, and solidarity, to create a beautiful future.

A bit about Edgar Villanueva… Edgar Villanueva is a globally recognized author and expert on philanthropy. His newest book Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance offers compelling alternatives to the dynamics of colonization in the philanthropic and social finance sectors. He currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Native Americans in Philanthropy and is a Board Member of the Andrus Family Fund and NDN Collective. Edgar currently serves as the Vice President of Programs and Advocacy at the Schott Foundation for Public Education. There he oversees grant investment and capacity-building supports for education-focused justice campaigns across the United States.

There were SO many takeaways from this conversation I would LOVE to just post a transcript however I will need to remember some key learnings so I will do my best to do Mr. Villanueva justice.

Dr. Tiffany Jana opens with the why should the world be focused on a people first economy today? Why now?

Villanueva begins with THIS… “If not now when? First of all there is a major sense of urgency that I feel around shifting our focus on what we are prioritizing in the economy… Because of our history in this country of colonization, slavery and other mechanisms that are really connected to how this economy was built, we find ourselves in this separation based economy. An economy where we are disconnected from each other as human beings and disconnected from the planet. That false separation that we now exist in is really harming us, the planet and our communities and we need to find a way to push through this separation and reconnect to each other and this planet as a way to sustain ourselves.” {AMEN!!!}

Dr. Jana then asks, tell us about a hopeful future that heals those divides and restores balance… There is this sense of despair, there is an overwhelming number of people feeling depressed and down about the state of the world. So what is it that you see as a possible healing future.

Villanueva was back home talking to Elders of the Lumbee tribe in North Carolina. He explained he was feeling exhausted from how polarized we are in community right now. Daily reports of hate crimes and racism feels like a terrible time both here and globally. His Elder reminded him of an indiginous value that they hold in the community of “All My Relations” (which is also of course about a people first economy). For generations tribes have held this concept of being ALL RELATED. He said, I don’t feel related to everyone right now and he may not agree with everyone politically, but if I can get to a place where I truly embody the belief that we are all inescapably connected and success is completely dependant on the success of those around me, it begins to shift beyond some of the rhetoric, feelings of hopelessness and division to imagine a world where we are all connected. {YES!!!!}

Jana asks, what is the biggest obstacle to turning the corner? What is standing in the way of our organizations, economy becoming more inclusive?

We are paralized by fear, fear of losing power, separation, biases… No concept of having enough, it doesn’t matter how much we amass or how much wealth we have there is never enough we are afraid that D-Day is coming and we are going to lose everything.

Decolonizing our thinking and bringing in an indiginous worldview, is understanding we’ve got each other. We believe in reciprocity, I am going to take care of you because I know you are going to have my back and take care of me in my time of need… If we can get to a point where we “have got each other” we can move out of fear and out of the narratives that have been fed to us. This is a call in this time to be bold and unafraid.

Villanueva finished his remarks explaining, we have to think about all of our power and resources and mobilize them for good. We can’t do good with our right hand while we do bad with our left hand. Are you investing your retirement into fossil fuels and private prisons? We need to do some deep personal exploration of coming to terms with our history.

Thank you Dr. Tiffany Jana and Edgar Villanueva for bringing me such wisdom today! This discussion made me a bit more optimistic and I am going to begin to look at the world with a lense of “All My Relations” now, I am deeply grateful.

Please RUN don’t walk and read https://www.decolonizingwealth.com/

Walking Within Wisdom #36 - Majorie Kelly - Democracy Collaborative

September 24, 2019 

“When families possess assets — valuable skills, social networks, a home, some savings, an ownership stake in a business — they enjoy greater resilience, and are better able to withstand occasional shocks like unemployment or illness. They can plan for their future, send a child to college, feel secure in retirement. A job may start or stop. It is assets, of various kinds, that yield greater stability and security. As this is true of families, it is also true of communities. Jobs may be drawn into a community, but then leave without warning. And if attracting jobs means degrading community assets — through pollution, low-wage jobs, or the loss of tax income through excessive tax breaks — a seeming gain can in fact represent a net loss.” ~Marjorie Kelly author of Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution

For some background, I spent a couple of years working with some amazing local organizations like Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Colorado Enterprise Fund, RE:Vision and Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Council around the idea of Community Wealth Building.  

Community wealth building is: a fast-growing economic development movement that strengthens our communities through broader democratic ownership and control of business and jobs. It builds on local talents, capacities and institutions, rebuilding capital to strengthen and create locally-owned family and community owned businesses that are anchored in place, that aren’t moving.

The community wealth building field includes a broad range of models and innovations that have been steadily growing power over the past 30 years or more: cooperatives, employee-owned companies, social enterprise, land trusts, family businesses, community development financial institutions and banks, and more. One powerful team of local partners are anchor institutions, like hospitals and universities. They are often the largest economic drivers in their communities. Increasingly they see the synergy between restoring local health and wealth with their success.

I have been needing a boost around the difficult work that we have been facing in Walsenburg Colorado. Much of our work is community wealth building, so today I walked and listened to Dr. Tiffany Jana interview Marjorie Kelly the Senior Fellow and Executive Vice President of The Democracy Collaborative (TDC) a non-profit research organization founded in 2000. TDC is a research and development lab for a democratic economy. Ms. Kelly is co-founder of Fifty by Fifty, a network initiative to catalyze 50 million employee owners by 2050, for which she has led research on Next Generation Enterprise Design.

Dr. Tiffany’s initial question was why should the world be looking to create a “people first economy”   

Marjorie Kelly answered… “It may well be the most important question of our time

We now have a capital centered economy creating short term wealth for the few that is the structure that is putting the planet at risk and growing inequality.”

She went into discussing how the design of enterprise fits into a people centered economy and how we must design for “the next generation enterprise” 

A Next Generation Enterprise is:

Mission-led and employee-owned

Ownership is broadly held: ESOP, worker co-op, trust. At least 30% employee owned

Authentic mission of creating public benefit

May institutionalize mission as B Corps or benefit corps

An innovative enterprise design for a new era of environmental sustainability and social equity

Ms. Kelly went on to explain that system structure is the source of the system behavior and in a  democratic economy institutions seek to build, not just financial wealth, but community wealth. This is NOT about just reducing poverty, instead it is about building wealth. It’s about building many kinds of community wealth: Youth skills, community ties, home ownership, healthy ecosystem, family assets. Possessing assets is very different from receiving social services 

Kelly then went on to describe the “Principle of Inclusion - creating opportunity for those long excluded” and the “Principle of Sustainability - protecting the ecosystem as the foundation of all life” in order to create a next generation enterprise where there is:

Broad-based employee ownership

Embedded mission

Ethical Leadership

Worker engagement

Governance

Ecological practices

Today there are more than 50 next generation enterprises 

Next Generation Enterprises are the best of the best. 

Among the 45 employee-owned B Corps, 82% were named Best for the WORLD.

So I wonder with this being climate action week, and hearing some CLEAR actions we need to be taking right now, doesn’t community wealth building just make sense? 

Maybe you want to walk with me and discuss this??? 

Walking Within Wisdom #35 - Greta Thunberg and 15 other children filed a complaint against five countries over the climate crisis

September 23, 2019

“People who are older aren’t paying as much attention because they will not be as affected. They don’t take us children seriously, but we want to show them we are serious” ~Ayakha Melithafa, South Africa, 17 years old

Although I talked about Greta Thunberg a little more than two weeks ago on September 7th in my #19 Walking Within Wisdom, (You can read my earlier post about this remarkable young woman here: https://rebeccasaltman.com/…/walking-within-wisdom-19-greta…

I decided I need to once again focus my attention on this extraordinary 16 year old disruptive force for epic change and the work she is doing with 15 other young people at the United Nations today…

Today, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and 15 other children submitted a groundbreaking legal complaint with the United Nations Monday citing that five of the world's major economies have violated their human rights by not taking adequate action to stop the advancing climate crisis. Over the past year the youth climate activism movement has demolished prior notions of what’s possible in the realm of climate politics. Greta Thunberg’s strike outside the Swedish parliament every Friday starting last August generated a global movement. This past Friday, an estimated 4 million young adults and their supporters took to the streets around the world to demand climate action.

“Young people above all—young people are providing solutions, insisting on accountability, and demanding urgent action,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said opening the Climate Action Summit. “They are right.” The Youth complaint was filed a short time after Thunberg delivered her fierce condemnation to world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit.

“We will rise to the challenge, we will hold those who are the most responsible for this crisis accountable, and we will make the world leaders act,” Thunberg prophetically intoned at the New York strike on Friday. “We can and we will.” “This complaint involves young people holding their guardians, us adults, to account for failing in our ‘duty of care,’” said Kirsten Davies, an international law expert at Macquarie University’s Law School in Sydney

The teenagers are from all over the world, including four of the five countries named in the suit. Their complaint reflects the fact that the atmosphere has no borders. Carbon pollution from the human-ignited fires in Brazil changes the climate just as much as coal plant emissions in Turkey. What the five countries all have in common is that they’re part of a group of 51 nations that have signed what’s called the third Optional Protocol of the convention.

I will probably spend the next few days learning about this lawsuit and the youth who are suing… While walking today I listened to Thunberg’s United Nations, General Assembly, Climate Action Summit talk, 3 times I will likely listen to it several more times, have you listened yet? I wonder, when are we going to listen?

Walking Within Wisdom #34 Michaela’s Bat Mitzvah September 22, 2019 (wisdom from 9/14/19)

In September there has already been SO much walking (39 walks, distance of 87.94 miles - an average of 4 miles a day!!!) AND so much wisdom (doTERRA’s convention, TWO Online Summits, Denver Startup Week, B:Civic Summit, Camp Experience and of course Michaela’s Bat Mitzvah ;-)) I haven’t been able to keep up!!!

I decided that before too much time passed I had to talk more about the wisdom from our youth… Our youngers, though perhaps inexperienced are most capable of saying wise, insightful and VERY mature things. There is not a more fit description of the extraordinary Bat Mitzvah I went to on September 14th. I have known Michaela since birth, she is now a young woman of 13.

For those of you who don’t know, Bat Mitzvah is a Jewish coming of age ritual for girls. According to Jewish law, when a Jewish girl is 13 years old, she becomes accountable for her actions and becomes a bat mitzvah. Before the child reaches bat mitzvah age, parents hold the responsibility for their child's actions. After this age, the boys and girls bear their own responsibility for Jewish ritual law, tradition, and ethics, and are able to participate in all areas of Jewish community life.

At a traditional Bar or Bat Mitzvah the widespread practice is that on a Sabbath shortly after he or she has attained the age of thirteen, the boy or girl is called up to read from the weekly portion of the Torah and perhaps also read the closing verses and the Haftarah (selections from the books of the Prophets) They may also give a d'var Torah (a discussion of some Torah issue, such as a discussion of that week's Torah portion) and/or lead part or all of the prayer services. Michaela did ALL of the above including an extraordinary discussion of her Torah portion.

What was most exceptional about Michaela’s d’var torah is that she was incredibly brave. Let me quote from her actual speech…

“Today, my Torah portion is Ki Teitzei - Deuteronomy 22:1 and I am choosing to teach about the idea of dignity., The definition of dignity is the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect. And I think everyone should be treated with respect, no matter what.

The Torah also states that, “a man's attire shall not be on a woman, nor may a man wear a woman's garment because whoever does these [things] is an abomination to the Lord, your G-d.” We can guess that the prohibition in the Torah is probably more about deception and the consequences of pretending to be something you’re not. However, this verse means something pretty different in 2019. We live in a world where you get to choose your own identity. You can identify your own gender and how you portray it to other people. Because of this, I understand this verse as the Torah telling people they are not allowed to wear the clothes they feel most comfortable in. I think that is unfair and I have people that I am close to that identify with a different gender than the one they were born with or they love different types of people than I do and I don't want people to be judged and feel they have to change themselves to fit in.

Today, people are more free to be who they want than they were when the Torah was written around 3,313 years ago. This verse, when read through the lens of 2019 seems intolerant. The standards of society around gender expression have changed over the generations. This is a verse that might have made sense in the days of the Torah, but no longer speaks to us. I found valuable lessons about dignity and respect for others, and I learned a lot about how we read the Torah according to our own lens and understanding of the world - and how that affects the lessons we learn. In this case, those lessons are about how people should be treated.”

This my friends is from the brain and mouth of a THIRTEEN YEAR OLD, what is our problem? When exactly are we going to be brave and actually stand up and speak up for dignity, honor and respect for ALL?

Walking Within Wisdom #33 - Threads Worldwide Meets CampExperience https://campexperience.com/

Sometimes I look around me and I shake my head in wonder, how did I get so lucky to have such EXTRAORDINARY people in my life? I sat down in the first row of tables at Camp Experience last night to hear from outstanding women including my dear friends Angela Yost Melfi and Kara Valentine founders of Threads Worldwide. These ladies are the phenomenal duo who brought me to Guatemala for the first time in 2017 to meet Maria Pacheco, so as you may imagine they have had a “bit” of an impact on my life!

Despite the fact that we weren’t walking during their interview with Betsy Wiersma last night at 9:00 pm, I promise they shared some marvelous wisdom!

So briefly who are these ladies???

Meet Angela Yost Melfi and Kara Valentine, Threads Co-Founders. https://threadsworldwide.com ⠀ In 2011, Angela and Kara started Threads as a way for friends (including themselves) to work together while doing meaningful and impactful work.

Their story… “Our friendship began in college with a road trip across the U.S. Since then, we’ve traveled to over 50 countries together! As we explored the developing world, we were struck by the poverty we witnessed. We remember a little girl in Cambodia begging for grape soda as she walked through an open sewer. We remember children in Vietnam who frantically adorned us with bracelets, then smiled sweetly to request payment. We remember countless families living on highway medians in India.

Each trip sparked the question, “what more can we do?” As we thought about this question, we were struck by another phenomenon: the ripple effect of women rising out of poverty. Time and time again, we saw how empowering women transforms communities. When women earn an income and discover their voice, they educate their children, improve their homes, and advocate for their rights. The result? The entire community thrives. Suddenly we understood how we could make an impact and Threads Worldwide was born.”

Last night the ladies shared funny and poignant stories about how they met playing volleyball, they were literally attached at the hip an even by the nose ring! Kara described when Angela told Kara about the new business they needed to start together coincided with the miracle of bringing her very premature 4 pound baby home from the hospital and how she knew if she could be lucky enough to have her daughter live she know what she needed to do, start this new company…

They discussed their partnership with Wakami and then Betsy in her Oprah like reveal gave everyone in the audience an exclusive Threads Camp Experience Bracelet/Necklace created by Wakami, although I am very biased, and the most extraordinary women in the world!

There is so much more amazing wisdom to share from Threads and these two friends of mine, I will certainly be talking about them again… For now follow them on social media and their website and interviews like these

Walking Within Wisdom #32 - Camp Experience - 1,000 Acts Of Peace September 20, 2019

All credit goes to the many hands that make who make work easy for all. ~Betsy Weirsma

What happens when you get 130 extraordinary women together who care deeply about the world and each other? You get a mashup of Camp Experience https://campexperience.com and a 1 Billion Acts of Peace https://www.billionacts.org

First of all if you haven’t heard about CampExperience, is an annual retreat and full year of events designed for the education, inspiration and connection of amazing women. Our sisterhood by choice builds each other‘s businesses and personal lives, while helping other women in need. Now in it’s 14th year the camp experience network has raise nearly $1 million in cash and in-kind donations plus over 1000 hours of donated time.

Together the Camp Experience Sisterhood lead by the incomparable Betsy Wiersma assembled 1,000 knapsacks for people experiencing homelessness in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Items most commonly requested by those experiencing homelessness are things from shampoo to tooth paste and condoms to tampons. Camp created an EPIC bag stuffing event including more than 20,000 items for these bags!!!

After organizing the bags, sisters traveled to City Hall where we delivered the donations to five agencies who serve this population.

Walking Within Wisdom #31 - Nathaniel Smith - B:CIVIC 9/19/19

What would society look like that views everyone as an asset and no one as a liability? ~Nathaniel Smith

Amid the craziness of Denver Startup Week and the The People-First Economy online Summit, I stopped ALL of that… Thanks to the dearest Heather Bender Baker, I attended the B:Civic 2019 Summit B:Bold: Elevating Social Responsibility! This event always brings together some of my most favorite people and I was so very grateful to catch up with so many friends. There was so much WISDOM today and sadly I wasn’t doing much walking (only 2.2 miles this morning while listening to the People First Economy summit and going to an early session about women’s coworking MS.FITS + MS.CHIEFS: at Startup week, all of which I expect to write about in future walking posts :-)...

Today I had the good fortune to listen to and meet the closing keynote speaker at B:Civic, Nathaniel Smith. Smith is the Founder and Chief Equity Officer at Partnership for Partnership for Southern Equity http://psequity.org/ HE WAS JUST AMAZING!!!

Mr. Smith started his talk by explaining that “all medicine does not taste good” and if you are looking for someone that is going to do that, you have the WRONG person for the job… I am here to tell you he was the perfect person to give us all a bit of medicine.

Partnership for Southern Equity’s mission is: (PSE) advances policies and institutional actions that promote racial equity and shared prosperity for all in the growth of metropolitan Atlanta and the American South…. Using its strength in its ability to connect, educate, and empower diverse individuals and organizations to encourage just, sustainable practices for shared prosperity, PSE has stood at the forefront of promoting balanced growth and shared prosperity throughout metropolitan Atlanta and the American South.

He inspired us to be courageous and make an economy that works for everyone. Nathaniel explained that the racial divide has become a generational divide and we will never be able to import all of the people we need for the workforce of today, then showing us a map of “upward mobility” explaining that the American Dream is gone and we need to start hiring from “within”. “We have to stop being comfortable being comfortable” he said and went on to present amazing statistics how racial economic inclusion is GREAT for our economy (he has all kinds of amazing Colorado statistics)

He challenged us all to not just consider a Corporate Social Responsibility agenda we must create a RACIAL EQUITY AGENDA! Smith is proposing nothing short of a new covenant for inclusive prosperity…

He concluded by asking a couple of questions…

What would an economy look like that treats ALL EQUITABLY?

What would society look like that views everyone as an asset and no one as a liability?

How do we create a PEOPLE CENTERED ECONOMY?

Walking Within Wisdom #30 - Miki Agrawal - Disruptive Innovation and How to Change the Game Fearlessly

September 18, 2019

On my walk yesterday I started listening to the People First Economy Online Summit… It is quite amazing! You can register for this summit for free here:  https://peoplefirsteconomyonlinesummit.com/  

The very first interview of the Summit is Raj Sisodia interviewing Miki Agrawal…

Here is a bit about this amazing woman! Miki Agrawal (www.mikiagrawal.com) is a serial social entrepreneur  known for breaking taboos and disrupting the status quo.

She was named “2017 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum”, “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” by the World Technology Summit and Forbes’ “Top 20 Millennials on a Mission” 

She is the founder of the acclaimed farm-to-table, alternative pizza concept called WILD (www.eatdrinkwild.com) with 3 locations in New York City, one in Guatemala and more on the way. She co-founded THINX (www.shethinx.com), a high-tech, period-proof underwear brand all while helping tens of millions of women period better. She also co-founded Icon, a high-tech pee-proof underwear brand that helps women manage light bladder leakage.

She and her team are also helping fight the global sanitation crisis by bringing clean latrines to underserved communities in India through their partnership with Samagra.

Harper Collins published her first book entitled DO COOL SH*T on entrepreneurship and lifestyle design and Hay House recently published her second book Disrupt-Her.

In this interview they discuss:

Miki’s path of disruptive innovation

- Miki’s path of disruptive innovation

- Creating products that are good for the triple bottom line: Good for people in the first world, good for people in the developing world, and good for the planet

- Embracing a childlike state of curiosity, playfulness, and awe

I LOVED everything about this interview!!! I love Miki disruption, humor and directness and honesty! This was clear from the way she opened the interview by discussing her FOUR “P” businesses...

The first is of course Pizza - The first gluten free farm to table pizza restaurant in New York City

The second is the “Period (menstrual) Space” where she has developed a period proof underwear brand leveraging a $15 billion industry..

The third is PEE - Urine - A $7 billion industry - a place where until now there has only been diapers, and depends to support bladder leakage. All terribly uncomfortable, unsanitary and horrible for the environment… Miki has created a high tech, beautiful, comfortable, leak proof underwear!

The fourth business is the POOP business -  It is amazing to Miki (and me now that I am aware!!!)  that bathrooms are still back in the 1800’s where we don’t discuss anything that happens there, and there has been NO innovation in “that room” for centuries!  We use dry paper (toilet paper) an average of 57 sheets of toilet paper per day. WE so need to disrupt such an UNSANITARY culture and practice, we desperately need to shift culture around the bathroom. That is exactly what Miki is doing, shifting culture by creating TUSHY (www.hellotushy.com), a company that is revolutionizing the American toilet category with a modern, affordable, designer bidet attachment that both upgrades human health & hygiene as well as the environment from wasteful toilet paper consumption!!!! JUST AWESOME!!! 

Miki talked about my MOST favorite subject of all time, “Disruptive Innovation for Social Change!” Since reading the 2006 Harvard Business Review article of the same name (https://hbr.org/2006/12/disruptive-innovation-for-social-change) I have spent my time teaching, consulting and working to spread this very gospel that Miki is DOING each and every day… 

She easily described Disruptive Innovation as an introduction that creates a new market which eventually takes over a current market. She talks about when the “Model T” took over for horse and buggies and went on to explain that Tushy will be that kind of disruptive innovation. Bidets have never been affordable or accessible but now it is! When you think about that 15,000 trees are cut down per year JUST for toilet paper consumption and the installation of Tushy only uses 1 pint of water versus 57 sheets of paper per day AND Toilet paper requires 37 gallons of water per EVERY roll of toilet paper. This is a triple win, better for health, hygiene and the planet. Miki estimates there will be a Tushy in EVERY home in 10 years!!! YES!!!!

They discussed Miki’s new book, (which I have just downloaded on Audible) Disrupt-Her: A Manifesto for the Modern Woman, she talked about the culture of shame and blame that are so deeply engrained, like the culture of complaining and talking S&#T about people… These things wouldn’t happen if people actually looked each other in the eye… This is so deeply rooted in our society today… This is the same as disposables, everyone is using them so what is one more person - ACKKKKKKK!!!! If we can just step back and look at all of our preconceived notions, question them and disrupt them one by one