#44 - Dare To Share

Wonderful things need to be shared so I am delighted to let you know that the new issue of Permaculture Magazine features an article entitled The World Needs Your Passion - written by me! Having an article published in a national magazine which I have so much respect for ticks a really big box on my 'would love to make happen' list, so I am delighted to be celebrating this with you.

As you know, this blog is all about sharing word of inspirational ventures and Permaculture Magazine is certainly one of them. It features genuinely useful articles on eco-villages, alternative technology, natural building materials & methods, organic gardening and a whole bunch of other topics which make my heart sing. The ideas and experiences which people share give me genuine hope that we really can find solutions for sustainable living.

A magazine like this is a forum for sharing. Experts share with novices on one topic, and then become novices when they read about someone else's project. It reminds me that sharing is a phenomenal energy. In contexts like these, it's a paradox whereby you get more by giving away. I receive a huge amount of joy from sharing my writing and I imagine other contributors in the magazine, and others like it, feel the same. We get to live our purpose, and offer something of benefit to others by doing so.

One of the principles of permaculture is Earth-share which I understand to mean that we live sustainable, one-planet lifestyles, sharing our Earth's resources equally, including sharing any surplus. Sometimes sharing feels scary. With tangible objects, we might worry: "If I give this bag of apples away, will I really have enough left for me?" With our skills and ideas, we might fear: "If I offer this, will people reject me or make fun of me?" I've often heard people say: "If I do what I REALLY want to do with my life, it might kill the fun of it for me. I'd rather just keep it for me." This is where the 'dare' part of this title comes in. I believe it takes real courage to share with others.

What happens when we don't share? Picture a child in a playgroup, jealously hoarding her toys. We can see she's not happy: she hasn't got anyone to play with, yet nor is anyone else benefiting from her approach. Likewise when we adults don't share our gifts, we can get frustrated, maybe because deep down we know they're there to be shared. Our world really DOES need us to share our passion. Every product and service we love is there because someone was willing and generous enough to share their idea and their talent. When we frame it this way, it can be less scary to get that business up and running, or that project started. It's not about us, it's about sharing. One of my coaching clients had a lot of local media coverage this month for her inspirational project because she just had to pick up the phone and let the papers know what she was doing. By grounding her action in her desire to share, not on any other agenda, she created a situation where so many people got to benefit. I wonder what it is that you need to share...

For You
What are you desperate to share? You can think long-term: what's the big picture that your life is about? What's your legacy? And also short-term: what could you dare to share in this next hour? Maybe you could let someone know how they've impacted you, show someone a piece of art or some poetry you've written, or send them to a link to an inspirational movie clip. Notice what it's like to share with no other agenda than that you have something to give.

For You - part 2
I have an ongoing project called Inspirational 100 where I interview people who have inspirational ideas. We look at what you want to share, what blocks you, and what supports you. It's business-development research for me and also may form the basis of a book I'm contemplating writing. If you would like to share your thoughts as part of this, please email me here. As a thank you, you can receive a coaching session to kick-start you on turning this idea into reality, at no charge. I look forward to hearing from you.

NB There'll be no post next week as I'm off getting married.... Now there's sharing! :)

#43 - Grow Up

Back in 1992, a 12 year old girl called Severn Suzuki spoke at the UN Earth Summit- watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZsDliXzyAY

The energy of this speech awakens something in me. Here is a young person who is angry. She is an unadulterated reminder of that inherent sense of right and wrong which we all possess, and the simplicity of her words bring home to us the obvious priority of our environmental situation. The imperatives she uses - "stop", "don't", "change" - are words we're used to adults using with children, yet here is a young person addressing adults in this tone.

The energy of angry teenage idealism always inspires me and it's an energy we need now more than ever. We need to get indignant. We need to get disgusted and baffled and horrified by what's continuing to happen on this planet, despite everything we know and have known for as long as I've been alive. We need to connect with the part of us that just knows that it's wrong to consume and waste to the extent we are now and we then need to allow that energy to power us forward into radical, inspirational solutions.

We might say "oh well it's easy to be idealistic when you're young". It's actually not. It's frustrating beyond belief to feel like you have all these ideas for how the world should be and yet feel that the power is with the 'grown-ups' who aren't using it very well. I think lots of us still feel like those dis-empowered children when we see what politicians and corporations are doing. We feel hopeless and impotent and switch on the telly instead.

We are adults. We DO get to act, we DO have power, we CAN implement plans. We get to enact one of the most powerful equations - IDEALISM + ACTION = WORLD-CHANGING. In her speech, Severn says: "I don't have all the solutions". As a teenager, she doesn't necessarily know the 'how' of what she's fighting for, but she knows she must fight. As we become adults, we need to keep hold of that indignant sense of purpose and then add the'how' . We learn the mechanics, practicalities, solutions and pathways so that we can use that knowledge to make our vision real in the world. In short, we become adults so that we can add the 'how' to the teenage vision. Let's not get confused and choose the 'how' instead of the vision.

We can take the treasure of those teenage years - the passion, the feisty make-things-right energy - and give it a channel. We can be impassioned adults, truly able to make a difference. I work with clients like this every week, people who have huge, inspirational visions. By working together to get them clear on their visions and committed to them, they find that they just have to find the resources to manifest them. They realise that when they're fuelled by that passionate urgency, they HAVE to find the how-to. And they always do.

For You
What did you get angry about in your early teens? What issues most bothered you? How did you want to change the world? Maybe you felt that you were 'only a child' and couldn't really make a difference. Now connect with what's true for you today - do the same issues fire you up, or others? Find the emotion and the passion that can be your fuel. What are you compelled to change, make better, make more sane in the world? If you simply had to do this, what would you do? And what would you do TODAY?

#42 - Home Made

For years, I would have said I was not creative. Although I wrote and created workshops and lessons, I would freeze when presented with an artistic, hands-on project. I suspect many of us have these 'scripts' from negative experiences of art lessons at school, or just from the general fact that there is so little room for creativity built in to school curricula.

Recently, I've been realising how very creative I actually am, thanks to our wedding preparations. We really wanted a 'home-made' feel to the day with that sense of community and creativity. One of these projects is making hearts out of clay and painting them, to create decorations for our marquee. We've been lucky enough to get sample paint pots from an inspirational paint company called Auro which produce natural, environmentally-sustainable paints. Instead of the normal toxic odour of paints, this paint smells of lemons and is just a complete pleasure to use (see http://www.auro.co.uk/).

When I see those clay hearts now, I feel that WE are in them, because of the creativity we invested in them. They carry within them memories of the time spent, the conversations my partner and I had, the feel of the balmy summer evenings when we sat in the garden making them. After the wedding, we'll be using these hearts to decorate our home and they'll then carry with them all the embodied energy from that magical day. Home: made.

I feel sad for all of us who have been living through this Age of Cheap Oil because it has distanced us from this joy of creativity. We doubt the viability of making things ourselves, believing it to be easier to import anonymous mass-produced goods. However, as we continue to see the price of oil rising, we'll see more and more of this 'powering down' and 'skilling up' which people talk about. We'll start shifting to seeing ourselves as vitally useful, productive human beings who can make things. We'll feel that WE are in our surroundings, that our own stories infuse the objects around us, and rather than just seeing the product, we'll remember the process.

Inquiry: How could I inject some creativity into this aspect of my life?

Action: Make something this week with your very own hands. Bake an apple pie, make a card for a friend's birthday, create a collage, sew a little purse, turn a glass jar into a lantern, or make strawberry jam. I find this especially fulfilling when using materials that would otherwise have ended up in the bin! If you feel you don't know where to start, ask someone to show you. Or find a website which talks you through a creative process. Notice the 'scripts' which you run about you 'not being creative' and let this next creative act be the start of a new script.