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In a society whose sense of place has gone wildly astray, our world craves a juicy new dream and those willing to dream it.

While life’s busy pull and your full plate won’t change, KNOW thru each ounce of your being that the universe WILL organize itself around and sustain u, when u seek to uncover and create wholeness.

And while momentary glimpses of bliss are grand, to deepen our foundation, we must pattern it into our lives. Why not hold a regular space for these thoughts, sensations and intuits to soak in and mature?

In your body is the breath of Gandhi, the blood of dinosaurs and the tears of children fallen to sweatshop floors. We are always and forever connected to all life, all wisdom, all hurt and all strength.

Holding Space

by Trathen Heckman

It is good to begin and end each day w/ something that makes u feel whole. That still, rooted-in-life awareness of being, inseparable, indivisible and undividably tied to it all. The more we open to this; we hold the space to better our piece of things while seeding a new dream for the rest of our planetary compadres. In a society whose sense of place has gone wildly astray, our world craves a juicy new dream and those willing to dream it.

This is vital to know when shoulder-deep in the surging stream that is our culture’s relentless pursuit of haplessness. But rather than delve into the rhetoric just yet, I would like to say….the clean, precise and carefully placed words filling this page are PURELY about holding space. By this, I mean all the circumstances we create which allow magic, wisdom and hope to enter our lives, when we choose to shine bright. It’s all the situations, classes and meditatively pristine moments which feed and keep us going. It’s that spark of connectedness we find and sometimes provide, like a drive-by wink of delight. It’s drawing folks into a dinner-time thanks that oozes an infectious gratitude for the food, luv and roof over head. It’s all this and a bazillion yet to be born ways of creating conditions conducive to life in each moment.

So let’s begin w/ a breath. First, get a sense of all your skin. Now breathe deep, opening each pore to allow the far reaches of creation to flow in. As u softly and consciously exhale, consider the potency and spirit filling each lungful. What if u more often held this sense? Thru thousands of aware breaths, this connection grows in ways bigger than words. Yep, the magic and wisdom of life, all right here.

Of course, even when we seem to see the path, society’s surge is sure to throw us off track. And that’s far from the daunting notion of actually re-dreaming how we live. While life’s busy pull and your full plate won’t change, KNOW thru each ounce of your being that the universe WILL organize itself around and sustain u, when u seek to uncover and create wholeness. Wholeness—the rooted-in-life connection expressed in a familial sense of stewardship which drives our every thought and act.

Indeed, it’s a lot to ask and because a flurry of facts won’t provide the needed spark, nibble on a few of these crafty treats. One sure way to stay ablaze, live richer and rock greater change is to seek out and stage countless reminders throughout the day which pull us back to the relations we are cultivating. Falling leaves, shadows, rain, roadside markers, meals and tea, the list is limitless. And while momentary glimpses of bliss are grand, to deepen our foundation, we must pattern it into our lives. Why not hold a regular space for these thoughts, sensations and intuits to soak in and mature? When we stir this sense and connection, it grows easier to manifest in our other aspects. Of course, busyness has squeezed this out at times, til I realized that writing, gardening, activism, family care and general wonder all flow better when I make the space to root into each new day. It’s beginning anew with tai chi tea incantations that marries me to the morning, season and all the rest.

Along side this wholeness, I hold a kernel of hurt in my heart. Not enuff to derail me, just enough to keep my luv and resolve strong, steady and ever stretching. When acknowledging the richness of acting with determined, tender intent, choosing to live more simply while remedying our earthly hurt isn’t a painful path of lack or the burden of an arduous task. They are freeing, affirming and bottomless gifts, which bring us into REALation with all things. Of course we are never not in relation with all things; we just forget or fall behind the illusory veil of separateness. But remember this; in your body is the breath of Gandhi, the blood of dinosaurs and the tears of children fallen to sweatshop floors. We are always and forever connected to all life, all wisdom, all hurt and all strength. By owning this, we open the space for our true richness and power to flourish thru all we do.

That we write, talk and teach what we most need to learn is my firm belief. After years of taking in the hurt our actions create, I desperately needed to more fully discover the powerful richness that lies dormant in each of our unconscious actions. Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world.” The place we stand and the lever we wield, which moves this world is each decision made, as our coffee, clothes and 401k reach into factories, forests and homes across the planet. With each mindful page we write and each whole act we incite, daily acts seek to be a lightning rod, set to channel and distribute the positive power of how we can ripple thru life. So read up, find and recite yer piece of the anthem, and feel the magic happen.

By verbalizing our commitment, hopes and dreams to others, we hold the space for these visions and those we share em with to become ever more present. What is your path? Your dream? How does this moment line up with the life u wish to lead? How will it better the world while growing u stronger and more whole? Now pour out into the day, a big puddle of thanks and SPEAK IT.

These pages provide the container for me to engrain a daily vow to life. It comes first in flashes of inspiration, sporadic practices of tea incantations, towel chi gung and the rest, then, when I take a deep breath and the pledge is made, putting words to page, it opens the space to become daily. This creates the situations which challenge us to take these truths up a notch, be it sharing the deeper connection possible w/ daily experiences or engaging a crowd to consider how each mindless act adds to the sea of madness we too often take for granted. Making this commitment is a precious gift to ourselves and life as well, the selfish altruism of stepping to a truer sense of who we are.

We ain’t takin some crazed vaccination or reality t.v. vacation. Nope, a double dose of hope is what these actions is based in. Like the redwoods out my window that suck rain from the fog, when open to it, we can glean unbound goodness from evvvvery daaaaamn thing. And while there is a certain amount of reality to which we must abide; we take these limits far too literally. Do u really think the majesty of life will flood in thru your pores if u don’t believe it possible? As for me, I can feel an unbridled knowing in each of my cells, as they rearrange themselves to draw in the specs of how to juggle personal, family and planetary richness.

While I’ve refrained from inflammatory factoids for the moment, the heat will continue to rise as we bring forth no less than the death of an age. In reclaiming personal and planetary sanity, our unfathomably fortunate lives will need to know sacrifice. But ditch the negative associations of ‘LESS’. Why not grow strong enuff to surrender the burden of separation weighing u down? Thru each breath, transform the beliefs defining what u seek to achieve.  

Commit yourself more fully and feel the gift of enlisting your physical, spiritual and financial resources as u assess and set your standards high for the acts that add up to the sum total of this life. I mean, it’s all our choice right? To each day, dream up how we wish to live. THIS, we must ever affirm to ourselves, each other, the wind, and any who will listen.

Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world.

(Trathen Heckman is the publisher of ripples, a quarterly journal devoted to bringing greater sustainability to our acts as we ripple through the day. Check out the web site at www.daily-acts.org. For subscription info, contact Trathen at trathen@daily-acts.org. For Trathen TV, click here!)

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