Posts Tagged: Inner work

Two Block Diet as another way to Make Light Work

A couple of years ago, a new neighbour and I got talking at a block party. We both loved growing food, but I didn’t have much land, and she had her hands full with a new baby.  In the magical way that conversations can open up possibilities, Julia and I wondered if others in our neighbourhood might be in the same boat: wanting to grow more food but needing something to get going.

I pay attention when a conversation sparkles. I figure its an outer expression of inner alignment: something with my name on it; something I should be paying attention to.

So in joyous collaboration with my new friend, we nurtured the seed of the Two Block Diet — a group of neighbours from the block where Julia lives, and the block immediately to the North where I live.  (You can read how we did it here.)

The inner orientation has been pure “make light work”: Everything we need is already here, and many hands make work fun, effective, and wonderfully fulfilling — just like the barn-raisings and quilting bees of old.

Change doesn’t have to be huge or grandiose to be effective.  Ours is more organic and garden like: planting seeds that take root and spread. And spreading it is, thanks especially to a great front page story in today’s Vancouver Sun.

(As a side note, the Vancouver Sun article came about thanks to a referral from a Village Vancouver member.  Connecting different circles in our communities is another powerful way to “make light work”.)

Freedom through a book launch

Somewhere in the flurry of preparation, I got that the book launch was a rite of passage. Writing Make Light Work had called me to rewrite myself. Launching MLW was calling me to change what had been “the story of my life.”

The easy part was organizing the venue, refreshments, invitations… Lots of work, but straightforward compared to figuring out what I would say.  As the day approached, the pressure mounted — and with it my agitation.  Many times I sat to brainstorm and mind map, only to skid off to one last-minute detail or another.

I was swamped with ideas that weren’t quite it.  I felt awful — churning, lost, with no clarity — and part of me wanted to cancel everything.

Thanks to the mounting pressure (and inner work) I broke through: What I needed to say was WOW! and Thank you! Wow to have written and produced my first book, and thank you for all the people and support that had made this possible.

Simple to recount here, and a miracle to have experienced: it was a breakthrough because of what I wasn’t saying.  Gone were stories that had defined me for decades, especially the story that it wasn’t safe to be me.

My first response was tears — waves and waves of tears. Then came glorious freedom.  I WAS launched.  It was two days before the event, but I’d completed the “vigil” and was ready for the ritual.

WOW and Thanks! I’m so grateful for the pressure cooker of the launch-cum-rite of passage.  Without its reframing potency, I wouldn’t be this free.

P.S. The launch was WONDERFUL. Lots of people (75+), great people, and the positive energy in the room was palpable.

Maureen leads a blessing

Signing books

Moving a finger tip

I find it harder to get up these mornings, as the Earth is later to turn towards the sun. My body is heavy, as though bound tight to another world.

When I was in my 20s, a yoga teacher used to call us out of the final relaxation by saying, “Move one finger tip.” I wouldn’t want to come back, but I felt OK about her suggestion.  I liked how she said “finger tip”. It was even smaller than a finger. And it was enough to break the spell: It made getting up relatively easy.

These days I’m doing the same thing to help me get out of bed — I move one fingertip.  And I’m also adapting the “tip” to tackle new tasks. Just make the smallest move. Just open the channel, so that Life has a foot hold and can make the next step easier.

Take today — I’ve moved a finger tip to start writing Make Light Work in Groups!!  (If you have inner work tools that work for you in groups, or know of great tools used by others, please let me know.)

Possibility

“There is more possibility than most of us are able to fully let in.”  Evan Renaerts

Do you agree?

I notice that I am often busy with smaller things.  Rather than being open to possibility and available for what a friend calls “spontaneous combustion” **, I am consumed by the status quo and its relatively comforting details.

I find this pattern is particularly strong when I face situations that are new or challenging. I don’t know what to do in a big picture sense, so I bury myself in something, anything, that is sort of related to the challenge, just to relieve the anxiety of not knowing what to do.

It’s the old: When in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. I play it out in my own life, and I see it in organizations and in society as a whole.

That’s why I recently put the above quote in a place where I see it every day. It inspires me to set the intention to be open, present to possibilities, and in flow. It’s helping me be bolder, and to pay more attention to interruptions as messages that it’s time to do something different.

What intentions do you set each day?

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** Spontaneous combustion is when things connect and take off in dynamic, generative and inspiring ways.  A classic example is a conversation that connects dots and opens possibilities in a way that blows a person or situation to a next and higher level. It often involves reframing and breakthrough. I believe inner work makes spontaneous combustion available to us 24/7.