What do we do now?
In the midst of this gorgeous ruckus, I have been quiet. Listening for how to respond instead of react. I’ve been feeling myself wanting to find and then offer some crystalline drop of wisdom, and I’ve been coming up short. I’m humbled by the truth of not knowing. I’m in awe of the power of the pause, and yet it is difficult to withstand the desire to know in the face of such profound uncertainty. The futurist Jamais Cascio has developed a term for what I call the gorgeous ruckus. He calls what we are all currently experiencing, BANI. Brittle, Anxiety producing, Non-linear and Incomprehensible. This term, born out of his desire to capture how it feels to be experiencing this chaotic world, is helpful though sobering. Click here to hear him describe it in this video. (It’s a little long but worth the watch!) In such chaos the mind twirls, the heart closes, and intention that inspires active hope and creativity loses touch with its North Star. How can we all find our most resourceful responses to a BANI world?
I am alongside entrepreneurs and leaders as they navigate the shattering of norms and structures that is occurring in our world. As Jamais Cascio points out, we are trying to find options when there are no “good” options, no clear path forward. Collectively, we’ve been given everything we need on this beautiful planet — The task is to learn to thrive and to love each other well. We humans continue to struggle with doing the right thing, even when we know what that is and have the technology to accomplish it. My sense is we are not going find a way forward; we need to forge it. I believe we must all attend to the future and become good ancestors.
One thing is certain— even how we approach change has to change! I tend to look for underlying essentials to find leverage points. Fundamental patterns and archetypes inform my methodology, along with many business and change models. So, over the next few weeks I’m going to suggest that we visit the Elements of Nature — Water, Air, Earth and Fire — to find our most resourceful responses.
Starting with Water.
Our bodies are comprised of about 70% water. Water gives us access to our receptivity, fluidity and to our emotional intelligence. Water moves and fills. It nourishes and destroys. Water rushes, flows, rains down and goes calm. It freezes and melts. Water forms into waves and it holds surface tension in the form of drops. Water crashes and drips. It mists.
Water reminds us that whatever is moving through us in this moment will change.
Being near water gives our spirit moisture and our actions fluidity. Water brings empathy to our thoughts. Water carries delight as well as grief.
Practices to connect with the element of water:
Walk alongside water. A river, lake, marsh or the sea. Pay close attention to how being alongside this element connects you with your senses and your emotions.
Be in water. Take a swim, a bath or a shower. Feel how the water soothes, cleanses, energizes you. Perhaps a new idea coalesces during this immersion?
Water your plants mindfully. Drink water and invite yourself to really taste it. Pour water from one container to another. Paint with water colors . . .
Move with or against the flow. Go for a stream walk if you can. One of my favorite pastimes is walking in the very center of a stream. Moving upstream against the rushing water and staying right in the center of its intensity, and then turning downstream and tuning into the very different quality of moving with the flow. Stream walking connects me with something essential, something core. It is like experiencing my essence without any words. Give it a try.
Water is a necessary component to developing resilience — to developing the capacity to respond to the structural shattering we are all experiencing by coming back stronger. Water is transformative: continually evaporating and then returning in new forms.
Water offers us our intuitive, empathetic, emotional intelligence. It connects us to our essential selves, our grief, and to a renegade delight!
I hope this lands in a helpful way.
Next week, I’ll add the element of Air to the mix.
Warmly yours, Lyedie
And here is a poem that is wildly apropos by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
This moment I want to remember . . .
when my friend filled the giant
white stone resin tub with great mounds
of frothy eucalyptus lemon
scented bubbles and water as hot
as she could stand and I walked in
to find her laughing, laughing!
head thrown back and eyes alive
with her great luck to find herself
here “in a millionaire’s bathtub,”
her giddy giggles ricocheting
around the tiled room, radiating
gladness and naked joy, and though
only her head was visible above the bubbles,
I saw her, really saw her as herself,
the uncurated version—that glorious
creature we so seldom chance to glimpse
in each other. As I walked away, her voice
followed me up the stairs, full-throated
and citrus bright as she sang out
her bliss, the words indecipherable,
the tune a tune I’d never heard before
but somehow knew by heart.