So . . . How do we do this? How do we keep up the good work?

So . . . How do we do this? How do we keep up the good work?

Out in the middle of South Pond last week, I was paddling with my dear friend, Helaine, and I found myself saying, I know I’m not alone in this — I just find I need to say it out loud; I’m feeling the uncertainty of these times and the warming of the planet in my very being so deeply . . . It is taking effort to keep my heart open and my energy up and resourceful. Helaine listened and concurred. Helaine is a good listener.

The pair of Loons that I’ve been communing with in the last few months were swimming nearby, and just then the one chick they have been fiercely protecting all summer dove below the surface of the water. I’ve been observing this little one — first riding on her parents’ back with her two siblings, then swimming alongside them solo, and now we saw that she had just learned to dive into the deep!

Often these days my heart feels as if it is dropping out of my chest (Do you know what I mean?) and then something I love, something pin feathered and brave, brings support back up under my breast bone once again. The practices in the Daily Activists’ Log are some of what helps me to keep showing up enough to be out there communing with the loons, while staying engaged with what the world seems to need from me now.

I’m also hearing words from people like Toni Morrison, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, and Martin Shaw that call me into my staying power.

If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then you need to empower somebody else. Toni Morrison

* * *

My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times . . . Clarissa Pinkola Estes

* * *

The nightworld is where we are. I say it. I say it till we may hear it.
And in that darkness, we remember what we love the most.
That itself is the candle. Martin Shaw

So on behalf finding the candle by remembering what we love the most, the Daily Activist’s Log, which I first published in 2016, is my mid-summer offering. May it support you to make your contribution and to keeping up your resolve in these tumultuous times. Love, after all, is a verb.

Click here to access the original post and to download the Daily Activists’ Log.

Warmly, Lyedie

Final note: Remember to keep making breakfast, making love, and making some trouble on behalf of beauty truth and goodness . . .

Getting behind the younger generation this week

Lyedie here, From my blue chair.

Are you getting behind the younger generation this week?

They are speaking up. They are rising up. They are transforming their grief into activism. They need and deserve our steadfast support.

I thought I was going to take the Daily Activist’s Log down today, but I can’t bring myself to do it. The timing is all wrong. Strengthening our activism is more important than ever and the voices of students in Parkland, Florida have sparked my activism this week.

Reading the news, my resolve has kindled up once again — inflamed by the oxygen in the voices of:

• Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky and Sam Zeif demanding the right to be safe in school.

• Chase’s teacher who is carefully tracking who is falling through the cracks in her class’s social life and then working to break the code of disconnection early and often.

• Heather Sher boldly describing the damage an AR -15 does to the human body.

• Arthur Brooks naming contempt as a problem in American politics.

• Michael Ian Black identifying the emotional suffering of boys in our culture.

In the last 10 days each of these people took up a role in repairing and strengthening the cloth of our democracy, the democracy that we grew lazy about protecting.

Whose voices kindled your resolve this week? What is your thread in the cloth of being a citizen in our democracy? However small or grand your thread might be, make it stronger, more effective, more beautiful.

My thread is delicate and strong and expresses itself in this blog and in the way I get behind my clients in my coaching work every day. This spring I will put the Fulfillment Journal up alongside the Daily Activists Log. My guiding star for this week is activism on behalf of fulfillment.

Please keep strengthening the muscle of your activism. And always remember to make breakfast. Make love. Make some trouble on behalf of beauty, truth, and goodness.

Thank you for everything you do to keep putting power in the hands of love.

Blessings, Lyedie

Why I've been quiet about MeToo and Time's Up

Truth is, I've been quiet about the MeToo and Time’s Up movements only because they strike so deeply into the heart of my life's path.

For many years now I have been traveling from survivor to thriver — My Guiding Star has been to be strong so that I can be soft. I would even whisper those words to myself on occasion, ‘I have to be strong so that I can be soft’ as I endeavored to be brave on behalf of tenderness. What is your Guiding Star?  I hope that you have one . . .

Last winter, I published the Daily Activist’s Log as a way to contribute to the activism that was stirring in all of us. It is a “morning page” created to strengthen our individual and collective resolve. After all, great rivers are made up of tiny drops of water as they make their way to the ocean. And with that in mind, I had the idea that if many of us start our day this way, we will make progress for ourselves and for humanity. It continues to surprise me, and strengthens my heart, to know that thousands of women (and men) downloaded the Daily Activist’s Log from my website and now begin their day with this powerful pause. Many of you are among them. Thank you.

These days I’m turning my attention towards thriving. And so, in honor of the activism that has risen up in all of us, I'm offering up the Daily Activist's Log for just one more week. I'll be archiving it on February 22 to make room for a new morning page I’m calling the Fulfillment Journal.

Please keep strengthening the muscle of your activism.

And always remember to make breakfast. Make love. Make some trouble on behalf of beauty, truth, and goodness.

Thank you for everything you do to keep putting power in the hands of love.

Blessings, Lyedie

To whomever deserves credit for the photo in this blog . . . This image enchanted me and I have no idea where I got it from, so if you are the artist, please contact me so I can give you credit. Thanks!

Finding the Star at the Center of the Apple - In Support of Science and Facts

Good morning,

My longing for the truth often finds fulfillment in the territory where art is incontrovertible, and where astronomy delivers an astonishing explanation for vast connectivity. As a student of the great mystery, I often cut my apples the "wrong way" just so that I can see the star that is revealed there in the core. Science and facts are most compelling and necessary — It is just so hard to believe that we have reached a point where we have to march in support of them! So, here are two offerings in solidarity with all those who are marching for science today.

1. As I sit writing here in my blue chair, the poet Jane Hirshfield is reading from the stage at the March for Science in Washington DC. Her poem is about Day 5 of Donald Trump's presidency and it is called On the Fifth Day. (Her most recent collection is entitled The Beauty)

On the fifth day
the scientists who studied the rivers
were forbidden to speak
or to study the rivers.

The scientists who studied the air
were told not to speak of the air,
and the ones who worked for the farmers
were silenced,
and the ones who worked for the bees.

Someone, from deep in the Badlands,
began posting facts.

The facts were told not to speak
and were taken away.
The facts, surprised to be taken, were silent.

Now it was only the rivers
that spoke of the rivers,
and only the wind that spoke of its bees,
while the unpausing factual buds of the fruit trees
continued to move toward their fruit.

The silence spoke loudly of silence,
and the rivers kept speaking,
of rivers, of boulders and air.

Bound to gravity, earless and tongueless,
the untested rivers kept speaking.

Bus drivers, shelf stockers,
code writers, machinists, accountants,
lab techs, cellists kept speaking.

They spoke, the fifth day,
of silence.

2. Click here to be inspired by Neil DeGrasse Tyson delivering an astonishing explanation for the vast connectivity we experience when we gaze heavenward.  (The Most Astounding Fact from Neil DeGrasse Tyson)

Daily Activism - More on that Morning Page

Good morning,
Lyedie here again from my blue chair.
I just want to thank you all for your enthusiasm about the Daily Activist's Log!  The response has been far beyond what I expected.  Many have shared my original post and 1000s of activists have downloaded the morning page. If you are among those who are taking 10 minutes in the morning to reflect and align your energy and attention with this page, it may be heartening to know that you are not alone in this potent pause. If you are curious and you missed it click here.

In the last few weeks, someone pulls me aside almost daily to tell me about it how it has strengthened their resolve and given their day a lift and a focus. Many have expressed curiosity about the design of the page itself. Questions about the The Wisdom Council abound. Next week I plan to address some of those questions. For now, I'm sharing a copy of my morning page from January 25th (the day that I first created it) as an example, to give you a sense of how I responded to the prompts on that first morning. (See below)

Your enthusiasm has helped me transform the concern that was keeping me up nights into a rumbling optimism. This project has given me an intimate glimpse into the power that is coalescing in each of us as we set out on this marathon of a renewed citizenship.

Make breakfast. Make love. Make some trouble on behalf of beauty, truth, and goodness.
Thank you for everything you do to keep putting power in the hands of love.

Onward we go!  Lyedie

Please go ahead and do share this post. And by the way, The Daily Activist's Log is available free of charge, Click here to download. 

My morning page on January 25th 2017

Daily Activism - How do you start your day?

How do you start your day? My day generally begins with a cup of coffee in my blue chair, and 10 minutes spent reflecting and planning with a morning page. In the last few weeks, my sense of being a citizen (a citizen of our nation and the world) has deepened and expanded. So much so that it caused me to update my morning page. I've started calling it my Daily Activist's Log, and for the next few weeks, I'm making it widely available here.

Perhaps you share in this expanding sense of citizenship? If so, you might want to give 10 minutes of your morning to trying this out, especially if these sorts of things are coming up for you:
- the need to keep up your good work in the uncertainty of our times
- the desire to expand your sphere of influence — and make it felt
- a longing to put power in the hands of skillful love
- an awareness that this is not just a sprint, it is a marathon
Click here if you'd like to download the morning page.

As Jean Houston recently pointed out to me, uncertainty seems to have reached truly mythic proportions. We are cracking away from the expected, into times that require an upgrade of the pioneering spirit. "To succeed we can no longer go it alone, but must partner with one another to share innovative and creative ways in which to rethink and restructure our individual existence within the context of our expanding global communities." We are not going to succeed with just the usual activist tactics. I see a need to call in the feminine and upgrade our activism. Some are calling it the Politics of Love.  What ever words you are using, there is a need to marshal all the love, wisdom and energy that we can. Pacing and elegant use of energy is called for in this marathon

Keeping fit for the long haul starts with each one of us, every morning, when we set the trajectory for our day. One of the secrets to creatively living through tumultuous times is to develop the art of the potent pause. There are a number of ways to pause mindfully; meditation, martial arts, even walking being among them. One way to develop the art of pausing potently is to maintain the practice of starting the day with well orchestrated time to reflect, and to align your attention and energy. 10 minutes can wield a truly alchemical shift in your day, when it is well orchestrated.

If you are in for the duration, spend 10 morning minutes with My Daily Activist's Log for a few days or a week. Then please let me know how well this potent pause rocks you into your day. It is a work in progress, so I welcome your response. My hope is that your success with it contributes to our collective rise to the great task before us. Feel free to tinker with it and make it yours. If you find you want help with implementing it, click here to learn more about my work or just contact me directly.

I know, I do get lofty when I'm in my blue chair. Then I put away the dishes and I rock into my day. I feel very lucky to be able to carve out 10 minutes of quiet in the morning, and one thing that really motivates me is my longing for all beings on the planet to someday to be able to enjoy this same privilege.

Please go ahead and share this post.

Onward we go!