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Changing world workshop: Earth, meet self
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Change can be interesting. It nearly always brings up what lies deep within us, sometimes hidden: fears, passions, perhaps either a draw toward or aversion to the unknown. Change is deeply catalyzing. It jolts us into awareness of things in a new way. Once there, we get to decide how we will work with this new awareness.
A lot has changed in our world in the past several months. No matter what vantage point one may view it from: economic, political, employment, family or personal dynamics, environment…the indications are clear. Earth is not what it used to be.
What does this mean for you as an individual? Maybe you just lost your job and you’re angry at “the world”. Maybe you are a staunch environmentalist and are alarmed by the changing polar ice conditions. Perhaps you have a family, do your best in a line of work that you don’t love but tolerate, and wonder if recycling and choosing paper bags will ever be enough. No matter who one is or what story one is living out, there is little room to avoid the increasing indications that person and planet are part of the same interconnected system.
As 2009 has arrived with a sense of both change and possibility like few other years in collective memory, we as individuals have unprecedented opportunity to become clear about how we will engage with this new scenario. We have an opportunity to build something new in this new time and set of circumstances. Perhaps it might do us all well to carefully consider what we will build, and to develop a personal space for its creation: a Changing World Workshop.
What are some of the elements of a good workshop? Open space, tools, decent lighting, a workbench, a door, to name a few. Let’s look at how some of these might be part of your experience right now.
Open space: is there time and opportunity in your life right now to explore what you want to build? Say volunteering in your community is a way you’d like to respond to global economic challenges. Do you currently have time to do that?
Tools: what skills do you need to build what you want to build? Perhaps you’d like to install solar panels in your home, or cultivate a mindfulness practice to balance your inner state during a time of job change. What tools do you need to accomplish these things?
Decent Lighting: what is your inspiration? What brings you joy and hope? Is there enough of that in your life right now?
Workbench: a place to put down and stabilize your work, turn it around to look at it from different angles, do some fine tuning. What is your workbench? Is it your family, your close friends, spiritual, faith-based or meaning-based community?
Door: a way to boundary your process of creation: perhaps time for yourself only, perhaps reflective time in nature, maybe limiting exposure to the headlines of the day. How do you boundary off some space for renewal: “close the door”?
Take a look at your changing world workshop: does anything need to be set up, updated, moved, done away with? It is a history-making year, with new changes occurring daily.
What will you build?
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