You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul out. — Martha Graham

Matters of the soul have been the focus of my writing here  since I first began blogging nearly four years ago. Many of my articles are cross-posted over at the Huffington Post, where I’m a featured contributor on the Mindful Living page.

What a delight to learn that HuffPost has just launched an entire section devoted to matters of the soul!  And rightfully so, for one might say that we are now living in those “interesting times” of which the ancient Chinese proverb speaks. And in these interesting times, we often find ourselves rudderless and in need of some kind of guidance system.

I find this idea of using technology to help us get and stay connected with the soul and learn how to nurture it in our daily lives an interesting concept, for I’ve always thought of the soul itself as our internal GPS. This concept expands the envelope of how we humans can relate to the soul, but something in me is not quite ready to jump on the technology bandwagon when it comes to addressing the needs of the soul.

I may be slow in coming to this party, but not because I automatically reject new ideas. Quite the contrary! I’ve always been an early adapter/adopter, at least for my generation. However, when it comes to technology and matters of the soul, for me, the jury is still out. What I do delight in, however, is the importance being placed on the place of soul in our lives and cultivating one’s ability to be informed by the soul’s calling.

The idea that the soul expresses our true nature is not entirely accurate. It would be more accurate to say that the soul serves as a conduit to our true nature and thus, when we attend to its needs, we will be brought into alignment with its agenda. And the soul’s agenda is always about evolving in the direction of our highest possibilities. In this way, the soul is the guidance system that is always seeking alignment with its own true North.

But often times, perhaps even most often, the soul will take the deepest path to get to its destination. The soul is about deepening, for in the depths is where we’ll gain access to the wisdom it seeks.

Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body.

The wisdom your soul seeks is the very reason for your existence. What if we are not bodies with souls but rather souls with bodies? Kind of gives it a different perspective. Consider that you have taken on a body as a vehicle for your soul’s journey. In this context, you are here to carry out your soul’s agenda, which is to realize your true nature and to live in alignment with it.

Wisdom is essential for the soul’s evolution and is rarely found at the surface of things. If that were true, we’d all be very wise souls and the world would be a much different place. If wisdom were easy to gain, we’d have already figured out how to solve the greatest problems facing mankind.

Wisdom might not be easy to gain, but the soul’s wisdom is always available to us. The thing is, we’re not always available to it. And this may be the very justification for using technology to nudge us in the right direction when we’ve gotten off track. I’m open to that possibility.

Crossing the Spiritual Desert

In my own experience, however, there is a purpose to be served by the very act of “being off track.” It’s not an accident. In truth, being off track is part of the awakening process. It’s the soul’s way of letting us know we’ve fallen asleep, made a wrong turn. It’s the soul’s course-correction process. There is wisdom to be gained in the desert of our journey. When we feel most lost and rudderless is when we finally can stop grasping for answers and solutions and become still. The soul finally gets our attention.

Granted, technology might be able to hasten the process so we end up spending less time in the desert. But there is something to be gained in that experience that a “quick fix” cannot heal. There in the desert, in the moments when you feel like you don’t know where to turn, in the times when you’ve lost your moorings and all the things you’ve relied on to keep you going no longer work, is when you’re required to deepen in order to discover what lies beneath all the old patterns.

For more about this aspect of the soul’s journey, please ready my earlier post, “Crossing The Spiritual Desert.” This post, written two years ago, still generates considerable personal email from readers, inquiring about their own process. It seems we all find our way to the desert at some point in our lives.

The soul thrives in the deep waters of solitude and stillness. It thrives in the darkness. It thrives in confusion and doubt. This is the very place where the soul can best emerge. Thomas Moore, who wroteThe Care of the Soul said:

“It is only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed”

Consider that the soul will even craft the flaws in order that it might emerge. It’s those “flaws” the ego considers mistakes. To the soul, cracks and flaws are just openings for new possibilities to enter and blossom forth.

So if technology can help guide us to the places where the soul can best be heard, sign me up. The trick is, however, when we’re most in need of a tap on the shoulder pointing us in a new direction, is usually the very time when we’re the least available to receive it. Ask me how I know.

In my own experience, when I’m out in the desert and on that lonely stretch of the soul’s journey where no life seems to exist, I don’t want to be contacted by anyone or anything. I need to give my soul a chance to grieve whatever is being lost, whatever I’m being called to release. And frankly, the last thing I want at times like this is an electronic device nudging me to move in another direction. The work is to trust and honor the call of the soul and follow its river wherever it leads. Can a gadget teach me to trust? I’m skeptical, but open to discover what lies down this path.

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Mother Theresa with Dr. S. Brahmochary (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“We get tested along the path, and we are asked, ‘Are you in this for the ride, or are you in this to go as deeply as you can into the path of service and into the expression of who you could be?’” — James O’Dea, Former Executive Director, Seva Foundation

In January, we began a series of articles exploring the principles of transformation and how to apply them in everyday life to facilitate the awakening of consciousness. You’ll find those earlier articles listed in my author’s archive here.

Today’s offering is a continuation of this discussion and centers around the principle of service as a path to the awakening and expansion of one’s individual and our collective consciousness, and thus, transformation of the human experience.

There are many ways to approach this conversation, for indeed we are immersed in the concept of service nearly every moment of our lives. But not all service is offered with the intention to cause transformation.

Today we live in a service economy , where fully 85 percent of non-farm workers in the U.S. are employed in the service sector, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. This likely includes you and your job. You are either providing a direct service to the end user, aka customers, or indirectly through business-to-business relationships. Either way, chances are good that on a daily basis, you engage in the delivery, the support or the acquisition of services.

What determines whether the kind of service in which you engage the greatest part of your waking life is transformative or simply a means to an end? Is it possible to be doing an everyday, routine kind of job and create a transformative experience, or does one have to become a Mother Theresa in order to be a true servant?

Recall the last time you ate in a restaurant. What do you remember about the person who took your order? What was their name? Did they engage you beyond the perfunctory greeting and ask for the order? Did you engage them beyond giving your order or asking questions about the menu? Did you learn anything about yourself or them through the exchange? Were they just a worker doing their job and were you just a customer being fed? What kind of human beings were you with one another in the exchange?

This is the kind of routine interaction we experience often, whether or not we’re eating in a restaurant. It could be a straight-forward experience in which goods and services are provided in exchange for money and that’s it. Or the experience could be a “moment in time” when the veil between strangers is lifted and something more occurs; a human connection takes place beyond the business at hand.

Take Anika, for example, who works at one of my favorite place: The Sunnyside Café in Berkeley, Calif. She is a master server, but more importantly she is a master servant. Anika is infinitely patient with her customers, namely me and the group of 6–8 people I usually go to brunch with on Sundays after church. But Anika’s warmth is not limited to us. That’s how she is with everyone: present, connected, patient, understanding, helpful and human. Anika goes out of her way to make sure her customers are being served in a way that leaves them not only full and fed but nurtured from the inside out.

What Anika serves is not listed on the menu but is greater than any dish that is. Consider that every interaction with every single person you encounter has seeded within it the possibility of connection at this level.

You know people like this, I’m sure. You’ve had experiences with someone who came to your home to provide a service and in the process you encountered a human being so special you would have paid them twice their fee. This is what I’m calling “transformative service” or Seva, which is a Sanskrit word meaning “selfless service.”

Consider what James O’Dea, former executive director of the Seva Foundation, has to say about the subject:

“Service is not a form of moral obligation. It’s more about feeling the potential of the universe, the latent energy within the universe that is waiting to be released and expressed through you and your own unique qualities. There is no single paradigm of service. How do we truly release ourselves into the field of action?”

How Can You Serve Humanity?

You don’t need to go to India or to a third world country to make a difference. An aspect of seva is “compassion in action” — to bring a conscious awareness of compassion to your every action. A good question to ask yourself in the midst of what you’re doing is:

Who’s Doing the Doing?

You know when you’re being served in a way that leaves you with more than you paid for, in a good way. But how do you know if you’re offering the same thing in return?

If you want to know if your actions result in a difference being made for others, a good question to ask is, “What is my motivation for doing what I do?” Who are you being in this very moment?

With the people at work, with your family, your friends, with the grocery store checker or the person in front of you in the line at ATM, who are you being?

Are you going through the motions, AWOL from the experience, disconnected, cut off, caught up in your private world of worries and concerns? Or are you focused out? Are you focused on the person right there next to you or in front of you?

How’s it going for them? What do they need and how can you serve them right now?

Intention is Everything

Compassion in action or selfless service doesn’t require heroics. You don’t have to save someone from a burning building or snatch them out of the way of a speeding truck in order to serve.

A true servant is one who has answered an inner call to show up and be present to what is right before them, and who asks the question, “What can I contribute?”

Sometimes, the best way to serve is not always to say “yes.” It takes a great deal of discernment to know when saying “no” will serve a higher good. Sometimes what’s being asked is to serve another’s addiction to unworthiness or fear, and a true servant will have the courage to decline, rather than enable another’s smallness.

But intention is everything. It’s from our intention to make a difference that we engage in actions that forward the whole of humanity. Imagine if every single person engaged in just one act of compassion every day, multiplied by 7 billion — what would we be creating?

We’re all serving something all the time. The question is: What are you serving?

You’re either serving a belief based on the ego’s distorted conversation about what is true, or you’re in service to a greater truth about who you are and the nature of the universe and your place in it. What will it be?

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Dear Rush,

As a feminist, I’ve tuned in to your show off and on since the early 1980’s when you first became a national talk show host. Periodically, I’ve listened to your show in order to know what’s going on at your network, the EIB (Excellence in Broadcasting) Network.

Interesting word, excellence. Webster defines it as ‘the quality of being outstanding or extremely good”. This label fits you to a T, for indeed, you are outstanding and extremely good all right. You are an outstanding example, indeed, you are the very essence of ten thousand years of misogynistic treatment of women.

When you speak against women, as you did with Sandra Fluke last week, you’re not only speaking with your own personal voice, you’re echoing all the collective male voices throughout human history that have used their power to denigrate, dominate and control women.

We get it Rush. We know you hate us. And maybe you feel justified. Perhaps you had a mother who abused or abandoned you and maybe you feel justified for feeling as you do about women who own their power and who don’t abdicate it to a man.

And no, this is not a mass indictment of all men by another femi-nazi, man-hating woman. I happen to love men, having been married to a couple of them and loved a few more.

I love men who know them selves to be more than their bank balances, more than their job titles, more than the number of sexual conquests or trophy wives they’ve had. I love men who see beyond the cultural definitions of who they’re supposed to be, especially as dictated by people like you.

I love men who in knowing themselves to be more than their net worth, more than their golf scores, or the number of cars or jet airplanes they own, can look in the mirror and see beyond appearances, see their inner beauty, listen to and trust their heart.

I love men who can be spacious enough to let their women shine, secure enough to let their women be as big and as beautiful as can be. I love men who are humble, and who inspire women to feel safe enough in their presence to open to their deepest, most vulnerable self.

I love men who aren’t afraid to be wrong, men who have the courage to say that they don’t always have the answers. I love men who have a regard for what’s sacred, what’s holy, what’s unnamable, what’s invisible. I love men who don’t take a woman’s love or anything else for granted. I love men who get that a woman in her power is the most beautiful creature on the planet. Oh, I love that kind of man!

So let’s be clear Rush, although I might be a liberal, elder, feminist, one you would undoubtedly call a femi-nazi, I’ve been close to enough men in my life to get who they are and I’m very happy there are two different genders on the planet.

What’s more Rush, I know you really don’t care what I think about men or what I think about you for that matter, and I understand your point of view. You, after all, are the famous one with millions of listeners on your EIB network and I write a blog read by a few hundred or maybe a few thousand people.

But for what it’s worth, Rush, just as like when you spoke and behind you were thousands of years of misogyny, I know that I am also speaking not just for myself. My voice echoes millions of women, probably more than the number of your listeners, throughout human history who now say, “enough”!

We have had enough. Women have had enough with the snarky sexual innuendoes. We’ve had enough of being de-valued and discounted because we have vaginas. We’re done with laughing away our discomfort for fear of being ridiculed or accused of being too weak, too angry or too sensitive.

We’re no longer willing to pretend we don’t feel angry when a man demonstrates his ignorance about women in the way you did last week. Not any more, Rush. I must thank you for going over the line the way you did, for while you have brushed up against the line of indecency many times over the decades, this time you finally crossed it.

And now, all bets are off. You have unleashed a giant. And we vote! And we buy things! And we know who the advertisers are who continue to support your show. And we know who has pulled their ads from your show. And we’re keeping track.

Did I mention that we buy things? We buy flowers and mattresses and software and computer back up and internet services and we do have a choice about who to give our business to. And Rush, you can count on that we, and I don’t mean just women, we women and the men who love us and who love women, the men who have mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, we will no longer support any company that advertises on your show.

For, Rush, we will not stand for what you stand for. We will not stand for women being treated, talked to, or talked about in the way that you talked about Sandra Fluke. And we will not stand for those who stand for you or the likes of you. We will not stand for you or anyone, disrespecting the ones who brought you here, the ones who raised you, bathed you, fed you, changed your diapers, and wiped your fevered brow.

Rush, it is time for you to go. What you stand for is over. You had a good ride. You rode to the top. You’ve been a king-maker. You’ve sat in the seat of power of one of our country’s main political parties. You’ve been the master puppeteer. So don’t be greedy now. Your time is up.

Humanity is moving on and we are moving in the opposite direction as you. I know it doesn’t look that obvious that we are parting ways, for you still appear to wield considerable power in the halls where power counts. But like a big ship changing course in the middle of the sea, this ship called humanity, is turning around. And you represent exactly what we are moving away from. We are headed down the path, on which men and women know they are just two sides of the same coin called humanity. We treasure ourselves and one another. We love and respect all life, humans, plants and animals. We respect our mother, the planet. We live in an abundant universe and know there is a place for everyone. Even you, Rush. We even have a place for you.

How would you like a part time job working at a women’s health clinic near your home there in Florida. Newt could probably get you a job working the night shift as a janitor or maybe you could even dispense contraceptives to those crazy college-aged women down there. You know, the ones who are having so much sex they can’t afford to pay for it? (You might want to do some homework on how contraceptives actually work, Rush.)

To your continued excellence,
Dr. Judith Rich

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This is a continuation of our series on Living Transformation, in which we are examining a series of principles essential for creating a new future for humanity. Previous posts in this series can be found here, here, and here.

We don’t have to look too far afield to know that we are witnessing the unraveling of the old order. It’s systems are crumbling, even as its so called “leaders” desperately attempt to keep it going. It’s like the proverbial “re-arrang­ing the deck chairs on the Titantic”. No matter how the chairs are arranged, the Titantic is sinking.

Humanity is already moving into a new paradigm, even as we are standing in the rubble of the old one’s demise. In this moment of time, when the chaos and disarray are still mounting and we cannot yet see the formation of what will follow, we can wring our hands and fall into fear, which is how the old domination model has maintained control throughout human history.

Or we can turn our eyes towards building a future that embodies the principles of “we’re all in this together, how can we best serve humanity and the planet?” instead of “how can I profit and benefit at all costs?”

Creating a future that works for everyone and not just the privileged few, will require a major shift in consciousness on the part of those who stand to benefit the most by maintaining the old order. It will require a shift in how we view the world and our place in it, how we view our relationship with the earth itself and whether or not we have a responsibility to serve the earth vs. pillaging its resources, including ourselves, into oblivion.

Do we really want to perpetuate the old paradigm espoused by some of today’s politicians who preach that we are not here to serve the earth, the earth is here to serve us? This is the epitome of the old paradigm, crafted in a time when the human population could be measured in thousands instead of billions. That kind of thinking long ago outlived its relevance and clearly will not serve humanity going forward.

In our awakening to the work that lies ahead for all of humanity, it is imperative that we get what is being required of us now. We can no longer “live by the sword” as of old. Our “sword”, in all of its iterations, from bombs to pepper spray, is being blunted and replaced with awareness.

Take note of what happened at the UC Davis campus in the wake of the pepper spray incidents there a few weeks ago. After brutal pepper spraying at the hands of campus police, students lined up in silent protest as the university’s Chancellor, Ms. Katehi, walked past them from her press conference, held to explain and defend her actions. She was forced to hear, in the silence, the true voice of the people. In meeting their eyes, she was forced to see that they were present and wide awake.

The sleeping giant is awakening.

Take note of what happened on the steps of the state capitol in Virginia this week, when thousands, mostly women, came in “silent” protest at the new legislation mandating sonograms and vaginal probes for women seeking abortions. They too, stood in silence as their state legislators filed past them on their way to take up discussion on HR-1, the bill in question. As a result of this demonstration by the people, state legislators chose to postpone their discussion. They may ultimately pass this legislation against the will of the people, but they cannot pretend they don’t know that the sleeping giant ultimately has a vote.

David and Goliath

These new “weapons” are being used in the confrontation between David and Goliath wherein David, aka the people, is putting Goliath on notice that we are awake, we are watching and we are listening. And we are aware. It is the very thing Goliath fears the most. For in our awakening, we can no longer be manipulated into fear and instead are claiming our voice and our responsibility to use it wisely for the benefit of all.

The sleeping giant, aka humanity, is coming out of its collective slumber and beginning the journey through its own birth canal. We are in the labor pains of delivering ourselves to an entirely new way of relating to ourselves, each other and the planet. In the process, each of us is being called to awaken our own sleeping giant within.

Having just crossed a major threshold in my own life, turning 70 last week, I am aware as never before, of the unlived life still awaiting my discovery. I know that I am here to be part of this grand unfolding wherein together, we human beings step up and into a higher expression of consciousness. In this new paradigm, the awakened giant becomes Cupid, using love as the only weapon necessary for the healing of humanity and a return to wholeness.

I welcome this transformative process along with its birth pains. It is our collective labor of love and we are all here to be midwives in the process. It’s time to scrub up and begin delivery. Our future is about to arrive.

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If 50 is the new 30, and 60 is the new 40, then is it too far fetched to assume that 70 is the new 50?

Instead of celebrating my 70th birthday which just passed, someone suggested that instead I call it “the 40th anniversary of my 30th birthday.” While it’s tempting to consider skirting the reality of the number of years I’ve spent on the planet, something is calling me to face it head on — no cute little euphemisms about “70 being the new 50,” etc. I think it’s time to call a spade a spade.

While today’s 70 year old is nothing like the 70 year olds of my parents’ generation, there is no mistaking the fact that by any measure, turning 70 marks the beginning of a whole new territory in life, one we used to call “old age.” Funny though, except for those rare occasions when I’ve completely overdone it on the physical plane, I rarely feel “old.”

But what is “old” exactly? And what does it mean to be 70 in a society that worships youthfulness and people strive to maintain it at all costs?

Does turning 70 mean that it’s time to give up on living? Does it mean losing interest in the things that have heretofore been the source of passion and aliveness? Does it mean that we’re swept into the corner, left to gather mold and dust until we finally fade away? What the heck is this aging business all about anyway?

I can only tell you this: From my own perspective here on the threshold of this new territory, like everything else in life, getting older is exactly what we tell ourselves it is, no more and no less. If we buy into the cultural stereotype of aging, then it probably means all of the above and we will march in lock step straight to the rocking chair of life and promptly fall fast asleep.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. I believe we can age gracefully, not fighting or denying the fact, take a turn in the rocking chair, put our feet up and take a little time out. At 70, one has earned regular time outs. But that doesn’t mean setting up camp there and falling asleep! The rocking chair is a well-deserved respite, but notice that for it to do what it was designed to do, it must be kept in motion. And so must we. “A rolling stone gathers no moss,” and all that sort of thing.

Staying in motion means more than just remaining physically active, although doing so is critical for us elders. Getting older also means learning to appreciate this stage of life as a new adventure. There is still much to be discovered! This time of life offers up a whole new possibility for learning and engaging in creative expression.

But only if we get our minds wrapped around it. One can do pretty much anything if we get our minds “right.” You and I know this to be true, and navigating old age is no different.

To be sure, there is a new curriculum awaiting us at this threshold. Based on my own experience and that of others I know who are at this stage of life, one can expect to be given plenty of opportunities to let go of what is no longer necessary for the journey ahead. That can end up looking like loss on many levels, and depending upon how we frame it, loss can either be freeing or be the source of suffering. Ask me how I know!

Think about how you define yourself today. Who are you? Someday, your answer to that question will begin to shift and you will find yourself in a somewhat nebulous place of uncertainty, after a lifetime of thinking you were one thing, only to discover that identity no longer fits. Someday, you will reach a point where you’re no longer your title or your job description. You might still be somebody’s wife or husband, mother or father, but in the final analysis, is that who you really are?

Are we defined by our relationships? By the people we love? By our good works? By our mistakes? By our misgivings, fears, or regrets? How does one’s identity morph over a lifetime? And how do we let go of what no longer fits and remain open, trusting, loving, engaged, connected, and passionate about life while waiting to discover who we are in this new moment?

It strikes me that I’m not only talking about the aging process. A friend recently shared her experience of moving back to the States after living abroad for over a year. She didn’t appreciate how much of a process it would be to make this transition. She thought she would just pick up where she left off, that family relationships would resume as before. What she didn’t anticipate was that life moves on and people change. Now she’s feeling challenged to cope with the gap between where her mind thought she would be now and where she actually is.

This is the human story, whether we’re young or old. Life keeps on moving and so must we. At age 70, I appreciate more than ever all the years I’ve put in at the gym keeping fit and strong, so that today, I can keep on moving, physically and in consciousness. I appreciate more than ever my lifelong devotion to learning, my sometimes “terminal” curiosity about people and what makes them come alive. I appreciate the little girl that still lives in me who always wants to know and see what’s beyond the bend in the road and committed to figuring out a way to get there.

I am deeply grateful that my younger self had the courage to wade into the deep waters of consciousness, even though it wasn’t easy or comfortable at times. She is the one who now keeps me awake, along with a community of kindred spirits like you, my friends and family, and those important teachers and mentors who’ve helped me stay on the path.

Growing up in the ‘40s and ‘50s my fantasies about life were inspired by Hollywood romance movies and “Father Knows Best.” My life doesn’t look like either, but frankly, I prefer reality, warts and all. Remember the warts from our last discussion? Well at 70, they take on new meaning. Just wait and see.

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This is the second part in our series on essential values for living a transformed life. My intention in writing this series is to engage in a conversation around the promise and the possibility of the time in which we live, this year of 2012, and whether or not this will be a time of awakening, when the entire paradigm of humanity shifts and we’re elevated to a higher state of consciousness.

A fundamental question we ought to be asking: What is required of us, as individuals and as the human race, if we are to awaken? What are the values and the behaviors that will best support such an awakening and a paradigm shift for the entire planet?

It’s important to understand the scope of what we’re talking about. Waking up is not just for a few people — the privileged ones, the educated ones or the lucky ones. This is about an awakening for all of humanity, with no one left behind.

The conditioned mind would argue this is impossible, it’ll never happen. The conditioned mind points to the whole of human history as evidence for why this will not and cannot ever happen. We don’t have to look very far beyond right now to find such evidence. We all know this. So obviously, the discussion we’re having is not based on what has always happened in the past and therefore, how the future is already limited and defined by what has gone before.

This conversation is about transformation, about the times in which we live. It is no accident that you and I are here, on the planet, at this appointed hour. It is no accident that we have created the means to be connected in real time, via the Internet, so that we are able to see and know what is happening all over the world at the moment it is unfolding. Our job now is to open our eyes and see what’s here, see who’s here, see beyond the veil of our conditioned minds that argue for limitations. If humanity is making the great leap together, we must be willing participants in the co-creation process, guided by the vision and possibility that the time is now to realize our full potential as a species.

As a species, we have evolved to arrive at this moment in time, equipped with the tools and awareness to fully grasp the significance of the opportunity that lies before us. We have the capacity to recognize our true nature as more and more of us have already begun to wake up. We are beginning to understand just who we are and how we are to move forward. Moving forward, separately, yet as one. We are beginning to understand that we are individual expressions of the one creative force, call it what you will. Call it what you believe it to be. Call it God, call it Love, call it Infinite Intelligence, call it Life, call it Nothing, call it No-Thing. This force doesn’t care what it’s called by us. It is infinite, eternal and unchanging.

Our job is to recognize this intelligence and creativity as the very essence of who we are and what we’re made of and learn how to use it for our highest good. But to learn how to use it only for our individual progress is not enough. We must, as the movie illustrated, be willing to pay it forward, and, I would add, backwards and sideways. We don’t cross the line until we all cross the line and that’s the difference between how it’s always been and how it will be in an expanded consciousness.

For we will come to know one another as ourselves. We will come to appreciate the different costumes we wear, languages we speak, food we eat, politics and ideologies we believe and we will know that behind it all is simply the One that is the All, and that we are one with it. In this awareness, we will come to know that there is nothing to fear, that our seeming differences only serve to make the stew of humanity richer and more interesting.

Science tells us that everything is energy; that we’re made of the same energy that constitutes the entire cosmos, or as Carl Sagan said, “we’re made of star stuff.” To put it in its simplest terms, the energy that is what we are is the same as the stars, the rocks and the trees, the ocean and the sky. There’s only one thing going on here, while at the same time it is being expressed in an infinite number of individualized ways, appearing to be separate, wearing different costumes, but fundamentally the same.

If this is true, and I believe that it is, then we are all connected. We see this expression of connectivity manifested in an infinite number of ways.

At age 86, my father was diagnosed with stomach cancer and given only a few weeks to a few months to live. He had always told us that when his time came, he wanted no heroic efforts made on his behalf to prolong his life. So he elected not to have surgery or radiation, but to be allowed to go home and die in peace.

Stomach cancer is a painful way to die and my dad’s condition was no exception. He was in a lot of pain and discomfort as he lay in his hospital bed, waiting for the nurse to bring some pain meds. We repeatedly rang for a nurse, but no one came. His breath was short and shallow and he was becoming very agitated. I couldn’t stand watching him writhe in pain, so I crawled into the bed and laid my head on his chest. I said to him, “Dad, let’s breathe together,” and I began taking long, slow, deep breaths. After a few minutes, his breath synched up with mine and he quieted down and became peaceful.

As I lifted my head up off his chest, he squeezed my hand, looked me in the eyes and softly murmured “thank you.” As odd as this may sound, these two words marked the very first time I ever felt truly seen by my father. He came home from the hospital the very next day and died a couple of weeks later.

On the night he passed away, I was back home, 3,000 miles away. At 2 a.m. I sat straight up in bed, having been awakened by an image of a shooting star. As I bolted upright, I absolutely knew without question that my father had died at that moment. About 20 minutes later, the phone rang. It was my mother calling to say that he had died about 20 minutes before. There is no logical explanation for this.

I believe that many people have stories similar to mine. We are innately connected to one another at levels far beyond what the rational, logical mind can explain. You have your own version, I’m sure. I’d love to hear yours.

Does humanity have a long way to go? I guess it all depends on your perspective. When you consider how much we have advanced in the past 100 years, even though we still have wars and injustice in the world, I believe we are witnessing the death of this old paradigm. We are in the waning days of the divide and conquer, dominate and control systems.

Can I prove this claim? Not empirically. But one only has to look at what happened in Tiananmen Square, what happened in Berlin with the fall of the Berlin Wall, what’s happening in the Middle East with the Arab Spring, and what’s happening all across America as people like you and I hold our own system accountable for being true to its founding principles. This is how it is unfolding, right here and right now, and it’s happening on our watch. Stay tuned.

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In my post last week, “2012: Ushering in the 100th Monkey,” I identified 10 values essential for aligning one’s consciousness with the principles of transformation. In that these values do not constitute an exhaustive list, I invited readers to include others and I’ve even thought of a few more of my own.

In the next few weeks, I’d like to examine each of these more closely so that as we navigate this year of 2012 we are orienting our consciousness and behavior in the direction of the paradigm shift that is the promise and the possibility of this time.

Keeping in mind an essential principle that governs human behavior — consciousness aligns with itself — there needs to be a critical mass, or a convergence of energy, thought and consciousness coalescing around a single idea or possibility in order for any kind of collective shift to occur.

Consider the Arab Spring or the Occupy movements that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Suddenly there were masses of people in the streets protesting, and their numbers mushroomed overnight. Suddenly an entire movement was born that swept the earth. In a heartbeat, it shaped and shifted the collective conversation about humanity’s response to the crises, economic and political, that had choked off the freedoms we consider essential for living.

How did this movement take birth so quickly? Well, love it or hate it, we live in the Information Age, where through the use of social media, ideas are spread around the world in an instant. And because consciousness aligns with itself, when a critical mass of consciousness is aligned in any direction — in this case, in the direction of going to the streets — behavior follows.

Based on this principle, the job now is to create a critical mass of consciousness aligned with the principles of awakening and transformation in order to achieve such a shift. I believe the stage is now set for this to happen, though it will not have happened overnight. The stage has been under construction for over four decades, at least at the conscious level, and for millennia prior to that.

The stage is set, the costumes are ready, the props are in place, the cast has assembled, the audience is seated, the lights are down, cell phones are silenced, the orchestra is ready. The curtain is about to rise. What unfolds from here is the drama that together, we are about to co-create.

And so we come to the first principle of transformation to support the process:

Accepting personal responsibility

So much has already been written about this subject. Yet I continue to be amazed at how many people still think that responsibility = blame. This is exactly the cultural definition of the concept that we want to transform.

One might even be tempted to wonder if maligning responsibility this way is not another tactic to make people think that being responsible is a bad thing and to be avoided at all costs, thus perpetuating the victim consciousness that keeps people powerless. Well, let’s blow up that idea right now.

A transformed definition of responsibility

Responsibility refers to a structure of interpretation by which I choose to stand 100 percent as the cause of what happens in my life — no exceptions — including my thoughts, feelings, actions, interpretations and resulting events.

Responsibility means authorship. It is to be aware of creating one’s self, one’s destiny, life predicaments and outcomes and, if such be the case, one’s own suffering.

Responsibility is not the truth, like a fact. It is a context from which one chooses to live. It starts with the willingness to come from a point of view that you are the cause of your own actions, no one can make you do anything. You are the cause of what you have and what you are.

But you might wonder: Whychoose to be 100 percent responsible? What’s the point? Why take on such a burden? Isn’t that heaping a lot of weight on one’s shoulders? Isn’t it a set up for failure?

In a transformed understanding of responsibility we learn that it is not burden, fault, praise, blame, credit, shame or guilt. In responsibility, there is no evaluation of good or bad, right or wrong. There is simply what happens and the willingness to hold yourself accountable for how you respond.

Accepting personal responsibility is to claim yourself as the uncontested author of your life. Even though much of what happens in life is beyond our ability to control, what we do have is the ability to choose how we’ll respond to what happens. So if you want to have a say about who you are and what your life is for, responsibility is a requirement. It is the foundational principle of transformation. Without it, all the rest are null and void.

Why choose to be 100 percent responsible? Because it is the key to accessing your personal power, freedom, creativity, aliveness and passion, for starters.

You can’t be kind of, or somewhat responsible. You either are or you’re not. No one else can make you be responsible, nor can you impose it on another. Responsibility is a gift you can only give to yourself, like a blessing.

All of us have had things happen to us in ways that had us feel, either for a moment or perhaps for a lifetime, that we were a victim in that circumstance. Life isn’t always fair. Victim events happen. Airplanes crash, earthquakes happen, people rob, steal, cheat and take advantage. No one gets through life without many moments of feeling like what just happened shouldn’t have happened. Feeling like what just happened wasn’t your fault, you didn’t deserve it, you weren’t to blame.

We all have stories and battle scars from the victim wars we’ve waged, and we’ve gathered a lot of evidence to be right about our stories. We enlist our friends in giving sympathy or extra attention because of what happened to us. We use our victim stories as excuses for (fill in the blank… not getting on with life, not taking risks, not being in a relationship, not trusting, not loving ourselves, etc.

At the factual level, all that may be true. But in between what happens to us and the stories we tell ourselves about it there is a tiny gap. Maybe it’s only a millisecond. In that gap lies the possibility that we can consciously choose our response. And in that choice lies all the power and freedom human beings could possibly want.

Just ask Nelson Mandela or Viktor Frankl, both of whom suffered years of imprisonment and physical and psychological abuse at the hands of cruel regimes. Frankl was in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII, Mandela imprisoned for 26 years during the apartheid regime of South Africa. Yet upon release, each spoke about how the power of choice helped them not only survive what had happened, but emerge from their experience, not angry and embittered or victimized, but empowered to make a difference by helping others to see within themselves the source of their own true power.

The responsibility to create a world that embodies the principles of transformation is ours. If we accept that responsibility as a gift and a blessing instead of a burden, we can be empowered to move freely in the direction of the promise of this time. It is choice we make for ourselves to live in this way, or not. The mantle is there to be picked up. The choice to do so or not lies within each of us.

The time of the 100th monkey is upon us, if we say so. I invite you to declare for yourself what this year is for you and for the world. For if the Great Awakening is to occur, it will be a team sport. And it begins with taking responsibility for inviting yourself to be on the team. Are you in?

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It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was a time for reaching out and a time for letting go. It was a time of beauty and a time of horror. It was a time of hope and a time of despair. It was a time of war and a time of peace.

It was a time when in the face of great change, on the surface, everything seemed the same. Jobs were still scarce and people were still losing their homes. Money was still the currency of politics, corporate executives and Wall St. bankers still were paid yearly salaries most people would work a lifetime for and never achieve. The rich had it beyond good and the poor had long ago fallen through the cracks.

And some who sought the highest office of the land would declare that government has no role in helping those who falter. They would proclaim that those who work hard and succeed have no duty or responsibility to extend a hand to those less equipped than they. He who has, deserves. He who has not, deserves not. Let those who fall be consumed by the forces of nature, like the animals in the jungle, they declared. And lest their carcasses litter the landscape, let them also figure out for themselves how to deal with sickness, old age and death.

It appeared there was no love in the land and fear seemed to rule the day. Fear breeds mistrust, and in their fear, the people turned on each other. They were no longer each other’s neighbors and fellow countrymen. They became each other’s enemies. Their hearts and minds were poisoned with lies masquerading as truths. No one knew who to trust or what to believe anymore. Thus, they were rendered easily controllable by those in power.

On the surface, it didn’t look good for them. It looked like the good guys were losing, yet again. That is, unless you’d developed an eye for looking between the cracks and reading between the lines. Unless you were attuned for seeing what is not obvious and hearing beyond words, you were likely to miss it. Yet there, growing ever so imperceptibly in the dark, a tiny ray of hope emerged. It was shy at first. Its tiny ray barely cast any light upon the earth.

But there were those who felt it before anyone saw it. Having stood vigil for millennia, in their hearts, they sheltered the spark that would ignite the flame that would illuminate the world again.

And then, when the world was at its darkest, one of them shook off her slumber, opened her eyes and declared herself awake. As she stood up, the darkness surrounding her was flooded with light and there was warmth and love in her midst. She turned to those around her and saw they were asleep. Gently, she tapped them on the shoulder and encouraged them to awaken. As the others awakened, they stood up and there was more light and love in their midst. They looked around and saw still more who were asleep and so it went. Those who’d been sleeping awakened and saw what there was to do.

In the end, after so long in darkness, it took but a moment for the light to return. It only takes one spark to ignite a forest fire, and in the end that’s how it went. Human hearts awakening, the fires of unity spreading in an instant, and the last human being awakened.

This brings us to the myth of the “Hundredth Monkey” — a new age allegory that refers to the time when a critical mass is achieved and collective behavior shifts. Storytellers, philosophers, astrologers and indigenous people have pointed to this time, 2012, as the time of the “Great Awakening.”

Peter Russell, author of Waking Up in Time, calls it time wave zero, the time when time ends as we know it. A time beyond time, beyond measurable time anyway. The prophecies surrounding this age are filled with conflicting predictions. Time will end, the world will end, apocalypse now vs. complete paradigm shift, humanity evolves to the next level and harmony will reign upon the earth.

No one knows what the future holds. We don’t even know what the next breath will bring us. But I wonder what would happen if enough people held a vision around a “Great Awakening” to begin at an appointed hour? What would happen if a critical mass of human beings opened themselves to the possibility that a collective event, like a massive paradigm shift, could happen?

Whatever these times may be, Mayan prophesy aside, we are the ones occupying planet Earth in 2012. We are the ones whose choices set the stage for all that follows. We are the ones who, in our daily lives, either allow our inner light to shine in the world, expressing love and reflecting the highest good for all of mankind, or out of a mistaken belief that there is a limited supply, or that who we are is not enough, shield our inner light from view. Whether or not there is a collective event that involves a “Great Awakening” for mankind depends upon our collective willingness to have it be so.

Clearly there is work to be done. Can we do it? The eternal optimist in me says absofrickinlutely we can! Will it happen in our lifetimes? Who knows? That part is not my concern. My only concern is that I live my own life aligned with the values I believe are essential for this event to occur and that I encourage others to encourage others do the same.

What are those essential values to live by? Here’s my list. I don’t claim for it to be the last word on the subject. I’d love to hear yours.

10 Essential Values for Living a Transformed Life (And Ushering in the 100th Monkey)

1) Accept personal responsibility — 100 percent of the time. No exceptions. Responsibility is not blame. It is a choice, a place to stand, from which freedom, aliveness and creativity is possible.

2) Honesty — 100 percent of the time. Tell the truth as you know it, especially when it’s uncomfortable. No exceptions.

3) Integrity — Honor and live as your word.

4) Authenticity — Be and live as who you are. You’re the only you, everyone else is taken.

5) Generosity — Live from an open, giving heart. What goes around comes around.

6) Contribution — Make a difference in the lives of others. Life has meaning and purpose when we live for something larger than fulfilling our own personal needs.

7) Oneness — Love my neighbor as myself. We are one and the same. Outwardly different, inwardly the same. All is one.

Love — Give it, be it, express it, be open to receive it. Love is all there really is. Everything else is the absence of love.

9) Abundance — We live in an abundant universe. There is enough of everything, despite appearances. Live from the overflow. The source of love is infinite.

10) Vision — Create a vision for your life that is large enough to hold your dreams. Live from your vision, not from circumstances. Vision trumps circumstances every time.

This is just a beginning. Spend some time with this and you’ll come up with many more. Please do share them here as well as your thoughts about the 100th Monkey and the new year.

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Solstice = Standing-Still-Sun

Dec. 21st, we enter the belly of the night.

Winter Solstice: We come to the portal that separates darkness from light. Standing in this arch of time where Earth takes a breath before facing us back towards the sun, we too, take a breath, turn inward, pause in this moment of fullness and let darkness reveal its gifts.

Winter Solstice: A time to look back at the year gone by, gather its lessons and put them in the stew of your life. Time to let the heat of your presence cook the stew. Render the lessons into the sweet nectar of wisdom. Then drink of it. One-small-sip-at-a-time.

Winter Solstice: A time to let the longest night of the year seduce you into stillness. Time to silence inner voices, listen to the beating of your own heart. Time to breathe slowly, become the breath. Linger here. The night is long.

Winter Solstice: Time to savor the sweetness of the dark. Nothing to fear. It’s only you. And millions of years of Earth’s turning; away and then back, away and then back towards the light. It’s all you. The dark, the light, the fire, the night: it’s all you. You’re all it. Sweet oneness, savored in the dark.

Winter Solstice: A sacred link, where Earth’s veil thins, the unseen, seen. Images of ancestors and ancient roots threading back beyond time. Back to first humans, their fires still burning to call back the light. We are the ones who hold them sacred. We honor their struggles, their triumphs. We’re here due to them. They gave us our blood.

Winter Solstice: A time to reflect on your life in this moment. Like never before, or ever again, reflect on this sweet, fragile moment.

Winter Solstice: A time to let go of what burdens. Empty out stones sitting heavy in the heart. Let bygones be bygones. Acknowledge. Forgive. Begin again.

Winter Solstice: A fertile time, a time to ready the womb; a time for pregnant possibility. A time to sow seeds of imagination that germinate in the darkness. A time to tend the inner hearth; be warmed by the coals of creativity.

Winter Solstice: The union of opposites. Fullness: emptying. Emptiness: filling. 
The shortest day meets the longest night. Celebrate the dark. Greet the light. We’ve journeyed long; we’ve journeyed far. In summer, we rejoiced in the sun, now absent. In winter, we settle into the night, now present. We draw inward, tuck in our wings to keep warm. All flights are canceled.

Winter Solstice: A time to check inner weather and road conditions. Are you cold? Are you hot? Are you merely lukewarm? Is it stormy? Is it balmy? Are there blue skies inside? Does the road rise to meet you? Are you on shaky ground? Is it smooth? Is it rocky? Can you see where you are?

Winter Solstice: Can you be with it all, just as it is? No fighting, no trying, no pushing the river. It flows by itself, so you watch it. You notice. You see twigs and branches submerged in the stream of your life. Without effort, the water flows over, under and around it all. Nothing can stop it; it goes on forever. Like you do. Like I do. Like we do.

May you go on forever, like this most pregnant night of the year.

A brief ritual to include in your observance of Winter Solstice:

1) Set aside at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, but whatever works for you is fine.


2) Include friends, family members, or celebrate alone if you prefer.


3) Turn off all the lights. Settle in to the darkness.


4) Spend time with your eyes closed, breathing slowly, watching the breath.


5) Let your awareness settle down in your belly. Feel it fill and empty. See your 
life coming and going on each inhale and exhale. Feel the strength and fragility of each 
breath.


6) There’s nothing to do but let go into the dark, allow it to hold you. Feel its safety. Thoughts arise and fall. Just watch them come and go. Return to the breath.


7) Remain in silence for several minutes after you’ve finished. Savor the moment.

The Blessing of the newborn Sun God:


“Out of Darkness Light is Re-born. Carry the hope of this moment like a torch in your heart through the coming year. Let it sustain you in your times of darkness, and be a symbol of blessing in your times of joy. Let Peace be with you.

Wishing you and yours a Happy Solstice! May you find peace in the night.

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