New Year's Intentions
My apprentice guide always told me if you are not intending your time you are pretending. It means you are spinning your wheels.
By segment intending we can break down the time we have in a day and allocate different amounts to the projects we have.
The trick is to have time set aside for the different aspects of our self. Our career-physical life, our mental self, our emotional self, our spiritual self and soul/life force energy.
Some times we get caught up in a survival mode where it is all about making a living. We then will ignore the other aspects of our self. This is a trap and creates distress in the other aspects of our life. We have to have balance to be successful in the end.
I make a to-do today list. Write down the major things I intend to finish or work on and how much time goes to different projects that are on going. Then I set my timer for that amount of time. This gives each project a container. When the timer goes off I wrap up that piece and take a little transition break before moving to the next piece of business. This helps me to keep things moving and get this done.
So here are my seven tips:
1. Write a list to ground the idea.
2. Set a time, stick to it.
3. Do something for each of the five aspects of self
4. Let the inner child have a little fun
5. Rest in between projects to rejuvenate.
6. Re-evaluate your finished projects at the end of the day.
7. Be flexible, this keeps us fluid and moving.
Be more aware of energy sucks, are other people's business eating up your precious time? If so learn to create stronger boundaries around your self and a stronger sense of worthiness for your personal dreams. I teach my students how to do this on an ongoing basis.
Find a mentor, coach or guide to help you push your personal edge this year. There are many programs available. I have had an Apprentice Guide for 10 years. Some times it is really hard but it helps me to get things going! I wouldn't have a 2nd degree black belt if it weren't for my Apprentice Guide,
Good luck! Call or email me if you need more ideas on this we can set up a reading.
Blessings
MarVeena-Ghost Queen
(c) Dec 30, 2009
If you like this article and would like to use it in your own E-Zine or Newsletter you may do so. Just be sure to include this complete blurb: From Dallas, TX MarVeena Meek the Ghost Queen publishes her Ghost Queen E-zine twice a month with paranormal and spiritual stories. She also includes hints and tips on psychic development. You can sign up for free at her web site. www.marveena.com
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Ancestor Dinner
All Hallow's Eve, the night the moon, the sun and the planets create a magical configuration.
I think of it as a triangle to slide between the worlds.
Creating an opportunity to see other realms. A place where our loved ones now reside.
Giving a few of us precious moments and messages.
Healing sad hearts with knowledge that their life continues in another dimension.
A wonderful tradition is to acknowledge your special ancestors and special pets with a ancestor dinner.
I host an anual All Hallow's Eve Seance' where I create an ancestor table to show honor and respect for our loved ones in the spirit world.
You can create your own family custom by setting a table and adding one extra plate for your ancestors.
The meal should include typical fall foods like apples, turnips, sweet potatoes, apple pie, squash, apple cider.
It is traditional to use things that are harvested this time of year.
The oldest family member says a special blessing for the harvest food on the table,
remember to bless the plants and animals that gave their life to sustain ours.
Then they call your loved ones to share the meal this evening.
Let your spirit loved ones know that we respect your journey here on this plane and the opportunities they set into place for us to come here as well.
As well as the lessons you learned from them.
As the oldest family member serves the food, they place a small portion on to the ancestor plate first. As you eat the meal you ask each family member to share a story of a loved one. Maybe a special meal they made or some funny stories.
This is a way to keep a live the ones who have gone on before us and to show them respect as well.
You can also take turns giving messages to each other.
Just play and let the spirit move you.
Then we pass around the apple cider and together toast our special friends and family members in the spirit world. We acknowledge we know they are still with us and are appreciate of their part in our life. If you have unfinished business this is a time to let go of the past , forgive and move on.
After the meal take the ancestor plate and a small glass of the cider or drink that was served to a space out side. If you know your Feng Shui, take it too the ancestor quadrant of the back yard.
Leave the plate and glass out there for the ancestors to enjoy as they see fit.
They may share it with the nature spirits. Whatever is fine. Reclaim your dishes the next morning.
Be aware of the nature out side, are there any special animals around? They might be there to give you a message from the spirit world. Are you open to receive?
Sometimes our loved ones in spirit will try to send a message through an animal. When you are open to however and whenever you get a lot more communication.
Have a powerful month!
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MarVeena Meek the Dallas Ghost Queen publishes her Ghost Queen E-zine each week with hints and tips for spiritual advancement and paranormal events.
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When you sign up you will receive my report on a personal near death experience.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Your Birth Portal!
September is my birth month I have always felt the energy around your birth month is one of the most powerful for the whole year.
Your Birth Portal is the month, day and time you came into this time space dimension.
As the planets line up the way they were when you slipped into this dimension your soul just sings a merry tune.
Your vibrancy rises and your personal magnetism is at it's peak.
Make use of this special time for projects, dreams and ideas that require great timing, luck or finesse.
If you have a pet project to pitch, now is the time.
Here are my Seven Tips for Creating Luck!
1. Surround your self with personal power objects like your birth totems, and your birth power colors.
2. Wear your lucky colors, mine are purple and blue.
3. If you know what your lucky minerals are wear them as jewelry or carry the stones in your pocket or medicine bag. My good luck minerals are the amethyst and sapphire. I love to wear these stones or carry them.
4. Create a living crystal grid under your bed for sweet and powerful dreams ( I always sleep with a large amethyst by my bed.)
5. To ground a special dream or idea into this dimension use a beautiful obsidian placed on the window that catches the moon light.
6. I place a piece of dried violet in my medicine bag as a lucky and protective charm
7. Find a way to make a contribution back to your community this month. What you give out comes back to you.
MarVeena Meek
© Aug 10, 2009
If you like this article and would like to use it in your own E-Zine or News letter you may do so. Just be sure to include this complete blurb. From Dallas,TX MarVeena Meek the Ghost Queen publishes her Ghost Queen E-zine twice a month with paranormal and spiritual stories. She also includes hints and tips on psychic development. You can sign up for free at her web site.
www.marveena.com
Sunday, August 9, 2009
The Warrior's Wheel-A Tool of Transformation
Working the Warrior Wheel
The definition of a warrior is an awakened human, fighting for peace, harmony, and individual, autonomous freedom to bring the Gold Horse to victory.
The Goal of the enlightened warrior is to use their tools to fight ignorance, slavery, bigotry, to bring about a world of individual freedom and autonomy.
Wheels are ways of learning bodies of information in the medicine path.
In the Sweet Medicine Sundance Path they are a lot of wheels. Our mind learns easily in circles so things are over layed that way to help us integrate the teachings and compare them to other wheels for multiple over lays of information.
When I began to train in martial arts I learned about The Warrior Wheel.
I had the opportunity to put the wheel into use when I studied martial arts and began to compete. Being a show-me girl, I always like to see some thing work before I really give it much merit or thought.
If I hadn’t started coming up with issues in my training I might not have tried it, but things started coming up in my program that I had a hard time over coming. One of my good friends who was also in the medicine path suggested that I learn the wheel and put it in to action. You can use this same wheel in a lot of your own day-to-day life situations.
That is why I am sharing it here. This is also a good way for me to empty my cup symbolically. The cup cannot be filled again until it is emptied. By sharing what has worked for you, you are emptying your cup. The universe responds by giving you more to learn.
My first issue was having a hard time judging my space and distance. When you are preparing an attack, it is crucial that you be able to know where you are and what is your opponents kicking distance as well. The idea is to get into their space and score your point with out them seeing it coming. It is like you are on the edge, creep onin then-boom you are in and you score. I was having challegences knowing how close I could get and when I was at my distance to score.
Space and Distance is a South West issue. The counter to that issue is to do personal ceremony and give your self WTA’s to push your edge on all levels.
A WTA is a (warrior task assignment). My interest in martial arts was originally a WTA from the man that I apprenticed to. He challenged me to study a martial art to help me gain a better sense of self in the physical body. So I did, starting in 1999.
The WTA suggested to find ways to push your personal edge or personal comfort zone.
What I did to push my edge was to sign up and take black belt classes that were training for State Competitions and Nationals. I was the only colored belt in the class; every one else was already a Black belt. So every class I took was over my head, really hard but when you train over your head for a project you really gain from a higher level. When I was actually with some one my own belt level I was more than ready to compete with them. They were easy compared to what I trained with every day. It also helped me that I was one of two women in the class, so the intensity of training was really high. That then became my natural level. I thought every woman across the country was training for Nationals the same way I was. Turns out that was not so. My natural level was hands down more intense than any one I competed with. Which was great for me.
To counter my problem gauging space and distance I gave my self the job of training with better and higher ranked martial artist than I was. I also did personal ceremonies to stay connected with spirit. Some times I would just light some incense and sit under a tree out side and pray. In the SW, the symbolical idea to be gained here is my willingness to engage with the unknown. I was afraid of the unknown in a match, would I get kicked really hard, maybe I would lose, how would I feel about that? Do I have the stamina to go three rounds? I had all these little unanswered questions to my self. This was causing me to loose my abilities to judge. As I began to train and really push my personal edge by training above my belt rank, I gained solid strength and understanding about my abilities and limits. This gave me confidence. I did my personal ceremonies to gain a sense of inner strength; this gave me that calm and understanding of (it is a good day to die). When you are really ready to bring it on, that energy and power is so awesome. It really helps support your play.
It seemed that I was getting better at gauging my space and distance with in a few weeks of implementing the new approach. What I think is weird is that as soon as that challenge cleared up I began to have a problem with my timing. Timing is crucial in a martial artist, it is important for all of us and we may not realize it. For a martial artist who is competing it is an important factor. My timing was off; I was missing opportunities and starting to attack to late. So on the wheel I looked it up and discovered the cure was to keep and plot the naturals. What is that? It is the moon phases, cycles, the tides, where are the planets now. What is going on in the heavens? So I bought my self an almanac and begin to read it every morning, where is the moon, what are the times for sun rise and sun set, are any planets in retrograde? I began to get up in the morning to go watch the sunrise; I made sure I watched the sun go down at night. I kept track of when the moon would rise and would watch that. By getting in harmony with the heavens and nature I was in better harmony with my self and all that is. This allowed me to see better and know when to move, when to wait. You can also affect one place of the wheel by working across the wheel. So when I was trying to build my strength and power I not only did the exercise in the west but the east also. In the east it says to pursue knowledge, so I studied the great martial artists especially Bruce Lee, who I think is a Master energy who incarnated. I also studied other spiritual teaching from other schools in the Eight Great Powers. This helped me have a good attitude and approach to my training, and to develop my power and sense of self, and connectedness to all that is.
I used all of this for martial arts, you could use this same wheel to rejuvenate a business, re- build your own physical body, there are a lot of ways of using this teaching to empower your own life.
I took my martial arts to two state competitions and won two gold medals, then to Nationals and won two more golf medals sparring, then to earn my first-degree black belt and my second degree down the road.
If you need a little blue print for success this would be it!
When we learn to live with in sacred law, we can step into our power and shinning in a beauty way.
Here is the warrior wheel starting in the North:
In the North:Intent and Coordination
In the North East: Relaxation and Focus
In the East:Self Development & Speed
In the South East:Attitude & Approach
In the South:Balance & Control
In the South West: Space & Distance
In the West: Power and Strength
In the North West: Pattern and Timing
If you like this article and would like to use it in your own E-zine or Newsletter you can. Just add this complete blurb with the article in it's entirety. From Dallas, TX MarVeena Meek known as The Ghost Queen publishes her Ghost Queen E-zine twice a month with spiritual and paranormal articles. Also hints and tips on psychic development. You can sign up for free at her web site www.marveena.com
Thank you for spending some time here with me! May you walk in beauty!
(c) MarVeena Meek, August 9, 2009
For more on the warrior wheel,
See "The Song of the Deer" by Thunder Strikes with Jan Orsi
Check out www.dtmms.org
Also see my blog for information on the Gold Horse at www.marveena.blogspot.com
Monday, June 8, 2009
Sundance for Freedom
As the sun grows stronger and the days get longer I feel the call of the Sundance Ceremony.
Sundance is one of the seven sacred ceremonies given to us to help us live in balance. To not just survive here but to thrive.
Every year there are hundreds of Sundance ceremonies scattered all over the US and out side too. You hardly ever hear of them, if you are invited consider your self special. They have been very protected for a long time to keep the ceremony sacred and allow the dancers the privacy to really focus on their prayers.
Traditionally the ceremony was used as a way to manifest a prayer for either the tribe/community or a loved one. For instance a son goes to war, the father or some one close would Sundance to help send the son energy, wisdom, power and even luck. Maybe a tribe was experiencing drought, they would Sundance for water and bountiful crops.
Every community sets up their dance according to their own system. There are few things they all have in common. The dance is set up like a big pie. We go in the East quadrant, the east represents enlightenment. We are dancing for this. The childrens fire is located here and it burns the entire four days of the ceremony.
The dancers stay in arbors(dreaming-sleep space) that are small like 2 foot by 7 foot. This represents our own Box of limitations. The belief systems and ideals we put on our self. This is to help us understand that we create our own limitations here and we can dance our way out of them.
Each dancers designs a special shield that speaks of our dreams and what we want to make manifest in the next year especially.
There is tree in the middle of the dance, the tree represents the bridge between the worlds. It has deep roots in the earth but the limbs stretch out to the heavens. The tree carries our prayers out to the universe, to Great Spirit or Wakan Tanka.
The tree is decorated with special animal totems that help carry our vision out to the heavens.
We never turn our back on the tree the entire four days in the Sundance.
In our Sundance we dance 20 hours a day, sleep 4 hours then get up do a sunrise pipe ceremony and then we dance some more.
When your body is physically exhausted you are able to get out of the little me picture and sometimes have visions of your souls dream for this journey. Not always though. I Sundanced two years before I had a vision.
You can pray for self, life and others. This is a good year to pray for our country, for our community. For the freedom that our fore fathers fought for and declared in our own declaration of independence.
When the sun is at it's zenith, the energy of the sun can be channeled to our prayers for our country.
This is great year to dance and dream for Freedom, for personal autonomy, for peace, for a world who honers all teachers and all teachings and the freedom to follow our own path of heart.
May you walk in Beauty, may America the Beautiful continue to walk in Beauty and Freedom.
Aho
MarVeena-Ghost Queen
If you like this article and would like to use it in your own e-zine or newsletter you can. Please keep the article intact and include this entire blurb: MarVeena Meek is a medium and paranormal expert from Dallas, TX. She writes her weekly Ghost Queen E-zine where she shares hints and tips for spirtual awareness and awakening. You may sign up for free here www.marveena.com
Sundance is one of the seven sacred ceremonies given to us to help us live in balance. To not just survive here but to thrive.
Every year there are hundreds of Sundance ceremonies scattered all over the US and out side too. You hardly ever hear of them, if you are invited consider your self special. They have been very protected for a long time to keep the ceremony sacred and allow the dancers the privacy to really focus on their prayers.
Traditionally the ceremony was used as a way to manifest a prayer for either the tribe/community or a loved one. For instance a son goes to war, the father or some one close would Sundance to help send the son energy, wisdom, power and even luck. Maybe a tribe was experiencing drought, they would Sundance for water and bountiful crops.
Every community sets up their dance according to their own system. There are few things they all have in common. The dance is set up like a big pie. We go in the East quadrant, the east represents enlightenment. We are dancing for this. The childrens fire is located here and it burns the entire four days of the ceremony.
The dancers stay in arbors(dreaming-sleep space) that are small like 2 foot by 7 foot. This represents our own Box of limitations. The belief systems and ideals we put on our self. This is to help us understand that we create our own limitations here and we can dance our way out of them.
Each dancers designs a special shield that speaks of our dreams and what we want to make manifest in the next year especially.
There is tree in the middle of the dance, the tree represents the bridge between the worlds. It has deep roots in the earth but the limbs stretch out to the heavens. The tree carries our prayers out to the universe, to Great Spirit or Wakan Tanka.
The tree is decorated with special animal totems that help carry our vision out to the heavens.
We never turn our back on the tree the entire four days in the Sundance.
In our Sundance we dance 20 hours a day, sleep 4 hours then get up do a sunrise pipe ceremony and then we dance some more.
When your body is physically exhausted you are able to get out of the little me picture and sometimes have visions of your souls dream for this journey. Not always though. I Sundanced two years before I had a vision.
You can pray for self, life and others. This is a good year to pray for our country, for our community. For the freedom that our fore fathers fought for and declared in our own declaration of independence.
When the sun is at it's zenith, the energy of the sun can be channeled to our prayers for our country.
This is great year to dance and dream for Freedom, for personal autonomy, for peace, for a world who honers all teachers and all teachings and the freedom to follow our own path of heart.
May you walk in Beauty, may America the Beautiful continue to walk in Beauty and Freedom.
Aho
MarVeena-Ghost Queen
If you like this article and would like to use it in your own e-zine or newsletter you can. Please keep the article intact and include this entire blurb: MarVeena Meek is a medium and paranormal expert from Dallas, TX. She writes her weekly Ghost Queen E-zine where she shares hints and tips for spirtual awareness and awakening. You may sign up for free here www.marveena.com
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Commencement Address
The Unforgettable Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, May 3, 2009 « To change the world, change your mind.
The Unforgettable Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, May 3, 2009
May 21, 2009 · 2 Comments
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.
But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation… but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.
“…the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.”
This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food, but all that is changing.
There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.
“YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING.”
You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.
There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.
Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit.. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non-governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.
“Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.”
The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.
The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe, exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
“We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells.”
So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past. Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.
This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.
Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One SawIt Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May, when he delivered this superb speech. www.paulhawken.com
The Unforgettable Commencement Address by Paul Hawken to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, May 3, 2009
May 21, 2009 · 2 Comments
When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.
But let’s begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation… but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.
“…the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.”
This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil, or air, and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food, but all that is changing.
There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING. The earth couldn’t afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.
“YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING.”
You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.
There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice,” is Mary Oliver’s description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.
Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit.. And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non-governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.
“Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.”
The living world is not “out there” somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.
The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe, exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a “little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
“We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells.”
So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past. Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.
This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.
Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One SawIt Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., in May, when he delivered this superb speech. www.paulhawken.com
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