Healing Deepwater Horizon June 20, 2010
Posted by gerrystarnes in General, Healing, Learnings, Society.3 comments
Following the explosion and collapse of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform on April 20, 2010, the world watched in helpless horror as an environmental catastrophe unfolded. It was alarming at first to think of the thousands of gallons of oil, gas, and silt spewing unbridled from the ground. And yet, there was a sense that although it would be dreadful for many, it would be contained and ultimately “fixed” once the right technology was applied.
Yet as days now grow into weeks, as all efforts to stem the flow so far fail and the estimates of daily contamination skyrockets, abhorrence and dismay turn to rage. Images of brown tendrils of oil drifting among boats desperately dragging collection booms, apparently uselessly, behind them illustrate the helplessness of the workers who struggle to combat the disaster with outdated equipment. Blackening beaches and birds overwhelmed by oil drive home that this catastrophe cannot be avoided and will not go away.
While it is true that vast amounts of oil leak naturally from fissures all over the planet, nowhere has the amount of oil so quickly flowed into the seas in so localized a deposit. The pollution is spreading throughout the interconnected oceans. Inevitably, it will affect all the sea creatures in one way or another.
This is a global catastrophe with effects well beyond the Gulf and the surrounding countries and populations. There will be financial effects worldwide, and environmental effects also will spread steadily throughout the biosphere. As such, everyone on the planet has a stake in how the disaster is managed.
What Can I Do?
There are many actions that we can take to advance the healing of the effects of Deepwater Horizon. Not all are easily palatable, given the state of our social outrage. Even as we grieve the effects on the Gulf and wildlife that depend upon it, we also must look forward into the possible futures unfolding. How we respond can heal or destroy.
Let Go Of The Outrage
Participation in the torrent of curses projected upon the management and organization continues the darkness. There is enough of that. Legal and political responses are in place to hold accountable those who created the disaster. Let them do their work while we do ours.
It is better to focus light and energy on opening the way to healing and enabling solutions. Powerful studies show that one person holding love for another will offset the ill-will of dozens. Let go of the outrage and instead allow the balancing strength of spirit to pour through you for the good of all.
Part Of The Tribe
Not everyone in the Tribe can act in the same way and be effective. For all of us to descend upon the coast and begin cleaning birds will clearly not be useful. We must remember that, as part of a global Tribe, we all have our roles.
It is the role of the Elders, the Wisdom Chiefs, to hold the vision of a healed Mother Earth, and remind us that She is really not in danger from this event. She survives hurricanes, floods, volcanoes, and all other kinds of natural and unnatural disasters. Everything will return to perfect balance in time. They hold the Eagle vision.
The Medicine Chiefs can pray and hold in sacred safety our brothers and sisters of the sea, as well as our human relations. Not all will survive, and the way ahead is long. The many who practice the medicine way can best serve by daily practices that include the healing of all in the wake of the disaster.
The Warriors and War Chiefs are those who act directly in service and defense of the Tribe. They are the hands-on workers, coordinators, and planners. They are the front line of the action and all those who support them physically, financially, and spiritually. We must also remember them and care for their healing, as well. They are fighting a war for us, and as such, they are in the heart of darkness and need our consistent blessing and assistance.
Hold The BP Workers In Light
It is not productive to send anger and disparaging thoughts to the BP employees and contractors working to contain the rupture. Thoughts are real. We can choose to hold these engineers, divers, and workers in loving hope and trust, or we can blame them for being incompetent. They, too, are affected by the disaster, and they are the ones working diligently night and day to find answers and solutions to the problems.
They are also our Warriors, the most experienced and intelligent workers to deal with this difficult problem and access to the most advanced technologies available. Surrounding these Warriors with the darkness of hate and misplaced blame serves only to make things more difficult. Hold them in love and light instead, and see their way clear to solutions, strength, and perseverance.
Stewardship Of Our Home
We must remember our place in the web of life. Because we rely so heavily on the bounty and resources of the Earth, we must also be the caretakers. Deepwater Horizon reminds us that it is up to us whether we deplete and destroy the very foundation of our existence, and so destroy ourselves. And not only us. We have the power to take with us millions of other animals and plants, and to make our home uninhabitable to humans for thousands of years.
Human dependence on resources like petroleum, natural gas, and coal will likely continue for many more years, regardless of how diligently we work to move to more sustainable energy resource. We must not become complacent about the many dangers hidden in mining and extracting them. As the human tribe, we are compelled by our own use of these resources to be diligent to control and eventually to eliminate our pollution of land, water, and air.
We may be experiencing the effects of Deepwater Horizon for decades, possibly for generations. We must decide how we will respond today and tomorrow, whether with fierce darkness or blazing light. We must learn from this and remember to leave our home in better shape for our children and our children’s children to the seventh generation.
Images and information in this article are from various news sources, particularly Monsters and Critics.
Shapeshifting Class April 18, 2010
Posted by gerrystarnes in General, Learnings.1 comment so far
I do not have any ambition to be a professional actor. However, I truly enjoy and take acting classes whenever I can.
The practice of acting affords me an opportunity to examine myself from a completely different perspective within a safe and mostly anonymous context. In classes, I am provided with unusual scenarios and different personalities to try on for a while. It is a good stretch for me to let go of my usual way of doing things, seeking to submerge myself into a new role and then feel for the personality nuances that bring it alive.
Acting is a form of shapeshifting: changing from my usual way of experiencing and being in the world into someone or something else. It is a deep, experiential exploration of my personality parts, learning to let go of them and to move as fully as I can into a different form, trying on a different skin.
In improvisational acting class, I learn that “Yes and…” is much more powerful than, “Yes but…” or the deadly “No.” “Yes and…” builds energy and excitement, even when — or perhaps especially when — it goes into extraordinary dimensions of absurdity.
Let’s get some ice cream!
Yes and put lots of chocolate and sprinkles!
Yes and ride our bikes with them down the block!
Yes and let go of the handlebars!
Yes and right into that space ship overthere!
Yes and wow! Eating ice cream on the moon!
Yes and with aliens from Planet 9!
Every actor in the scene must play off every other spontaneously, and that leads to a tight interaction among them. There is not much time for daydreaming or planning very far ahead. Flexibility and fluidity are the rule in this form of shapeshifting. Action is in the moment and builds upon the sparks of talent, awareness, and intuitive spontaneity that each actor brings.
From improvisational acting I learn spontaneity, flexibility and fluidity in the moment, and how to play joyously with others.
In acting for camera, I learn something different about shapeshifting. It is about character and about how to be real while playing a role. It is about creatively crafting a scene built around a specific script and delving into nuances of behavior and psychology that bring characters to life.
The way any scene plays out can go in many directions based on the way the character is written, crafted, and enlivened by the actor. How I interpret the character can feed the story or kill it. How I think as the character can either bring it to life or make it dull and flat. How well I shapeshift into the character can make it real or laughable.
Acting encourages observation of real life in greater detail than one ordinarily does. Actors learn much of the craft of shapeshifting by observing how people move, what they do when they talk to each other or when they sit quietly by themselves, and the thousands of other behaviors that go unnoticed most of the time.
Actors are students of life because they must be real while expressing themselves into their roles.
My very first assignment in an acting class was to observe myself from the outside in. What is the first thing I do in the morning? What is the sequence of how I dress – pants before shirt, or shirt first? Left leg first or right? How do I react to how socks feel when I put them on? What is the expression on my face as I shave? How do I swing my arms when I walk? What happens if I change that?
Every day is a laboratory for actors. There is never a moment when there is not something to be learned.
On stage, I get to put on a new skin and use everything I have learned about shapeshifting to make it fit as though it were tailored just for me. Among other actors — certainly more experienced and talented than I — I feel freedom to put myself on the edge and fearlessly dive into something brand new without concern for how people who know me might react.
When I begin feeling the edges of the everyday rut getting too deep, when I’m feeling stuck and dull, I resolve to look for an acting class to attend. Not only are they about trying on new behaviors, acting classes allow me to connect with everyday life in an extraordinary way.
Acting is about being alive.
Clearing Out – Letting Go February 4, 2010
Posted by gerrystarnes in Learnings.add a comment
From the shamanic perspective, everything is alive, which means that everything also “dies.” The subject of “dead things that we keep hanging around” came up in a class some time ago. Imagine all those items being like beloved friends and relatives that have passed on, and see that they are like little boat anchors that you keep dragging around. All that stuckness makes it hard to move, much less move forward. So it is good to periodically release things you no longer use or need to keep the energy flowing.
Many of us have closets and storage units full of these things, and lots of reasons (or excuses) for why we keep them. Who knows? That book may be worth something in 10 more years or that blouse will come back into fashion and I won’t have to buy a new one!
I used to say that these things are now dead, but I’ve come to see that it’s not the things that are dead, but our relationships to them. The object itself is still alive: the book still has something to say, but not necessarily to you; that blouse could be someone else’s treasure, just not yours any more. We had a relationship with each thing that we purchased or was gifted to us at some point, but that relationship is no longer vital or relevant. It is dead for all practical purposes.
So what do you do with dead family and friends? You honor the relationship that you had, perhaps grieve, and you let go. You can do exactly the same with that shirt, that book, that vase your aunt gave you 20 years ago. Honor the memory and let it go: give it away, throw it away, bury it.
If you have a lot of “stuff,” it may be daunting to handle each individual item that way. My suggestion is to put things in piles: things to throw away; things to give away; things to burn, things to keep – making sure that you still have a viable relationship with the things you keep – and so on. The categories are yours to define, and you can have as many as you want. Then honor each pile for the relationships and connections they once had for you. You might even do a kind of funeral ceremony.
This doesn’t mean that you must discard everything. You also can rekindle the relationship. A friend who went through this process for several months renewed her relationship with a beloved relative. As she worked her way through many boxes from storage, she discovered her grandmother’s dressing bench tucked away in storage. It didn’t seem right to give it away or sell it. The memories were dim, yet still very real. So, carefully and mindfully, she stripped away layers of old paint down to the wood, then lovingly refinished it with care. She recently had it reupholstered, and after many months of work she was done. The relationship with the stool and the memories of her grandmother it brought to the present were lovingly restored.
I have known people who have done this process with stuff accumulated over many years. In each case, they realized that the “letting go” was often the hardest part. They didn’t have the proper frame of reference to handle their relationship, dead or alive, with the memories each of the items held for them. But as they went through the honoring process, they learned quite a lot from it about themselves and relationships. Eventually, they became not only clear in their physical space, but clear in their energetic space, as well. And being more clear, could move forward with strength, no longer weighed down by their physical and energetic boat anchors.
This process of clearing out and letting go by mindfully honoring each item and appreciating the relationship puts everything in place for everyone – you and your once-beloved items – to move forward into their fresh and unfettered futures.
Morning Messages January 21, 2010
Posted by gerrystarnes in Animal Wisdom, Learnings.1 comment so far
Sitting on my front porch in the morning and watching what Spirit has to show me has become a daily practice. It is a way that I can integrate inspiration into my everyday activities. I take what attracts my attention as a sign, a guide that I can use throughout the day to give perspective on my “doings” in ordinary life. Most often I gain clarity and insight that I might otherwise overlook were I not to have that thread with which to periodically touch base.
Our part of town still has wooden poles that carry telephone and electrical lines through the neighborhood. This morning, a squirrel scampered along the electrical line across the street. They often do this, but this morning, he captured my attention as he hurried and paused, hurried and paused, making his way to the next pole.
I thought to myself how wonderful it is that the city provides this aerial highway so that squirrels can travel safely above the traffic. If only they could see the bigger picture, they would be able to get from place to place and never have to cross a dangerous passage.
Once at the pole, he turned and scampered head-first down it until he reached the top of a small, bare tree. He then sprang from the secure, strong pole onto a impossibly thin limb at the very top of that tree, and from there made his way to the ground.
One way to work with these events is to put yourself in the place of the animal and try to experience it from its perspective. Relaxing back into my chair and closing my eyes, I envisioned myself as the squirrel.
I have occasional bouts of acrophobia, a fear of heights. Though diminished greatly over the years, I still sometimes get that panicky feeling on tall ladders, or when suspended without what I think is adequate support. As squirrel, though, I had no such concerns. I envisioned scampering hurry-pause, hurry-pause along the electrical line through his eyes, and traveled easily, eyes fixed on the pole ahead. However, I noticed that the pauses allowed me to focus my attention all around, rather than completely on the pole.
I, too, ran down the pole head-first and truly marveled at how easily such a gymnastic feat could be accomplished! I felt light in my bones and a fearless playfulness as I leaped to the treetop and felt it sway. I rode the impromptu swing for a moment, then made my way to stronger limbs and finally to the trunk and the ground.
The squirrel was not there when I opened my eyes. To my left, however, two small birds were busily plucking seed pods from the winter-barren Chinaberry tree. Somehow, they found the seeds inside and, with a vigorous shake, tossed the hulls to the ground. First I was surprised to see that any seeds were left in January, yet they seemed to be finding plenty as they hopped from limb to limb.
Even in the midst of what appears to be a barren landscape, Life provides.
I noticed, too, that they seemed to be a pair, working closely together without squabbling over the food. It reminded me that Spring is coming. From this unusually cold winter, Nature will soon emerge to continue the cycle.
No matter how cold, dark, and sometimes painful life can be, there is always an ending and a new beginning. The cycle always continues.
The birds took flight after a few minutes’ grazing. I stayed on the porch a little longer and pondered these beautiful messages of the day, then went back inside.
Messages From the Ice Storm January 21, 2010
Posted by gerrystarnes in Learnings, Society.add a comment
The ice storm was almost over when our monthly Deepening Journey Circle met on Wednesday evening, January 13. In these circles we often use the shamanic journey to focus on topics of community interest and seek insights about the “bigger picture” of events. On that evening, our topic was “Weather Shamanism,” and we chose to seek insights on what the weather was trying to teach us.
This past summer was very hot and dry, with a near record number of 100+ temperatures and deep drought. Yet, in the past week, our city and much of the rest of the country experienced the lowest temperatures in decades. Our focus and intention was very simple: to find what the Weather was trying to tell us or teach us. What is it that we need to learn, to understand, or to do?
The results of our journeys were very consistent, which given our previous experience was not surprising. Most usually the group returns with different but similar insights, rather like pieces of a puzzle that when put together can offer the most amazing teachings. Here are some of the insights received:
The scientific, meteorological explanation is that there are natural cycles to the weather. It is only high and low pressure gradients, warm and cold fronts moving. Yet, from a shamanic perspective, it is more than that. Our connection to Life is real, and Life has something to tell us – individually and culturally – about being in or out of balance with everything else. We are out of balance.
We need to be woken up to feeling. The extremes of hot/dry and cold/wet are urging us to remember the vast dimensionality of life and experience. Even though our political and social worlds seem outrageously polarized, on the whole we have become narrower in perspective and entered a time of tunnel vision, especially in regard to relationships with others.
We are being shown our disconnection from the dimensionality of life, the interplay of the polarities is missing. Masculine and Feminine energies running along parallel tracks, rather than the spiral dance they naturally do. That disconnection is feeding the polarity rather than balancing it. That “being out of balance” forces us to swing, sometimes wildly, between the two.
There is a visceral connection with the Earth that we are missing, to which we are numbing out. Being uncomfortably hot or cold helps us to shake off the numbness and, if we are awake, to reconnect with the juiciness of being alive.
Our humancentric view of everything doesn’t work. We need to let go of our insatiable desire for control and understand that there are forces at work much stronger than our most powerful attempts to insulate ourselves from Nature. The climate-controlled boxes we have created to do so failed to protect us. There is an overarching balance of which we need to remember we are a relatively small part. We need to flow with it and let it help us to grow and expand in appreciation of the human experience.
I met again with the Thunder Beings. This time, Ice stepped forward. He reminded me that we humans have not been around all that long in Earth time. I saw the Earth as a whole, and in that vastness, humans are so small they cannot be seen. Major natural events – such as hurricanes, earthquakes, flood, and even forest fires – are natural occurrences that Mother Earth needs to keep herself in balance. They heal stuck energies and release “hot spots” by burning, washing, blowing away what is there and allowing a new beginning.
Unfortunately, humans often live on the edges and so are simply in harm’s way, though we do contribute our own energies to the stuckness and heat. It’s not personal.
He also showed me a link between the Weather and DNA, and how emerging from the Ice Age as humans did a mere 10,000 years ago fundamentally changed us. On a smaller scale, the Weather continues to do so. As we migrate to more temperate environments, for example, we are fundamentally altering our genetic responses to climate change. We are, sometimes in spite of our efforts to the contrary, adjusting our humanness.
As group journeys tend to do, this one showed us both personal and global levels of messages from the Ice Storm. Now the question is, what do we do with them?
My thanks to Karen Sharp for her memory and support of this article.
