To prepare for Walden Weekly’s debut, I’ve been listening to the audiobook. I’d forgotten how often Thoreau indulges in showing off his erudition. He was quite the snob, a real “east coast liberal elite.” Still, his admiration for roosters and bullfrogs and sumac manages to sneak past his complaints that so few people in Concord read actual books. Starting September 10, I’ll send you a weekly dose and together we’ll consider how this 1854 classic cuts through the fog of climate crisis—and all the other crises. I’ve also got some fun extras in the works.
Approaching his 50th birthday, my friend, community artist Peter Bruun, brought together forty-nine friends with writers, artists and performers around two questions: What gives your life meaning and purpose? And, What advice would you give to your 21-year-old self? He put it all together in multi-media event called Autumn Leaves.1
Peter organized us into seven groups, each named for a tree, so my response to the first question spells the name of my group, BIRCH.
Building. Bucky Fuller said “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new reality that makes the existing reality obsolete." Building is a thrill; I love putting something into the world that wasn’t there before. Very few things are built in isolation by one person working alone, so no matter what we build, we’re also building community.
Inner resources. As someone who has spent the better part of my life looking outward for permission, notice, understanding, attention, approval, and love, I’m more than ever convinced that’s the wrong place to be looking for any of those things. Each of us has, inside of ourselves, an endless wellspring of unconditional love, creativity, approval, and guidance. The more we can turn inward for those resources, the more juiced and filled with and inspiration we’ll be, to bring our gifts into the world.
Re-storying. The world around us is created on a foundation of stories about who we are and why we’re here. Unfortunately, many of those stories are misguided. Some are downright damaging, like the story that we humans are separate from and superior to the natural world, that we’re the pinnacle of creation. Or the story of scarcity, that there’s not enough to go around. Or that control is the best way to get what you want. Or the endless progress of technological advance being our inevitable destiny. Re-storying helps me to listen for and recognize stories of belonging, abundance, mystery, and the sacredness of the world.
Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here, please share and keep in touch.
Connection. We have a deep reciprocity with the living world, a conversation that goes on through our body and senses, below the radar of our conscious, rational mind. I love imagining that this goes on whether I am conscious of it or not. When I have stilled myself and tuned in to moss and maple and mountain stream, I have felt both their strange otherness and a generous, sometimes playful, welcome. As if they’ve been waiting patiently to be engaged, acknowledged and appreciated.
Head. Heart. Hands. As much as I rely on inner resources for guidance, inspiration and strength when I need it, this triumvirate is my agency in the world. Of the three, I’ve been mostly up in my head, relying on rational, analytical thought more than any other. I’m glad to have discovered that the heart and hands play equal roles in deciding what to do in the world and how to do it—not merely to implement the head’s grand plans. The heart is the source of both courage2 and intuition.
“Intuition is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~ Einstein
If all of us followed the stirrings of our hearts, imagine what kind of world this would be.
Hands are for making. The images in this post are about making, making my mark on the world, and responding to the world making its mark on me. A deep relationship begins when we put our hands on a material to transform it into something useful. When we work with its beauty and inherent value, we enhance it with our vision to make something of meaning that we can share, something that can be of service.
As for the second question, what advice would I give my 21-year-old self, I think of two pieces of advice that I was actually given during a precarious time of crisis in my young adulthood—the first from a trusted teacher, the second from her father. The teacher advised: You can’t get off the bus. No matter what is boiling around you, you must see it through. Accept this, get through it, and you will be stronger. And my father said of the same situation: Life’s too short. If you are in a truly miserable situation, by all means get off the bus.
At the time, I didn’t even notice the contradiction. They both helped me. And isn’t that the way of life, that we can sometimes pause in simultaneity as we dance between opposites? Einstein again, from a letter to his son: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
My father left us eleven years ago. I can still picture the humor in his face when he would say, The trick with family is not to take things personally. It amuses me that this is one of Don Miguel Ruiz’s Four Agreements (minus the family part). By now, I’ve had lots of practice at this one, too. It’s a keeper.
I’d have to say, the one thing that 21-year-old young woman most needed to hear, and still needs to hear: You are enough.
Your turn. What gives your life meaning and purpose? What advice would you give to your 21-year-old self?
The event website is full of wisdom and creativity.
Maybe this is so commonly known as to be nearly cliche, but how cool is it that the French word for heart, cœur, lurks in our word for courage?
I think the advice I'd give my 21 year old self is similar to yours...Be proud of yourself and stop worrying about making others proud of you.
Wonderful post, chock-full of goodies, including the precious voice of your father. I can hear it in his advice! :-)
To my 21-year-old self I would say: If you're wishy washy or uncomfortable about it, walk away immediately. No excuses. No "yes-but." No pro/con lists. There will be clear yeses in life. Steer that way.