Halloween
the pizza delivery woman“why not?”
[PLEASE NOTE: I am not advocating smoking. But I acknowledge the value in our opening to what seems unlikely or to what doesn't fit our expectations in life. Delight so often comes from the unexpected, if only we could open our eyes and see.]
This is in honor of my friend Deb's musings about this special time in her life.
I write this on your birthday, an artificial marker
for the event we call “ life,” jarring us
into life’s profound questions
Our experiences are piled up against the door
and old hopes and dreams start to hang
in the air like so much smoke
Anticipated losses can start stealing today’s joy
right out from under us long before
the real pain occurs
We watch our life shape shifting into an unknown
as the familiar and the loved start to slip away
growing up, growing away, passing on
We fear being left behind, left standing alone
in the middle of the empty field named for who
we thought we were
But it is in the midst of this upset that wisdom is born
surrendering to the mystery we didn’t create
letting grace flow as it wants to do
These are the wisdom years, when we know the least...
because what choice is there but to keep opening
in love to what is coming
bes 8.11.09 Sculpture by Jerry Minton
You are special Deb...thanks for sharing!
Happy Labor Day. (click on http://bes2.typepad.com/ to comment or if you are having trouble opening the references)
Labor Day: Celebrates the creation of
the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and
economic achievements of
American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions
workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
from the U.S.Dept. of Labor
Labor Day reflects Unions' efforts to get owners and management to recognize the value of those who labored for them. The abuse of laborers was and is not new. Laborers were often treated as expendable extensions of the machines needed to make a profit.
Today it seems we refer more to "workers" than to "labor," undoubtedly because we need more than physical brawn in today's workforce. There has been an attempt to shift our thinking. "People are our greatest asset" was a proud statement made by some corporations. But assets are what you own, the left side of an accounting sheet. Although not intended, the language is revealing. People are things in corporations.
We still have that "great divide" in our minds: workers vs. managers. If you doubt this, look at the salaries, like the 23.5M dollars the CEO of P&G got this year. How much of a CEO's worth is real vs. mythology? How big a difference in income from the lowest worker to the top is justified if all are doing their jobs impeccably? I think our corporate system is stuck in a Newtonian model of seeing organizations as machines and with upper management pushing the buttons to get results.
Yet technology is changing the nature of work, making the world smaller, changing our understanding of systems, and increasing the speed change itself. Most CEO's are painfully aware of all this. They know that innovation won't come out of this old labor-management structure and model of thinking. It'll come out of individuals willing to examine their own thinking. It'll come out of young folks who've experienced the Internet as the great leveling vehicle. It'll come out of economic experiments in countries that have struggled to survive, like Brazil. It'll come out of those doing research on the physiological and energetic effects of our thinking, like Dean Radin and Lynne McTaggert.
I guess I'm not sure Labor Day is something to celebrate. It is a historical fact but not our future. The future is in all the wonderful people out there pushing the envelope, being the creators they truly
are. Ah smile, it is all good!
The cold has brought the deer in to nibble on who knows what in the ivy patch in my backyard. My husband says ivy is too bitter for the deer to eat. However here they are.
I find myself thinking about what to plant this spring, wondering what will withstand the onslaught of our furry friends. I know we are all connected and maybe I should share, but I look for plants that are "deer resistant". Like the ivy I suppose, hmmm.
It was gray out yesterday. I felt the need to sit and be quiet. I resisted, making endless trips to the P.O. or bank just to get out. Under the surface of my awareness something was stirring. I wanted to be in the sun.
In a recent Opus cartoon they joked about NDD (Nature Deficit Disorder). Working at my computer I wonder about this. How much of our mood is connected to NDD, the modern day self-imposed cabin fever?
Today the sun is out. My mood has improved and my restlessness abated. Late yesterday I had a great conversation with a colleague on how to proceed with the creatorship model. The conversation answered the unspoken questions stirring under the surface earlier.
Moods come and go, the result of stray thoughts or meanderings. I remember I can use my 
memory of Spring. I use my imagination to re-create the feeling of being nourished by the sun, the smells, the greenery. Ah yes, happiness is an inside job.
[If you couldn't see the deer slide show, click here to go directly to Picasa.]
Picture from the VA TECH Weed Guide.
