Offerings, Gifts, & Invitations
Discover more from Catalyst To Change: Offerings, Gifts, and Invitations
Offerings, Gifts, & Invitations
Making it up
It’s all made up, every word, rule, and thing was made up by someone.
One of my teachers Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes said this years ago during a training I attended with her up in the mountains of Colorado.
Over the course of the five days we were together she said many profound things, yet this phrase, in particular, has stayed with me.
I remember hearing it and feeling how these words cracked through an illusory wall that I hadn’t even known was there. After that things opened up and I was able to connect with the world differently.
On some days the logistics of life can feel sticky and thick. I can get hypnotized by the ‘way things are’ and forget the malleability of the world around me. I feel myself getting bogged down by rules thinking that things are supposed to be a certain way.
And then through an opening, I think of Dr. E, saying, it’s all made up.
As much as we can remind ourselves that things are made up, it’s also helpful to remember that we can make things up. The structures we follow and the things we make up shape how we relate to things.
Last week I taught a class on working with dreams. We were exploring ways of entering a dream, by noticing dreamdoors; the parts in the dream, and the telling of it that catch our attention or spark our curiosity. Dreamdoors lead us into the dreaming process and bring us closer to the deeper significance of the dream.
During our discussion, a student posed two questions, what if dreams are just our brain’s way of processing or organizing information? What if the thing that catches our attention doesn’t have significance or meaning?
We explored the idea that not everything has meaning and that there are chemical and biological reactions happening in our body that can explain some of our experiences.
For some people, the idea that we can break most of our experiences down to chemical reactions and biological processes is enough. On some days this is enough for me. But on most days, I find this perspective lacking. It doesn’t leave space for mystery or the subjective nuance that allows me to truly explore my relationship with life.
Whether it’s a dream, how you approach a challenge, or even the way chocolate tastes, if it’s already figured out there is less room for me to bring myself to the experience and discover something new.
Remembering that things are made up isn’t necessarily about moving in opposition to the existing structures, it can be an invitation to reconnect with the realm of potential that is swirling right beneath our feet.
We can make things up to discover more insight within and around the thing we are exploring. And, when something outside of ourselves feels rigid we can also remember that ‘it’s all made up’ and can get back in touch with the malleability of life.
So much of life is a dance between form and formlessness. So much of what we experience has to do with our approach to the thing we are dancing with. Insights like the one from Dr. E, help can help us connect with and relate to the plasticity of life.
What keeps you engaged in life's dance between form and formlessness?
What I’m reading
In this small yet mighty 110-page book, Harris poses some fundamental questions about consciousness and then proceeds to unpack and explore them. She asks questions such as, ‘how do you know if something has consciousness? And then explores this question through brain science and philosophical experiments.
As a meditator and writer of science articles and children’s books, Annaka does a wonderful job outlining some complex and wiggly ideas that deal with the nature of reality.
Energy System Science for Network Weavers: A Summary, by Curtis Ogden
In this article, Ogden explores insights from energy system science in relation to human networks. Drawing parallels between our bodies, the flow of energy in nature, and human systems, he explores how we relate to the flow of information through human systems from micro to macro.
According to Ogden, Energy System Sciences (ESS) see all systems as ‘flow networks’ that arise from the circulation of resources, information, nutrients, etc” He emphasizes how flows of information are crucial for the health of a system and invites a shift in orientation, from a ‘matter’ orientation about everything to an “energy” view.
What I’m listening to:
Reality is an Illusion- How Evolution Hid the Truth, by Lex Fridman & Donald Hoffman
What is beyond space-time? What happens when you imagine a color you’ve never seen before? Why is chocolate delicious?
This podcast explores these questions and so much more. Hoffman reflects on Evolutionary Game Theory, and Consciousness, and touches on the intuitive nature of science and the limitations of a reductionist approach.
When I began listening to this podcast, I fell asleep. It wasn’t that it made me tired, it put me in a state of deep relaxation that led me to drift off. The second time I continued listening, I felt deeply calm and energized. Still, some of the ideas in this conversation landed a bit like a koan in that they pushed me out of the known territory and into a vast space of possibility. Listening was like repeatedly tripping a breaker in the wiring of my information system and flipping it back on.
An Excerpt from a Poem that’s Staying with me:
“...I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’”
Read the full poem here
Starting: Fridays, September 30th PDT / Saturday, October 1st, AEST
4:00-5:45pm PDT / 9:00-10:45am AEST
Constellations is a 4-month group that will explore themes of clarity and inner knowing among other things. We will meet each month for 2 hours and there will be office hours between.
Each session will have time for reflection, experiential engagement, exploration of ideas, and more.
Through this format, you can expect, enough rhythm to follow, enough structure to feel held by, and ample space for insights to arise that enrich the journey. I will share my latest, ideas, research, and custom exercises, which I think of as micro experiential journeys.
For millennia people have gone on journeys and pilgrimages. These journeys served a variety of purposes including connection with something greater, finding resolution, or seeking an answer to a question. Constellations is a journey that will begin right where you are and invite you to explore the questions and invitations that are right at your doorstep as well as on the larger horizon you’re moving toward.
The group will be small to allow for space and connection. There are still just a couple spots left. Tickets are on sale till August 15th. Learn more here.
Traversing the Rainbow: A Process-Oriented Approach to Working with Altered States of Consciousness
Dates: PDT - Fridays, 4:00-6:30pm, September, 9th, 16th, & 23rd.
AEST - Saturdays 9:00-11:30am, September, 10th , 17th & 24th
In September I’ll be teaching a three-part series on working with altered states of consciousness in ourselves and with others.
We each hold the ability to experience a variety of states of consciousness, from the mundane to the profound. These states give us access to a spectrum of feelings, insights, and ways of knowing, and can invite us into our wholeness. Yet, depending on the culture we live in, and the family system we grew up in we may learn to favor certain states and marginalize others. In doing so we turn against part of our nature and miss an opportunity to connect with other insights and ways of knowing. Click here for more information.
As always, please feel free to be in touch!
Here’s an image from the marshes of Whidbey Island where I grew up!
