May 2004

In this new millennium where the big money politically is made starting wars, where televisions' "best" are shows like Survivor, where friendships are fleeting and tactical, and the liberation of the sixties has resulted in a culture where images of women in magazine ads and music videos pose like Playboy models, I can at times feel separated from my earthly fellows.

When competing with each other is rewarded rather than co-operating and co-creating, then finding meaning in life that sustains the soul not just the pocketbook will become much more difficult for the next generation. When I am over-exposed to this world and our seeming devolution, it is time to don the gumboots and sit in a tree somewhere and breath in the "connectedness" that comes so swiftly and deeply when hanging in the hum of nature.

Hanging in the trees one reconnects to the real powers of the world: the earth, the air, the water and sun. As we give thanks to them by just acknowledging them, we plug back into the web of life and become safe and whole.

Nature is so giving. All around us are plants and shelter, water and warmth, music and movement, growth, celebration, and transformation. Perhaps best of all are the spiritual connections we can make with the creatures here, whether they are birds or skunks, clouds, mountains, dogs, herbs, or other humans.

When we connect with a plant that has cured us, or a porcupine that has eaten pine nuts from our hands, or been swept with emotion as we make contact with the patient intelligence of a dolphin, we are touched by the vast mystery and changed by our participation in the dance. 

Ultimately, the good times in life are those when we experience a glimmer of whom we really are, and feel our profound connection to the love pulsing through the universe.

If getting out to nature is not that easy and authorities stop you from climbing trees in the park, there are other ways of countering the negative effects of seeing kids at the local high school trying to emulate Paris Hilton. One recommended way is through "committing random acts of kindness and senseless beauty."

The other day I received an email from Joe Powers, of New Jersey, who had read a Sacred Journey's column and just e-mailed to reach out to a like-minded soul to offer assistance in supporting my herbal tea company in any way he could. End of email. I noticed his web site address was www.soulgraffiti.com and went to visit. His whole raison d'etre is to support acts of kindness and facilitate the sharing of stories of kindness.

I signed up for the newsletter and noticed he was coming to Toronto in May to run a workshop on creating kindness. Intrigued, I called and we had a great chat about his book Soul Graffiti on how we are changed by acts of kindness, whether it be our mood or our life mission. Joe's interest is in the more profound affects of kindness, which he calls soul graffiti. Graffiti on the wall of a building is an expression of the creative self (artist) on something permanent (the building) in a non-permanent world. Our Soul, on the other hand, is truly permanent.

"Soul Graffiti is the conscious act of illustrating on the canvas of another's soul … through acts of kindness, generosity and compassion … making a mark far brighter than any can of spray paint." The website, like the book, is filled with stories of kindness sent in from around the world: the storyteller is moved by the kindness of an other, and in the telling of the tale in turn touches the reader. The basic lesson is that the universal language is love, and kindness is love in action.

Another lesson is that, as we become conscious of our actions, we can live a more conscious life.

As it happens, Joe Powers is in Toronto this month doing a workshop on how to live a more conscious life through a process of removing the "doubt," which is a result of living in an ego-based western world where we struggle to be defined; blonde, intellectual, successful, a biologist. Our definitions limit us, and separate us from our true nature, which is "perfect and undefined."

Conversations like this revive me, and I can easily go back to ignoring the soft porn on all the billboards, because after all, that is not my world.
Instead, I can head off to check out the smiles everyone is wearing as the Dome fills with those of us consciously choosing to do ceremony with the Dalai Lama tomorrow. Equal and indivisible, opening our hearts; this is urban life at it's sweetest.

Soul Graffiti workshop with Joe Powers May 16, go to www.SoulGraffiti.com or call (732) 297-8449.