Global Heart

"Invite the pain in and bring it to circle so that we can be a part of that transformation."
- Rev. Claudia Roblee

Finally I have emerged from the deep silence that was left in the interim of time since my last blog post. I have been carefully reflecting upon the life lessons of the winter season experienced thus far internally and externally. I kept finding myself wanting to share pieces of my journey to peace yet having trouble finding the motivation and words that I deemed worthy enough to broadcast over the internet. My friend Djaloki spoke of a time that there would be a shift in collective consciousness of humanity and that time he has spoken of is now. Djaloki is a co-founder of Wisdom Circle Ministries along with Rev. Claudia Roblee. He is also a resident of Haiti and sent the following message that was shared with the prayer circle on Tuesday that shook me out of my apathy. Below are his words that I felt moved to share with you.

Wisdom from Djaloki's heart
"What we see and what we hear from mainstream media is shaped by all kinds of overt and covert agendas. Even what looks obvious and what seems sensible is often designed to manipulate our consciousness at various levels. I invite you to question everything you are told, even what you are led to think apparently by yourself, and this includes this very message. The urgent and acute need for help in Ayiti and the global response of solidarity it is producing are not exempt from manipulation and deception.

This is a golden opportunity to sharpen our heart intelligence and to tap into the global readiness for genuine respect, dignity, sustainability, interconnectedness, relationships and love, which the Ayitian people are currently expressing on behalf of humanity as a whole. We will access this collective knowing from the depths of our individual heart-mind-spirit (not from mainstream media) by nurturing our heart powered processes of thought, speech and action through prayer, meditation, self investigation and healing, humility, support and service to others, pure intention and recognizing our genuine intuition from our mental addictive habits.

When we learn to listen to our global heart through the vibrations of our "individual" heart, we evolve to a higher individual and collective frequency and consciousness. Then we understand the utmost sacredness of the hundreds of thousands of deaths and the extreme pain and suffering of millions through sudden massive tragedies such as the recent one in Ayiti, or others that will come, until we absorb the lessons and the wisdom they are teaching us." - Rev. Djaloki

I invite you to celebrate Black History Month with hip hop namaste as together we surf the collective wave of transformation. And if you feel moved please do participate in the prayer circle that prompted this debut 2010 blog post from hip hop namaste. For the next two weeks to a month we will be gathering together each night via Skype to engage in the dance of the heart. Please join us in this paradigm shift of the collective power of the heart. To gain a more intimate view into the after math of the earthquake in Ayaiti (Haiti) please check out wisdom circle ministries web blog for up to date information from Djaloki who is a survivor of the earthquake and a dear friend.

2010 evolution

Since the last post, an emotional firestorm of life force ravaged my very existence and I had to stay calm, grounded and not too cranky and irritable. And you know what, when you try, it really does work. I just got back from another intensive at BGI and I was surrounded by so much love I didn't even hit rock bottom. I just floated in between. Rested. And then walked out the other side of the emotional firestorm. And here we meet again. Stay tuned. Check out the other blog hiphop namaste to watch the evolution of my own personal revolution of self. I shall escort myself to peace. Who's coming with me?

delicious

if you don't know what it is. find out. i heart delicious. life feels pretty delicious without deadlines and more time to read for sport. i am happily self teaching about...

community economic development
local food
greek mythology
spirituality

again delicious.

Eleven

Online Communities Elluminate Eleven
I missed this awesome Elluminate and am now catching up to the topic covered about creating and maintaining online communities. Quite excellent juicy content. What amazing information about online facilitation! As a budding entrepreneur with the goal of launching my first venture through a virtual office platform for project management infomation in tandem with face to face power meetings together are my personal hopes and dreams for the future. I found Nancy's talk to be very pertinent and to give me provoctive material to think about. Online facilitation is certainly a learned skill and helpful with conducting face to face facilitation that is necessary to educating others about your "offering" as a budding social engineer of business. Hey that's got a nice ring to it. While watching the Elluminate I live blogged. My new favorite way to capture a entry way into a portal of a particular point in space and time. And by the way I see that my absence was noted in the class and I sincerely apologize.

I must admit that I have been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug as my team and I were debuting our pitch to real world investors outside of the controlled environment of the BGI classroom. I was so engaged in our local food and living economy project I got tunnel vision. I am however still completely infatuated with the long term folksonomy implication of this pioneering class into social media and social change class. It will be the cornerstone of my creative work. Eighteen months for now I would like to conduct an experiment in the learning journal to record my prediction of massive traction in regards to fostering social change locally, nationally, and internationally. I am ambitious. I've got nothing to lose. I am excited about growing my digital identities. One as Hip Hip Namaste focused on art. consciousness. sustainability and my professional alter ego of a passionate capital campaign for sustainable industry.

Can't wait to dig in and do more research. Fabulous learnings for me tonight. A big appreciation to ChristorpherA for paying such careful attention to my request in the beginning of this course and was addressed in the final online class. Excellent. I really value this co-creation type of teaching style and it is very flattering to be a part of a group that is ChristopherA's social media change project. How far down the rabbit hole can we go with social change and our BGI network alone not to mention our diversified professional networks? The possibilities are infinite especially when you level the playing field with social web for social change. An engine to service the revolution. Nice.

NOTES: may want to scan following content

Me: identity
WE: community
Many: network

Online Communities Nancy
aggregation around content vs. community around relationship

distinction of human dynamics, consciousness, confidence, risk tolerance, styles, emotion

abuse of power, distributing power through appreciative inquiry

We: power trust dynamic, shared forward movement or shared blocking, place of rapid change, attention to maintenance

how is it manifest, and how it is applied?

coaching and reflective journals a method of support and distributive power

whole systems change methods/management - change handbook - world cafe, virtual teams, keeping tract of interrelated tasks. project management rapid change, scaling out

aggregation of many communities

leadership looks different in community and networks, different facilitation skills may be needed

Planning a change process, amplify and support social change work in the formal stance after we have left the program and graduate in 6 intensives

"network level" diversity of skill set and professional industries hub connection to leverage

more likely find connection we need in a wider networks might be more useful

networks
how do you stay connected visibly, tend to use community approach

how do you use each other as intermediary into networks and having practice doing that?
spidergram provision technology to community to practice
9 orientations that show up in communities
Assessment tool for clients, or other organizations
Need a digital and be visible with digital identity, crucial component

http://www.km4dev.org

Give it your attention when you have a clear outcome
Activate a network, amplification of the flag. keyword management using RSS feeds

Faster and more is not always better, how to use the network to filter and share responsibility is a fabulous strategy. where do you get into the river and when do you leave the rest to your network?

What is the most valuable things about your relationship together 12 months out? Reflect on the purpose of connection now and then later? Connections often morph into something else.
Value: stay together as a community
ie. every other month open call, whoever shows up show up
what can they say yes to? (in regards to staying in touch after graduation)

Making an offer in the point of time to connect
synchronous - may put if off, can do later
what is important right now.
async - keep a connection with the class other the time

synchronous has to be easy to say yes too is the heart beat that keeps the engine going
combining face to face online connection - mixing modalities keeps interest in a larger group

post mortem

Blink. Blink. Blink. That would be my eyes trying to adjust to the phenomenal pace of this class. I am a changed woman because of me believing in myself and cultivating the voice of personal integrity. All because I get by with a little help from my friends. My classmates came through the web during some of my darkest moments this Fall and lifted me up with their words of encouragement. At times I felt so isolated up here in the artic north thousands of miles away from the core of my BGI peeps yet through the culmination of great class discussion and exercises I still felt connected through this piece of technology that rests on my lap as we speak. Or should I say as I type. Wow. The pace of this class was swift and furious mimicking the pace of my life as a graduate student. What I really liked the most about this class are the readings, theories, and collaborative teaching style of ChristopherA. I really felt the vibe of creating the future together. And I am forever grateful for the archived info. I will most certainly be coming back for more. On my journey to peace I landed in the lap of BGI. I arrived at the water's edge of innovation and I am blinded by the brilliance of the light that reflects off of my amazing future. Yes, and...this class for sure has been the gateway drug. The possibilities are spread before me vast and endlessly exciting. "When I grow up" meaning my post BGI life I plan to continue to leverage the power of the web to do international peace work in Ayiti. Yes, I do hope to take Hip Hop Namaste on the road and continue my journey of...

Life imitates art. Living peace out loud. Building a bridge between that which is divided in two. Thanks to this class and the powerful branding exercise I am able to OWN the POWER of me.

Eat, Drink, and Save the world! Social media in action!

SLOW FOODS THANKSGIVING 2009

Slow Foods and Buy Nothing Day have intersected and culminated in Mauri Parks and Miriam Easley's Social Media project for Using the Social Web for Social Change. We are two 2010 BGI graduate C7 hopefuls that are great friends, Islandwood roommates, and budding change agents who want to influence our sphere of influence and encourage you to practice your sustainability leadership skills within your own sphere of influence this holiday season. Pay it forward sustainability style. Thanksgiving is a harvest of food and blessings. Let's celebrate that together!

Instructions:
Eat, drink, and Save the world! No action is too big or small, Yes we can!
EAT & DRINK locally; engage in meaningful conversation among friends on Buy Nothing Day November 27th otherwise known as "Black Friday"
No matter how you get involved let us know your plans
Leave a comment on Mauri Parks or Miriam Easley's blogspot hip hop namaste or greengov


Action Ideas:
Engage in a national twitter online live feed on Friday BND hosted by Adbusters #BND09
Engage a perfect stranger with the a provocative question around consumerism, sustainability, and climate change and post the question in your social media network
Send us your photos
Send us a video log
Post your own blog and link to our blog or eat, drink, and save the world website
Pledge to do your own event

Stay tuned. Tomorrow the website will be unveiled. Keep checking in on our blogs for more information.

Ride the swell of a collective consciousness social media project. Love and gratitude.

Mauri and Miriam

exorcism

Dear other BGI faculty,
In response to ChristopherA's request that we post in our learning journal what we find valuable about the experience, it has been taking my LPD skills on center stage. I am actually practicing all of those things that we talk about and have been applying the processes to my visible thoughts on the web. I have grown tremendously this quarter by exposing my naked vulnerabilities online. And my worst fear came true and it was a "safe test" that my head did not turn around backwards exorcist style as I expected. The fear regarding sharing personal painful experiences and memories around race can be scary. Sure enough, I post some deep raw feelings and then I get attacked personally by someone who thought it would be grand to hurl racist words and epithets through cyber space at me. Why is this reoccurring theme in my life showing up yet again?

Over and over this happens. Oh you are just walking down the street, I'll shout ni**er because that is super clever. Oh you belittle an artistic expression of the spelling of the word "rize" that is in reference to a hip hop documentary produced by a famous photographer and then call me the fool. This is distinctly why I have no desire at all to visit the south with it's history of the deep seated culture of racism of America, and what happened? The south, a resident of Georgia to be precise, came to me through the computer calling me a fool and hip hop artists "neo-coons". Funny thing though I agree with him in some respects that corporate hip hop has become too commercialized into pop and really quite silly but I don't agree with hurting my feelings because you feel like you have the privilege to do so. I did sleep under the bridge, broke and destitute through an emotional firestorm. ("homeless under the bridge" common language at BGI of first year LPD exploration into Kegan Lahey of hitting rock bottom.) Instead of spiraling down into anger and depression like I usually do I am trying to hold space for creating a world that I would like to see. That's all I can do. I will not feed the darkness of another, I have enough all on my own thank you very much. I used to hate the whole notion of being "public" on here and in just a few short weeks later I feel empowered enough to let go of self limiting expectations bolstered by the silence of deep autumn. I've been called a coon. I've been called a fool. I've been called worse but I strive to only live well. And that Mr. racist resident of Georgia guy, not even your hate speech can take away my stride. That's what my learning journal has allowed me to do. Organizing my thoughts into integrity that allows for public scrutiny commenced in an eloquent way.
bringing grace back.
The only rule of my personal learning journal in regards to punctuation, spelling, content, etc. are you ready?
this is the best part Ever.
the rules here are mine.

in my own voice. in my own time.
MP