Everything Is Going To Be Alright

December 10th, 2010 by Kathleen

Everything Is Going To Be Alright, Martin Creed

In the span of a few hours yesterday I was twice in the presence of this line and familiar saying. With its multiple meanings dependent on the context and content in which it finds itself and the observer or listener taking it in, I was struck by my repeated encounter in two very different scenarios.  The first – with Martin Creed’s installation on the roof of the Rennie Gallery in Vancouver, BC.  It seems perfectly placed there overlooking Vancouver’s eastside and Canada’s notoriously poorest neighbourhood.

My second meeting was in the company of a friend who just received the good news that she is cancer-free.  The line came to her prior to the news, in the form of a Derek Mahon poem with this title.  She ‘happened’ to come across it the evening before she received her result.  She shared it with me as we sipped a glass of champagne in celebration.

How should I not be glad to contemplate
the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
but there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
and the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.

I have nothing to add, perhaps only something to take away:

Everything Is All Right.

The Paradox Of Polarity

December 8th, 2010 by Kathleen

Considering the dictionary meanings of Paradox and Polarity sheds a little humour on our common humanity.  The dictionary says that Paradox means ‘seemingly absurd yet really true’ while Polarity is the ‘presence or manifestation of two opposite or contrasting principles or tendencies.’

Both are true of all of us.  In our blindspot, we can’t see the ‘seemingly absurd yet really true’ characteristics that are part of who we are.  Even as we go through life ‘presencing or manifesting opposite or contrasting principles or tendencies’ that are as much us as the colour of our eyes, we either cannot or don’t want to see the Paradox of our own unique Polarity.

We need this tension.  The contrast is key to our individual and collective development and the very relationship that keeps the essence of who we are evolving and transforming.

LearningYearning, ChallengeGift, SkillCapacity are just a sampling of the polarity elements that make us human and on which our QuintessentialYou Blueprint spins a seeming paradox.  Denial is futile – Acceptance is potent and fruitful!  Collaboration with this tension is the very doorway to fulfillment and genuine contribution.

“The same polarity of the male and female principle exists in nature; not only, as is obvious in animals and plants, but in the polarity of the two fundamental functions, that of receiving and penetrating. It is the polarity of earth and rain, of the river and the ocean, of night and day, of darkness and light, of matter and spirit.”…. Eric Fromm

What Is Your Favourite World-Changing Gift Idea?

December 7th, 2010 by Kathleen

An article by Julia Moulden in today’s Huffington Post Living Section posed this question.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julia-moulden/joy-to-the-world-share-yo_b_791648.html

Here’s my absolute favourite world-changing gift idea:

Pick someone in your very near vicinity: family / neighbour/ colleague / acquaintance …even better if you choose someone to whom you don’t often give of yourself…. and do just that …give of yourself….in a way that makes a difference to them and their needs over time.  For me, this is a way of remembering and reminding that as we focus on giving back in today’s society, we include those in our immediate tangible reach!

Imagine if we all did that for one individual….an exquisite statement about who we are and ……….ahhh! a changed world right in our own backyard!!

Easier ‘Done’ Than Said

December 5th, 2010 by Kathleen

“Desires are expressed when the man who has conceived them assumes the attitude of mind that would be his if the states desired were already expressed.” …Neville, 1942, Freedom For All

My most recent reading of this quote had me think about this idea as it relates to how we show up – what we present to the world and what others notice about our state of being.  If we come to the table wishing for some circumstance or condition to be true we cannot escape the presentation of lack – wishing for what isn’t yet available or visible.  Others note a missing – that gap between desire and expression.  If we arrive impregnated with our idea and desire, the thing or condition pending hardly matters.  Confidence and certainty attract support and collaboration.  Fruition is already experienced in the space.

The unique IntrinsicDesire that informs ‘Who we each are’ and What our experience is in the realization of it fully accomplished is key to how we show up.  We can say whatever we want and ‘work’ at what we say being so.  Or, we can access the reality of this innate desire ‘being’ so and live the brand we already are… Easier ‘Done’ Than Said!

Communicating Who We Are?..or..What We’d Like To Be?

December 2nd, 2010 by Kathleen

Here’s my response to Malcolm Levene’s Huffington Post column today: Communicating Who You Really Are, Both Online And Off:

…..I firmly believe that the core issue that comes before HOW we present ourselves is, in fact, knowing who that Self is! So much of branding in general and now, personal branding in particular­, falls back to the notion of ‘how do I make myself look good’ versus the genuine communicat­ion of who I am and the ‘LivingBra­nd’ that is me – the exquisite essence + expression that is each one of us!

I think if we distinguish the desire that lives at our very core (and yes! we do have access to this IntrinsicDesire) and create from there, we do communicate who we are… with integrity, elegance, and impeccability!

You can check the article out here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/malcolm-levene/who-are-you_1_b_788847.html

What do you have to say?