‘In fact, the world is so intertwingled that it may very well be impossible for any piece of information to exist disconnected from everything else.’*

Everything is connected, everything exists in relationship to everything else.  We can’t deal with this all the time so we have to separate.

We have become so adept at separating and can forget to reconnect again.

Nazi death-camp survivor Viktor Frankl developed logotherapy (a therapy of meaning) to help people to connect to a meaningful life, connect difficulty to a redemptive perspective, and connect with others or an other who loves you unconditionally.**

The future is connected and connecting.

Whilst severe disconnectors comes in the form of pride, greed, and foolishness, we have the power to connect. Humility, gratitude, and faithfulness enable us to reach out to those around us,  the universe, and our future Self – head, heart, and will.

I have to ask myself: Am I connector or disconnector?

Here’s a longer excerpt from Joseph Jaworski’s Source, which I thought would be interesting for thinking about deep connectedness.  Jaworski quotes cardiologist and researcher Pim van Lommel who sees the universe as a field of knowledge, wisdom and unconditional love.  We know the universe yields to scientific analysis, but it also opens to the intuitive – scientists and artists, connected:

“This extended or enhanced consciousness is based on indestructible and constantly evolving fields of information where all knowledge, wisdom, and unconditional love are present and available, and these fields of consciousness are stored in a dimension without our concept of time and space, with non-local and universal interconnectedness.  One could call this our Higher consciousness, Divine consciousness, Cosmic consciousness.”^

(*From Sunni Brown’s The Doodle Revolution.)
(**See Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning.)
(^Pim van Lommel quoted in Joseph Jaworski’s Source.)

When a friend was heading off on a work trip to Africa, and I would be cat-sitting, she asked if I could put What’s app on my phone to make it easier and cheaper to stay in touch.  So I did.

An app is the software, like skills and abilities.

An opp is what we do with these.  The opportunity to do something from necessary to amazing.  We’re moving into a brave new world in which, with imagination, opps abound.

Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler report the coming of a Cambrian explosion in robotics, replacing Humans in manufacturing.  Dan Barry adds:

“If I were an exponential entrepreneur looking to create tremendous value, I’d look for those jobs that are least enjoyable for humans to do … .”*

And the other side of this? Seth Godin sees coming a rise in the value of ideas.**

I was reflecting on all of this whilst pondering how we can finish life well, whatever our past experiences and history.

This is where ops come in.

Ops are options.  The possibility of switching from one course of action to another is an option.  And so too is the possibility of switching from one life course to another.

In this brave new world, there will be more ideas, more options, more opportunities, which in turn create a braver new world.

All around, there are companies of dreams coming together, nurturing and enabling people to add more opps to their lives.

“We are to be, not to be like.”^

(*From Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler’s Bold.)
(**See Seth Godin’s Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?)
(^Shared by my friend Diallo Smith in one such company of dreams.  I use company in its original sense of a group of people sharing bread together.)

‘The key … is … to bring forth the emerging reality as it desires.  To act on behalf of the future in this way requires a deep sense of responsibility and selflessness.’*

‘The ones who speak love into our lives have an eternal way about them.’*

The future will be shaped by those prepared to bring their foresight, intention, and love.

Whether our contribution is big or small isn’t what matters – everyone’s contribution is welcomed. What will be important is our ability to get out the way and allow what is emerging in the life of another, in a tribe or organisation, in a community or culture.

On Wednesday, I found myself in a room with a company of people doing just this.  There’s  was an idea of event shared, but then those who’d everyone together got out of the way, asking everyone to shape what this event will be, this small act of the emerging future.

(*From Joseph Jaworski’s Source.)
(**From Donal Miller’s Scary Close.)

I watched the dawn appear again this morning, and I took another picture.  It’s the one on the right.

It’s not nearly as beautiful as yesterday’s.  The clouds make all the difference.

Of course, in a place like Scotland (where we suffer Vitamin D deficiency) we prefer blue skies and sunshine.

There’s something about the things we wish our lives hadn’t experienced, though – the cloud moments and actions and experiences – which make for something more beautiful when the light of a new day lights us up, something we just don’t get with perfect.

Embracing rather than hiding the clouds is a healthier way to live.

Donald Miller writes about how a lecturing psychologist had noticed the students who knew a lot about their families coped better when they faced challenges; they knew about the ups and downs of their family which had been shared honestly and openly.*

This is my second lesson from the dawn.  I’ll embrace the failures and hurts and mistakes and characteristics which are not so good or pretty about me and let the new day do something transformative with them.

(*From Donald Miller’s Scary Close.)

Today is the September Equinox.

The days are growing shorter, the darkness increases.

When I began journaling this morning it was still dark.  But as I wrote, the promise of the dawn began to appear over the houses opposite, above, a few clouds ribboning dark against a fast brightening blue.

It wasn’t long before the dark ribbon clouds lit up salmon pink: a new day and a new beginning coming with the promise of taking me into light.

The clouds were then set on fire with pink light and still the sun hadn’t risen.

The promise of a new day is the most beautiful, teaching me a lesson.

I turn off the light in the room and the colour and brightness outside seems to intensify.  Now there are more clouds and they are turning orange and yellow through to pink, I take a picture – the sun almost here.

A lightbulb may immediately change things (and I’m glad for this, living in Scotland with very short days to come), but nature reminds me life moves more slowly through stages.*

I know I can’t suddenly and quickly become a person filled with more light than dark.  I must turn up every day and trust the slow journey of small things which I hope will see me becoming a person who might brings more light as foresight, intention, and love into the world.

This morning the dawn causes me to value my slow journey in the same direction.

(*Check out this post from Seth Godin for a snapshot of lightbulb culture.)

Yesterday, I heard about a TED talk with this title.  Except it isn’t the title, so I’ll have to keep searching – at least I can use the title for this post.

The person telling me about this intrigued when she mentioned how the speaker warned against not acting in a superior or inferior way, but to do the interior work.

It is in honest interior work we find the real treasure in our life.  I often argue that humility is having a true understanding of one’s self: not too high – superior – and not too low – inferior.

Only the person who has a true perception and understanding of themselves can grow in a whole way, helping grow and develop others too.  Humility burns all the rubbish away, the rubbish we hide ourselves with, making it more possible to connect with others and to do what one must do: crystallising our intent or art.

“Now you say something interesting.”*

The words come from someone who speaks bluntly, the result of a head injury.

What would I say if I was at a table with hime and he asked me to say something interesting?

What would you say?

But we all have something interesting to say, we don’t have to wish we were someone else more interesting.  Each has an unfinished story about our lives being added to every day.  (We will always say interesting things about what we’re interested in.)

People are amazing, aren’t they?  We need to try and do what it is we love – every day and, wherever possible, together.  (This is my attempt at something interesting to say.)

McNair Wilson tells us, ‘To be less creative is to be less human, less you.’**

‘An artist is someone who brings humanity to a problem, who changes someone else for the better, who does work that can’t be written down in a manual … .^

I knew you had something interesting to say.

(*From Donald Miller’s Scary Close.)
(**From McNair Wilson’s Hatch.)
(^From Seth Godin’s Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?)

The earth spins.

Our small spot on this planet turns to face the sun with a regularity we call day, moving us into the light.

The universe does not keep us in the dark for very long, each day offering a new way of seeing, knowing, and doing, even larger and more beautiful than the day before.

‘Seeing the world as open and full of possibility is the fundamental shift of mind that opens the door to connecting to the Source.  Each of us has a capacity for awe, wonder, and reverence.’*

It’s very possible to be ushered into the light the universe provides every day yet stay in the darkness.  One day there’ll be no more opportunities provided, our darkness will be secured, but while its day …

‘Your worldview is the set of expectations and biases you bring to a situation before any new data appear.’**

Bring on the new data!

(*From Joseph Jaworski’s Source.)
(**From Seth Godin’s Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?) 

Yesterday, I was watching the live session which began U.Lab – a massive open online course (MOOC)* exploring transformation of business, society, and self.

During this, those watching were invited to tweet their response to two question?

What is ending?
What is beginning?

Technology made it possible for responses to form word clouds.

What is ending? The two most used words: WORLD DYING.

What is beginning? Two of the most used words after world: PEOPLE COLLABORATION.

I sensed the beginning of a creative connectivity.  As I listen to the whispers from our future, and experience people getting together and dreaming, I wonder about how we’re increasingly “getting” something: our capacity to make all things flourish in beautiful ways.

We live within systems we see as being greedy or foolish or hurtful, but we’re waking up to the truth, we are the system, which is more good news than bad, because it means we can change things, we can create new systems.

Whatever the past has been, the future can be different.  We’ll each see this differently, and our perspectives are hugely important – we are creative and generous beings, enjoying life as we express these things.

(*There are 35,000 participants, and more in China- accessing through a different platform but the second largest participating country.  It looks like you can still sign up.)

Whispers don’t have to be audible; they can be a look or an attitude or an action.

Every day, we’ve opportunity to whisper things about a larger life, with opening deeper truth which we haven’t fathomed the half of yet.

We can also influence people with whispers of judgement or cynicism or fear.

We don’t set out to do this; more likely, someone in the past has whispered these things into our lives from the way the world and their world was.

But when someone speaks judgementally we can whisper something about a hopeful future.

When something cynical is said, we can whisper we care and inquire positively.

When someone speaks out of their fear, we can dare to act courageously.

None of us set out to be judgemental, uncaring, or risk-averse.

These are the whispers we’ve allowed in.  When we step back, we know we want to live a bigger kind of life, to open our minds and hearts and wills.

We’ll need to identify those who whisper positively into our lives – wisdom is not found in what we know but in who we value.

We can also be whisperers of life in all its fullness to others.

These words from philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin caught my attention this morning:

“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”*

(Quoted in Joseph Jaworski’s Source.)