Edgewalkers

Serving Those Who Walk Between the Worlds

Edgewalkers

Calling All Visionaries

As I write this, our election day in the U.S. looms, with all of the potential fear, anger and chaos that might occur, no matter who wins.  The Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S. is well into its third wave, with no let-up in sight. Russian crime groups have hacked into the computers of U.S. hospitals, making treatment impossible for some patients, and life even worse for exhausted healthcare workers. The latest GDP report shows signs of economic recovery, but unemployment numbers are double what they were when the pandemic began. The wildfires in California have doubled in size in the last few days and approximately 70,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate in Orange County alone. Hurricanes continue to batter a storm-weary Gulf Coast.

Every one of these situations is the result of a worldview issue that no longer fits reality, and perhaps never did. Examples include White supremacy, climate denial, and buying into the political privileges of wealth.  If you are watching TV or reading the news, you might assume that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. You may think that there is nothing you can do and that there is nothing that can stop these trends.

You must not give into despair and hopelessness, no matter how bad things look at times. An unknown Persian Sufi poet taught, “This too shall pass.” Abraham Lincoln recounted in a speech in 1859; “It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!”

Hope is the antidote to despair, and what gives me hope is that there are many things going on below the media radar that do not make news. These efforts are the results of visionaries. I have been particularly interested in groups that are committed to shifting our collective consciousness in ways that care for all living things and the planet. There are many approaches and they each contribute to collaborative transformation. The Global Coherence Initiative, co-sponsored by HeartMath and the Institute of Noetic Sciences meets online regularly with thousands of people in shared meditative practices with a focus on compassionate care, cooperation and peace. Pivot Projects is a group of over 200 people from around the world with expertise in artificial intelligence economics, job creation, climate science, spirituality and public health who meet in teams to develop projects on the local and regional level to create a healthy prosperity recovery for people and the planet. The Global Consciousness Institute approaches supporting the shift view with a commitment to applied research and the aim of educating leaders in a holistic way. All of these efforts are others like them are places where Edgewalkers feel right at home.

Edgewalkers are visionary and literally have visions. And we need visionaries more than ever right now. What enhances your ability to be a visionary?  To begin with, you have to care about the future. It helps to have a regular contemplative practice that connects you to whatever is Transcendent for you. Time in silence and time in nature have been an essential part of visionary practices for millennia. If a vision or spiritual guidance comes, it is essential to write it down in order to ground it in the material world. Share your vision with trusted others and know that if you are given a vision, you will also be given the means to manifest it.  If you aren’t sure how to get started, we recommend Martin Rutte’s Project Heaven on Earth (www.projectheavenonearth.com). 

We’d love to hear your perspective on visions and being visionary.  Please feel free to share your vision of the future as we emerge from these challenging times and build a more loving world that works for all.

Photo credit: Darius Bashar from Unsplash

Giving Integrity Its Chance to Dance

I like it when things are in harmony, and display balance, that two dance the Tango, and colours match. Because I like the notion of togetherness and even oneness. I like this notion so much that I find comfort in pairs and even pairs of pairs forming a collective. Common unity for community, that’s me. 

Pairs of words fuel my sense of togetherness. Like Ham and Eggs, Bucket and Spade, Swings and Roundabouts, Love and Marriage, Dark and Light. I could pair on and on in this line up of positively positive pairings. But it’s the word Integrity that is under my spotlight today. And I don’t feel good. In fact I immediately feel right off balance. 

It’s strange as I think I should like the word integrity because it suggests ‘talking in’ as in the ‘inte’ bit. Plus, it suggests we can be gritty, as in the ‘grity’ bit. 

But the word integrity causes me to squirm. 

I know why this is. It is because integrity is a tall order in a world where the next moment is unknown, let alone the knowing of next week, next month or next year. I fear that not knowing places a strain on integrity, and under such stress integrity can be tempted to defer to lip service, instead of its birth partners, honour and trust.

And here lies a golden opportunity. 

In these last stages of DC (during corona), as we prepare for AC (after corona), life calls for a new set of sets, not the ‘same-old’ of BC (before corona). If we are awake to listen, we are invited to re-imagine, re-purpose and re-start. This includes re-visiting individual values that guide behaviour and ways of being. It’s been widely proven that values manifest as actions. And our actions result in what each bring to the world.

Now my attention is stoked. 

I am excited about integrity and its guiding role in the new realm, especially when acts of integrity include letting go of things, traits, habits and stuff that just does not serve any more. 

This curious moment in time offers the time to pack luggage not baggage for AC. The scared pause of DC is enabling a rest on the edge – the quiet time to talk in, before we are again called to talk out.  

In the book Edgewalkers, Dr Judi Neal names Integrity as one of the five Edgewalker Qualities of Being. Here is how she defines it : A commitment to live in alignment with your core values, to align your words and your behavior, and to keep your word.

We each have the chance to re-pair, re-align and re-set. 

So, let’s take it. 

Let’s press re-set and dance a new dance with integrity in honour of our role in igniting a world that calls for common sense to nourish common purpose to ensure common good – of love, of prosperity and of peace.  

Susan K. Furness
Senior Associate, Edgewalkers

The Importance of PASSION in Evolutionary Times!

Nelson Mandela said, “There’s no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” 

Passion is one the five Edgewalker Qualities of Being inherent in those people who are always on the leading edge. Passion is an intense focus on your purpose by using your gifts in a way that adds value to your life and the world.

Edgewalkers more naturally develop and integrate these qualities. They often intend to live their life fully and on purpose. Edgewalkers understand that passion is essential in creating the life and contributing to the work they are called to do while growing in the process.

It takes courage to pursue your passion, to trust and allow the energy of passion to fuel your purpose and guide your life and work.  

I have consciously chosen to cultivate my passion for travel, exploration and living on the edge. Passion supports me in moving ahead and beyond where I thought I could be in spite of any inner hesitation or outer obstacles. It inspires and anchors me as I journey nationally and internationally, curious in what is next, as I co-create with the Universe!

No matter what you do in life, the key to achieving success and happiness is passion. When you are passionate you are on purpose, creating, expansive, excited.  

There are people who have all the money in the world and have achieved their list of goals yet still feel unfulfilled, unsatisfied. When someone feels this way, it is often because they did not identify and follow their true passion in life. Whether they were discouraged or did not feel they could make a living while pursuing their passions, they ended up not authentically living their lives.

How can you access and cultivate more Passion to assist you in moving forward and evolving during the uncertain times we find ourselves in? 

Take the time to discover your passions. Consider what brings you genuine happiness. Explore what you enjoy doing that does not feel like work. Your passion is the thing that makes you excited. You want to talk about it. It is effortless. You don’t mind putting time and energy towards it. You are naturally inspired. 

Passion feels less like work and more like your contribution to the world. Once you find and begin to express your passion, you are on the way to reaching fulfillment and growing in the process.

The benefits of committing to your passion result in feeling more joy, fulfillment, and the willingness to push yourself to evolve and do better.  Passion is what gives your life meaning. It can be contagious and inspire others to achieve more and to collaborate with you.

You might be passionate about something that you cannot make your livelihood, but it is still worthy of your time, effort and curiosity.  Honor and take time for your passions.  With all the uncertainty and unknown, the world needs your passionate expression more than ever, to model what is possible and inspire us to greatness.

Patricia Campanile 2020

Self-Awareness in Times of Chaos

Delphi Oracle - Know Thyself

There were three maxims carved into stone at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece, commonly referred to as the Delphi Oracle.  The first maxim, or expression of general truth, was “Know Thyself.”  To “Know Thyself,” or “Self-Awareness,” is foundational to a spiritual life. It is as important for individuals as it is for society.

Humanity is at a crossroads and we need to decide if we are going to evolve to our next step of collective potential or if we are going to self-destruct through violence, greed, and false ideas of separation from each other and from nature.  If we recognize our interdependence with each other, our decisions will shift from “what’s best for me” to “what’s best for the common good.” So how do we shift our collective consciousness from “me” to “we”? 

Change begins within, with the self, and potentially expands outward to groups, organizations, and larger systems. The fundamental principle of development is “Know Thyself,” or self-awareness, which is the foundational quality of being an Edgewalker. According to Otto Sharmer, author of Leading from the Emerging Future, the fundamental principle of systems change is to help the system to become aware of itself.

Edgewalkers are committed to some kind of personal practice that allows them to listen to that inner voice that guides them. In the midst of all the chaos, competing demands, and short time frames that we find in so much of modern life, it is essential to take time for silence and reflection to know oneself and one’s connection to what is transcendent. Organizations that wish to transform themselves also commit to collective practices such as silence before meetings, and periodic spiritual retreats or time in nature.

In the coaching we do at Edgewalkers International, our process begins by exploring what the client currently does to nurture their own self-awareness. It is amazing that most people have had some kind of self-reflective practice in the past, but many seem to have let it go these days. In Zen practice the master says simply, “begin again.” Jesus invited us to be “as little children.” I encourage my clients — and I encourage you –to think about some practice you have had in the past that worked for you. Can you “begin again,” perhaps taking it in small steps? Is there some new practice that you have thought about taking on that you could get into with child-like joy and innocence? Journaling? Walking in the woods? Ta’i chi? Sitting for five minutes in a sacred space? Attending an online religious service or an online spiritual workshop?

We need the time for self-reflection because we are called to do important work in the world. We need that time to discern our true sense of purpose, and to be sure that we are taking care of body, mind, heart and spirit as we do our work.