Edgewalkers

Serving Those Who Walk Between the Worlds

Edgewalkers

My Edgewalker Journey #10 – Walking Between Worlds – Patricia Campanile

Living in Hawi on the northern most point of the Big Island of Hawaii was beautiful and isolated. House sitting for friends on their 12 acre sanctuary was heaven on earth. I was deeply grateful to be surrounded by tropical fruit orchards and abundant flowering plants and trees, coy ponds with crystals and lotus flowers, egrets flying, cows and horses in the fields, and breathtaking views of Maui and the Pacific Ocean in the distance. My favorite thing was gazing at the infinite stars in the dark night sky. I felt at one and connected to the Universe as if I were walking between the worlds. At times I also experienced isolation, aloneness and felt small. My so called problems and life seemed insignificant in the grand scheme of things, like I was an ant invisible in an ant hill. It was a valuable yet often uncomfortable perspective that threatens the ego and invites the spirit at the same time.

The Hawaiian Islands are the most isolated place on Earth. The closest land is about 2500 miles in any direction. It can feel like heaven or hell on earth, depending on your perspective. I loved the peace and quiet, beautiful nature, expansive, nurturing energy of the land and fresh air, and being away from my life on the mainland. However, the longer I was there the more I was BEING in the quiet and not DOING and staying busy. I was reminded of how much I was driven to distraction my entire life. My New York, type A personality and east coast upbringing was still running me even though I was thousands of miles away in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The expression, “You can take the girl out of NY but you cannot take the NY out of the girl” applied here. You can be in the most beautiful, peaceful and remote place in the world, yet the peace and quiet becomes deafening and uncomfortable when the voices of self-judgement, doubt, old stories and the ego mind start to chatter. The “monkey mind” as they call it in Buddhism, become very loud. All the issues, fears, limitations and insecurities I was running away from caught up with me on that beautiful sanctuary on the Big Island. I was faced with myself, the self I did not like to BE with, feel, acknowledge.

I sought heaven, yet was still living on Earth. As an Edgewalker I understand that life has many dimensions and WALKING BETWEEN WORLDS integrates body, mind and spirit. My sense of belonging and interconnectedness with nature, the stars and greater Universe felt easy. However I also was living in a physical body with it’s challenges, human experiences and emotions, fears and concerns. Looking back the support I had from friends and neighbors including Jim Channon, and so much time alone provided me the much needed perspective to stop, get grounded, listen, feel and heal. It was as if I was having an identity crises, letting go of my old world and paradigm, yet not yet knowing where my new life and Source of Self would come from. Little did I know that my authentic self was within me waiting to be revealed. I had been searching all my life for the very thing that had been within me from birth and beyond, my Divinity, my spiritual heart, my soul. I began peeling away the layers as the journey of transformation continued.

**Lessons:

*No matter where you go there you are. You cannot run from yourself.

*Give space and time to the parts of you that want to be seen, heard, expressed. You are worthy and deserving of your love, compassion, patience and nurturing. Watch, observe, breathe and allow. As you reclaim your wholeness you reclaim your life.

*Paradise is an inside job. We can create heaven on earth when we find peace and acceptance within ourselves first.

The Edgewalker Journey Continues #4 – Evolutionary Leaps of Faith

In the Hawaiian culture ‘ohana means family, including blood relatives, extended family and intentional community. The concept of ohana emphasizes that families are bound together and members must cooperate and remember one another. I was about to connect with and learn from my Hawaiian spiritual family in magical, synchronistic ways!

After my dolphin swim I did not feel the same. My energy was expansive, open, willing. I was calm and more aware of my self and surroundings in a way I had never experienced before. In my curiosity and vulnerability I asked Life, The Universe, for a sign to guide and direct me to what, who, where was next.
I intentionally chose to cultivate my Edgewalker Skill of Sensing the Future, staying open and expectant to the CEO (Clear, Easy, Obvious) response.

I randomly opened a book on Hawaiian health, healers and retreats. A photo of a man named Jim, looking very familiar, stared back at me. He was living on the northern side of the Big Island in a town called Hawi. As I read about his work as a global consultant speaker and retreat leader I realized I met him at a World Business Academy in Santa Barbara many years before. Coincidence? No, a Divine sign. I decided to contact him and he suggested we meet in Hawi.

As I was driving north to meet Jim I got a call on my cell phone from Bonnie, a good friend in Naples, Florida. She mentioned her dear friends Joel and Michele who lived part time on the Big Island and owned Kohala Sanctuary in Hawi. The Divine Timing of her call as I was driving to the same town to meet Jim was incredible. Jim and I met in a local coffee shop in Hawi and instantly connected, reflecting on the conference we both attended years ago. While at the coffee shop I also noticed a beautiful woman who I felt connected to yet did not have an opportunity to meet. Jim introduced me to Joel and Michele who were his neighbors at the Kohala Sanctuary. It was a magical moment, leading me to the next place on my journey.

Michele and Joel invited Jim and I to their 12 acre Kohala Sanctuary – paradise on earth! When I walked onto the deck of their home I noticed the beautiful woman Mayra from the coffee shop, my future soul sister from Austria, sitting there. It turns out she also knew them and was having a retreat on their land. As I stepped out to look at the breathtaking vista of the Pacific Ocean and acres of lush gardens of fruit, flowers and vegetables I remembered seeing this view in a vision months before I left Florida when I was on a labyrinth walk. At the time I set the intention to be guided on my Edgewalker Journey of the unknown to what is next in my life. This exact view was clearly shown to me at the time yet I had no way of knowing where it was or what it would mean to me in the future.

Tears were in my eyes and as I turned around to see the dear friends who were the beginning of my Hawaiian ohana, my heart and soul tribe – Jim, Joel, Michele, Mayra. “Welcome Home” they said. Michele and Joel shared they had been praying for someone to come and live in their house, dog sit and live on their property for the Summer months for free. “You are that person. Are you interested?”
This was not in my plan. My decision was unclear in that moment, however I was open, curious, excited and terrified! There is an expression “If you want to make God laugh, make plans.”

*Lessons:

*Set an intention and ask for what you want, even if you are not clear.
Say it out loud, write it down, act as if. Go for it and play big!

*Speak the Mantra – “THIS OR SOMETHING BETTER” after each prayer or intention. The Universe opens a bigger space and co-creates with you to fill in the blanks with creative solutions and abundant blessings.

*Prepare for the unexpected. Allow life to dazzle you with it’s magic and messages!

Walking on the Leading Edge: My “Edgewalker Journey”

by Patricia Varley, M.H.S.A.

Hello Fellow Edgewalkers!

I am excited and inspired to share my 10 year “Edgewalker” journey from 2007-2017, where I took a leap of faith, stepped into the unknown and rode the global magic carpet ride, learning to trust myself and the Universe.

“Facilitating Evolutionary Leaps of Faith” defined my path, led me back to my authentic self, and a way of being and living that I could have never imagined.

Please join me in my weekly blog as I share the lessons, inspiration and messages from this transformational period of my life. They are also relevant and important to the current times of change and uncertainty, possibility and opportunity we find ourselves in.

As a certified Edgewalker coach, facilitator and Senior Associate, my  commitment is to support you in making the shift in perspective necessary to expand your consciousness, courage and invaluable contribution to the planet at this time!   Thank you for being who you are! Patricia Varley

Here we go….

“I was standing on the moonlit beach in Naples, Florida where I live in January 2007, witnessing a full moon eclipse in my birth sign of Scorpio. Eclipses are powerful at releasing and letting go of what no longer serves us. “Show me a sign!” I yelled to the transformational moon. I felt called to make a change. I was ready yet I felt stuck, unclear, lost, unsure of where, how, when.

As I went to sleep that night, tired and confused, I dreamt that the fire alarm in my rented townhouse was going off. I was between worlds, not sure if I was awake or dreaming. However I was too tired and chose to “stay asleep” and ignore the alarm. The next morning when I awoke all was well and no alarm had rung in the night. I went into my day.

My business as a speaker, trainer, workshop and retreat leader, executive, life and business coach often took me away for a day or longer. As fate would have it that day I was giving an all day training in nearby Fort Myers. When arriving back home after dinner I opened the door, turned on the light and noticed black soot covering my entire townhouse and all the possessions in it. I realized there was a fire that started in the kitchen in the ice maker making the smoke toxic and my home unlivable.”Next time can you show me a sign more clearly, easily and obviously (CEO)!”as I yelled to Universe and powers that be. Scorpio is about death and rebirth, the phoenix rising from the ashes. Talk about a literal sign! I got the message. I couldn’t not pay attention and stay asleep anymore to the signs of my life that were not working.

After moving into a friend’s house during the transition I had the unfortunate task of going through my possessions. Since the smoke was toxic I was forced to review all that was toxic in my life and really got clear where I was stuck. Attachment and identification with my possessions, titles, outworn relationships,money, behavior patterns and old beliefs that were no longer serving me were now obvious. Little did I know that 10 years later as I write this blog in January 2017 on Maui, Hawaii my entire life would change. The next days 10 years would be transformational, liberating, a magic carpet ride. It was the beginning of my “Edgewalker Journey” as I took the leap and began “Walking on the Leading Edge”.

LESSONS:

Pay attention to the signs in your life.

Be careful what you ask for and how you ask.

Focus on CEO – Clear, Easy Obvious

Edgewalkers Consciousness

When I wrote Edgewalkers, I believed that people who were Edgewalkers were a small percentage of the population. Most people are content to attend to the present day-to-day business of living, and some prefer to cling to an idealized past. Edgewalkers, I wrote, are more focused on the future. They want to know what trends are emerging. What lies just beyond the horizon? What’s the next new thing?

Several people have challenged me about this stand in my presentations and discussions. They tell me that people who do not see themselves as Edgewalkers feel devalued, and they may disconnect from the material that is being presented because it’s not relevant to them. They might feel that I am holding up Edgewalkers as the perfect type of leader. Concern was expressed that I might be that only Edgewalkers contribute anything meaningful to the organization.

At first I stood my ground and said that in my experience, most people are not Edgewalkers, and we don’t need that many Edgewalkers in the world. In fact, too many Edgewalkers in an organization can create chaos. However, it’s hard to think of an organization that has too many Edgewalkers. Most organizations try to rein in the people who are out on the leading edge, and tend to stifle their creativity and curiosity. My mission has been to help organizational leaders to see the value of their Edgewalkers and to learn how to utilize their unique skills and perspective.

In the book I wrote about five different organizational Archetypes of Change: Edgewalkers, Flamekeepers, Hearthtenders, Placeholders, and Guardians. I was thinking of each of these orientations as a pretty fixed personality type. This changed when I was discussing these five “types” with Lance Giroux who was interviewing me for his blog. Lance asked me if I was an Edgewalker in my organization, and I realized that I am very much an Edgewalker in my consulting business most of the time, but I played the role of Flamekeeper in my role as President and CEO of the International Center for Spirit at Work.

As founder of ICSW, it was important to me to keep to the founding vision alive and to keep the organization stable and fiscally sound. In my consulting business, I can be very entrepreneurial and creative, but in ICSW I tended to resist change that others proposed, unless I saw that it helped to carry out the core mission. At times, I had even taken on the role of Guardian, making statements such as, “If we cancel this event, we’ll lose credibility with our members, and it will be the death of the organization!”

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that each of us has all these Archetypes of Change within us, and that we may find ourselves playing different roles in the different systems of which we are a part, and we may also find ourselves sometimes taking on Edgewalker consciousness in one organization and at another time perhaps moving into Placeholder consciousness in that same organization.

I am now seeing these Archetypes of Change as much more mutable and fluid. The challenge for each of us to is notice which form of consciousness or orientation to change we are in at any moment, and in different organizations. Then we can assess whether or not this is the most effective form of consciousness for that particular situation.

The two key questions you can ask yourself in order to get a sense of your form of consciousness at that moment are:

1. What is my time orientation? Past, present, future?
2. What is my orientation to change? Closed, open?

Then ask yourself, what is needed here?

Tell me, what do you think? Are some people just born Edgewalkers and show up as Edgewalkers wherever they are? Or do all of us have the potential for Edgewalker consciousness and just need the right circumstances for it to arise?