Today we are going to think about what prosperity means in our joy work.
I'll begin with a poem I wrote after taking a cross-country trip with my wife and daughter one summer.
And then we will reflect on what prosperity means,
Do some journaling,
And finish with a song called Abundance.
Chickens coming home to roost,
Arriving home.
Hearing clocks with southern cicada fuss,
I wonder what to say about 5,
000 miles in 15 days.
And it's not about collusion or corruption,
But about the mess that has been going on since the inception of us.
White people,
I'm talking to you.
This land is beautiful.
I can see why our people came here to do what we do.
But this administration is not the first.
Jefferson and Jackson played the Ridge and Ross.
And still everybody lost.
DeSoto and Cortez came earlier,
But that's not in most history books either.
Take your child to the desert and she will learn about water.
We crossed it.
Learn about water.
Learn about earth.
We keep on mining it.
And poverty is about more than money.
It's time to rise above the speculation of guns and oil and casinos and lottery.
We are all chickens who bite on the lips.
Come home without reservations.
Roost on the kindness of what is not yet destroyed.
Preserve what is there in the stories.
There is enough.
Plenty.
You've probably heard the old adage,
The end justifies the means.
This is the guiding principle in much of what we call society right now.
In the areas of politics,
Law,
Medicine,
Education,
Socialization,
And parenting.
We are taught to start by identifying the outcome and then doing what it takes to reach that goal.
So often what we end up with personally,
Professionally,
And politically,
Is a burnt out bag of mass crossing that finish line,
Whimpering,
I made it.
And then looking around to see isolation,
Damaged relationships,
Bodies in pain,
And souls wondering whether it was worth it.
This is what I call the old paradigm of the means.
The means tell us it's okay to be mean to our others,
To ourselves.
The means say the goal is more important than the how.
The means teach that the best strategy might just be to be mean.
The means separate mind from body,
Thought from emotion,
Male from female,
Black from white,
Rich from poor.
All in an attempt to keep us split within and between ourselves.
So things basically stay the same.
Or get worse.
The means think money is super important and that there's never enough.
The means say time is something that can be managed and that there's never enough.
The means see status as the measure of our work.
And remember,
We can never be enough.
The means treat everything as a thing.
People,
Plants,
Animals,
Even objects.
These are all things to be used for our own ends as we work toward our goals.
And because there's never enough.
We can never have enough things.
And speaking of work,
The means value work above all else.
The harder you work,
The better you are.
The more you get paid for your work,
The better you are.
The more people admire your work,
The better you are.
And because there's never enough.
You are never working as hard as you can.
Never being paid as much as you can.
Never as good as you can be.
If the means do not work to help us achieve our ends,
What price do we pay along the way?
Let's do some journaling to reflect on this in our own lives.
Three questions today.
Two minutes for each question.
Go ahead and get out your journal and what you'd like to write with.
The first question.
When do you remember being more focused on achieving a goal than on how you achieved it?
Describe what that was like for you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Go ahead and finish the phrase that you're writing now.
And then take a moment to take a deep belly breath in and look around you at where you're sitting.
The body works with us in our joy work.
And sometimes as we write we can move up into our heads,
Our throats,
And our minds.
And disconnect from our bodies and the earth around us.
So taking a moment to reconnect physically to our surroundings as we're journaling can be very helpful.
Here's our next journaling prompt.
Think about a goal you're currently pursuing.
Are there ways that you have hurt yourself or others in doing so?
Write about these now.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
And finish the phrase that you're writing now.
Again,
Take a deep breath into the belly,
Perhaps stretch arms or fingers or legs.
Look around you.
Feel your body in the room in the present time.
This is our final journaling for today.
What would it mean to do what you need to do in a non-hurtful way?
Knowing that how you do something is at least as important as what you do.
What would doing joy work in this way look like for you?
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Finish the phrase that you're writing now.
And then let yourself close the journal,
Allowing that separation to give your mind,
Body,
And spirit time to let the wisdom rise in you.
And now we'll listen to a song called Abundance.
I wrote it for my wife to record when we were first together.
And so this is Suzanne Capler singing Abundance.
Life's like a lake you sit by.
All by yourself on a cold afternoon.
You see the surface shining,
But you feel the deep blue.
You put your desire on a shelf.
Lakes can be found everywhere.
We step around the walls and on roads.
Afraid of getting wet.
What might happen if it shows?
What if I needed your help?
Abundance is a dance,
Is a dance,
Is a dance.
The water and land.
We let go of our worries,
Our fears,
And our needs.
As our minds and our bodies dance to the beat.
Of teaching our souls how to take a chance.
Once I look up from the lake.
And saw that white in the blue of the sky.
I realize this whole round world is a lake out of space.
And there is no then and no soon.
We don't know where we might be.
Until we go by ourselves and we see.
The way the water opens in the mystery of light.
Swimming with what we might know.
Abundance is a dance,
Is a dance,
Is a dance.
The water and land.
We let go of our worries,
Our fears,
And our needs.
As our minds and our bodies dance to the beat.
Of teaching our souls how to take a chance.
