Starting Here, Starting Now: Defining Our World Work

Y'all ready for this?

Are you meant to be here? I mean here, reading this, spending your valuable time infusing your thoughts with my own? Are "Lisa Renee Wilson"'s and "BeingBreath"s ideas something that will bring you value...or are they just a distraction?

It's about time to figure that out.

This is post #1 of several that will explore this, so don't be alarmed if you still aren't 100% sure at the end of this. But this SHOULD give you a much clearer idea if you want to keep spending your time with me. Like the trailer of a movie, this will give you an idea if you want to keep watching.

If you do want to stay, I'm going to be asking more of you. We, dear friend, have some work to do. If you don't, I'm going to be asking that you let this all go and find your own way. Because, "what the world needs is people who have come alive" (Howard Thurman), and darling, life is too dang short for each of us not to be working on that...immediately.

Since BeingBreath is the work of one individual, I'm going to let you know just where I stand with all of this. If you feel like you are in the same arena, awesome. If not, no hard feelings.

On an individual level: I want to create the life I want to live.

On a world work level (i.e. "what I want to be when I grow up"...what I'm doing for and with you): I want to create the world in which I want us to live.

I know this seems rather vague, so let me break it down for you.

On a personal level, I want to be constantly aware of, and creating the life that I want to live.

This means I don't want to be sleepwalking through my days. This means I want to take the time to contemplate what it is that I TRULY want (beyond what I've been told that I should want). It means I want to do what is necessary to have the energy to act upon those things I want (nutrition, movement, fulfilling self-care), and it means that I want to creatively engage with my thoughts and mundane life to constantly be creating and re-creating the life I want to live.

And on this level, I am aware that this isn't a linear process; rather, an organic one. It is an ongoing dance. My kids get sick, I journal and discover my desires have changed, the car breaks down, I have a profound insight after a conversation with a friend... With each change of rhythm, I want to keep co-creating and be joyfully present with the process.

On the world work level, I want to create the world in which I want to live. ("World work" is what I call what I do for others ... what some might call a job, their money-making passion, parenting, etc.)

This means that, honoring a quote by Mahatma Gandhi*, I want to "be the change I wish to see in this world". (*There is some debate as to the actual words spoken. Therefore, I use this quote to underline my point, not to be historically accurate.)

Think of all of this like looking out at the world from a teeny, tiny, inner perspective to looking at the world from outer space, down....and then choosing what to do next.

I am aware that every thought I have, every mundane action I take, has consequences in the world. Each teeny, tiny bit actually matters. (Think of the butterfly effect.) I notice how, when I act in a certain way, I create ripple effects around me that actually CO-CREATE my environment.... and, one could then assume, co-create the environments around that environment. (So if I yell at my husband when he's home, subsequently putting him in a bad mood, he may go on to be gruff with a cashier at the grocery, who would go home and be in a worse mood with her family, and so on.)

On the other end of the spectrum, I am aware of the whole picture - or at least, the mini, earthbound part of it. I see how the natural environment is, how humans interact with one another and with animal life, how love and hatred grow, how religion or spirituality moves or cripples one person or a culture, how creativity is squashed or encouraged, how bodies are stifled and constrained or set free to dance. I am constantly peeking in from this perspective to contemplate how I feel about these seemingly infinite webs of being. Some, I like. Others, I don't.

When I connect these two perspectives - see them simultaneously -, I can intimately understand how my thoughts and mundane actions interact with these bigger pictures ... how my unchecked anger at home relates to the unchecked anger of the killer in the news, or how my smile offered for a stranger relates to the kindness that radiates from someone like the Dalai Lama.

I am passionate about my responsibility in co-creating this Experience of Life. And while I feel quite at home in this perspective dance and with creativity, I can see how many are completely disconnected from this awareness. Because of this, many feel disconnected from their creative engagement with their own lives and the world around them.

Some may not know what they want out of life. Some may not have ever questioned it. Some may feel lost or exhausted from it all. Some may be doubtful that their actions effect the "bigger issues". Some may be fearful of the change (thinking it is far safer to stay at a job that's "meh", in a life that's steady if not boring....). Some may not even be aware that they are sleepwalking.

Enter moi.

When I say that my world work is, "creating the world in which I want (us) to live", I am speaking to those who feel the desire to do the same - to creatively engage with their lives - ...regardless of how unaware or unpracticed they are at this point.

I have too little time left on this earth to focus on anything other than how I want to see and create the world, and to work passionately with those who are on the same path. This is what the upcoming chats will be about - seeing if we are on the same path.

Over the coming weeks, I plan to make this my focus through BeingBreath:

Defining - even loosely - this world in which I want to live. Clarifying for those who are uncertain whether we share the same (or at least similar) views on how we want this whole life experience thing to look and to feel. Letting those who don't resonate happily go their own way, and becoming more intimate with those who feel aligned with my world view.

Acknowledging the challenges that I and we face (and will face) along the way.

Writing about this. Making videos and audio recordings. Crafting and creating. Speaking what has been unspoken, and bringing to LIFE these ways of being. Helping those who aren't as comfortable with the dance to find their feet and get shaking.

Creatively engaging with day-to-day life to make these world views, reality. (It's great to speak of wanting a world of peaceful co-existence, no hunger, and creative freedoms, but what am I (we) doing right now - or what can we be doing - to make that a reality?)

And, through my my world work - writing, speaking, creative arts, and connection - and my own mundane thoughts and actions, creating the world in which I want us all to live.

Here's to the journey.