The Renewal of Creative Path (ROCP)
Introduction & Honoring of Jake Swamp Greetings from my home on the Westside between the hills above Mission, the Monterey Bay, Natural Bridges State Park and Neary Lagoon in Santa Cruz, California. This is Jon Young, and I am writing as part of the 8 Shields Institute’s mentoring team. The process we are sharing here is precious to me and many others around the world. The leadership of 8 Shields were involved in a multi-‐year process graciously led by Peter Schlenzka which took place from the summer of 2007 through the winter season of 2010-‐2011, and which continues to this day. One of the many results of this consultancy period was the creation of The 8 Shields Institute, currently a program of OWLink Media, a company I founded in the mid 1990’s to hold the work of deep nature connection mentoring in all its forms. The 8 Shields Institute is founded to help people the world over bring the 8 attributes of connection to their own lives, the lives of their family members, their communities and organizations. The other part of our mission is to help communities surround and support individuals on this journey of deep nature connection, and help them build regenerative processes serving 7 generations into the future. One of the main “root stocks” of the 8 Shields Institute is the work of community processes the promote peace and well-‐being. One of the models we have most studied and learned from is The Great Law of Peace. This document, over 1000 years old, is the inspiration for many democratic movements world-‐wide. There is even a new movement afoot globally promoting democratic education that is based on the Great Law of Peace. If you want to read more about this document for reference sake, you might want to read The US Constitution & The Great Law of Peace by Gregory Schaaf with a foreword written by the late Elder, Chief Jake Swamp (http://www.amazon.com/U-‐S-‐ Constitution-‐Great-‐Law-‐ Peace/dp/0966694821/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354836867&sr=1-‐ 1&keywords=the+us+constitution+and+the+great+law+of+peace). Jake was very helpful in sharing understanding of Peacemaking with many members of the 8 Shields movement throughout the United States. When Jake passed away in October of 2010, we held a four-‐day fire for him in our community, and we planted a mulberry tree in his memory. We owe our knowledge of this renewal process to this man. Thank you Jake. According to Jake, the Mid-‐winter Festival is one of the most important times of the year for their traditional longhouse community. Everyone takes 8 days off from work and settles deeply into a renewal process, giving thanks for the gifts of the last year, and preparing for the New Year to come. Other cultures throughout North America have similar practices. In the Hawaiian Islands, our friends and family among traditional Hawaiian communities practice a multi-‐month process that follows very similar patterns of gratitude, renewal and preparations for the year to come. In Europe there are many vestiges of similar practices… One thing they all have in common is the importance of gathering feedback from the community, spending quality time together to help strengthen connections among people, giving thanks for the bounty of the year, reciprocity with the natural world and finding ways to move forward that can help strengthen families and communities. Winter Holidays, Summer’s Richness & Opportunity for Renewal During the winter months the sun is rises later and sets earlier, and never gets too high up in the sky. The nights are long. The days are short and the light is not as light as it is in summer. In the time of darkness, look inward for your own light. If you are on the opposite seasonal framework (as our friends in the Southern Hemisphere), take time to settle into the peak of summer—another time of slowing down and connecting with family and summer’s abundance! Copyright © 2012, Jon Young, OWLink Media / 8 Shields
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The Renewal of Creative Path (ROCP)
What does the light mean to you? The light inside of us—our own creative, life-‐force fire burning in our being—has a quality and quantity as well. When we are at our best, the fire burns bright, the light shines from us and others notice. When we are not doing as well, our inner fire is not as bright, perhaps it is even smoky. When we apply our tracking skills on the inner landscape, and we search for this light, we learn some of the most important lessons of our lives. We can read the trail an animal has left on the landscape and understand nuances in its behaviors. We can read the trails of our inner world. We can learn to understand the ecological conditions of our inner landscape and understand what feeds that fire so that it burns bright. This brightness can be alternatively thought with respect to the attributes that indicate we are connected. These are the 8 attributes of deep nature connection—the 8 Shields Institute sets the attributes as a goal for our efforts in mentoring, culture repair and community design. We cannot always be happy and at our best. In life there is loss and pain. There are hardships that surprise us and challenge us. Our days fill with work, our minds become dull, maybe we get a bit grumpy or short, and we struggle at times. When the working world slows, and the days darken, the winter break is upon most of us; or, when summer engulfs us with its accompanying slowness. We can take some time to be home with family. We can take time to be with ourselves. It is a time of renewal—and to renew our creative path, we must first understand it. To understand our creative path, we can start by tracking it. This renewal of creative path process is a form of inner tracking. During this time of year it is ideal to go to renewal of creative path “training camp”. That is, we can take much more time to really delve into this process. If we are surrounded by others and supported by others doing the same, we will go further and get stronger results. After the process is completed in winter or summer, it can be renewed each month and more often when necessary. In traditional communities who utilize rhythmic ritualized processes that build relationships with people and nature, the larger seasonal renewals (like the one we are in now in the winter in the northern hemisphere) can be helpful to plan the rest of the year’s cycles. The renewal process can be repeated in a routine, but much lighter way, and more often through these ritualized events. Regular monthly festivals are a good opportunity and can help to create the need to get together around activities that build connection—these are related. The festival season that incorporates the renewal of creative path is utilized by some 8 Shields communities (as in ours in Santa Cruz) in a similar pattern. Locally at 8 Shields, and with community partners, we work with this opportunity as more of a design process, while the other monthly festivals will be more of an opportunity for check-‐in as a community. Festivals on a monthly basis can be envisioned, planned and designed during the renewal seasons. The monthly session can be set forth and designed with local breakout groups to plan, implement and then follow-‐up on events. This can be a good to apply the ROCP process monthly in small ways. Each person or family can work on this daily in even smaller ways. It’s about building a muscle of awareness that detects, communicates with and builds connection to your own inner fire—that is creativity. Remember, a culture is doing its best when it connects its people to nature, to one another and to themselves. This renewal process is a cultural element that connects us to ourselves and remembers our connection to others and nature. First, let’s look at who we will be working on this process with. Then, let’s look at what the process is—first in summary, then in detail. Copyright © 2012, Jon Young, OWLink Media / 8 Shields
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The Renewal of Creative Path (ROCP)
Who? “I” to “We” — Weaving Creative Threads Globally During the ROCP the ideal is to track your own creative path and observe some patterns. Then come together with your significant other and share your insights—remembering that the smallest unit of ‘governance’ in the community is the couple raising children, the household. Whether you are married, in a committed relationship, exploring one, or single—a partner will help this process tremendously. When you sit with your partner, ask each other good questions. Use connective processes as part of your meeting protocol and adjust it (see below for more). Be creative about how you go about this. Make it fun, relaxing, connecting and special in the way that works for you and your partner. If you are single, this can be done with a good friend. Whomever you share this with, you will find your connections growing much stronger. It’s ideal to share with your spouse or life-‐ partner. When you have completed sharing with your life partner, call your next circle of family in and share with them. In the ideal world, they were aware of this before you called them in—in fact, they too were doing this. This builds strong family ties. This really supports individuals in the family to shine over time. The ROCP builds understanding between loved ones and deepens appreciation among family members for each other’s unique gifts. It also helps to soften the challenges as well. Next invite close friends in to the process of sharing. (Hopefully, they too were oriented and practicing this by themselves, then with their partners, then with family and now friends—you). After the family and close friends group has experienced this renewal, then it’s time to move towards the community and the work place (when and however possible). Gather with neighbors (if possible) and repeat the process. You will notice over time that this process will be very important for the development of the popular activities in each region—as our global network has shared back with us: The ROCP process is really helpful in building community around nature connection. Meet next with collaborators, partner organizations. From there, regional caucuses from the 8 Shields network and other related networks. National next. International finally. This will set a very useful and resilient agenda for best practices, development, refinement and implementation of strategy. The 8 Shields movement will be experiencing a calling together in this way at least once (and likely twice each year—with the other one in mid-‐summer). The 8 Shields Institute will support the ROCP process redundantly globally through Village Talk, Creating Nature Connected Communities and 8 Shields mentoring through phone conferences, the 8 Shields Village Internet forums, as well as with local regional gatherings of folks in person. In traditional Hawaiian communities, this process lasts from November through March—it’s called “Makahiki”. For 8 Shields, it peaks in winter, but is revisited each quarter in a significant way. Each month, there is a festival that is connected to a miniature ROCP—especially relating to the 8 Shields organs and how they are upgraded with respect to the developing vision, mission, strategy and implementation of changes brought on through ROCP processes. Any Time of Year: Make a Special Journal This process can be done any time of year, and if you really consider deeply how to bring this process forward, it’s best to do this in small ways everyday. If you are reading this at another time of year that isn’t winter (or peak summer), it’s completely fine to begin now. Perhaps create a journal just for this purpose and keep in a special place so you can revisit it as needed, or as called. When the ‘peak’ season comes, you will be ahead of the game and will have built part of the foundation for this important process. Copyright © 2012, Jon Young, OWLink Media / 8 Shields
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The Renewal of Creative Path (ROCP)
What? Summary of Creative Path Renewal To start with, it is best to give yourself as much time as possible over several days, and even a couple of weeks. For the major ROCP in winter, it’s good to start your own personal analysis as early as Thanksgiving weekend—when you might have your first opportunity to get some good time to yourself, and your close relatives and friends. The best will come from this if we really honor our own organic creative process. Take your time. The ideal is to do this alone (separately) as much as possible with reflection on our own personal lives, first. Record your results in a journal—this will be something you will most definitely want look back on. Next, share insights and patterns with our families and close friends. Arrange entire days, with an overnight in between, where late night fire time is possible. Let conversations percolate. Share meals, share cooking, cleaning, working on the fire. Take the kids for walks together, let them play while you sit and share with one another. The older children—pre-‐teens and teens—may be interested in listening. Let the thanksgiving words come through in an unhurried way at the first gathering of your group. Allow people’s feelings to govern the schedule for the day of sharing. Play music. Go for walks. Throw a Frisbee, play volleyball, soak in a hot tub, go in a sauna, share an Inipi, or kick a soccer ball around. Makahiki involves sports in Hawaii. You get the idea. This should feel a bit like vacation—and include some time for sharing. One session in the morning of a couple of hours (using meeting protocol). One session in the afternoon, perhaps two. See how folks are feeling. Gather notes on flip charts. Perhaps run a recording device. Take turns facilitating. Keep it informal, fun and connective. Have talking circles. Share prayers and dreams. When you are done with your close family, gather a ‘unified message’ to take to the next grouping. Gather greetings from your family members to take to the family members of the people you are going to meet with next. Now at this time, perhaps one of you goes to a meeting—and your spouse or partner or family members go to different circles. That’s fine. You have a unified message, and greetings that anchor you with your family and close friends. Now it’s time to come together with others from important communities, sharing stories with one another. This can truly help us design and manifest a beautiful regenerative mentoring community. This power will weave together in a network that will span the globe, giving people hope and something to model for others. Remember, nature connection builds creativity. Therefore in your sessions, allow for nature connection time. Even have folks wander and do a sit spot. Story of the day is powerful. A lot of interesting things will emerge from inviting nature to your ROCP process. Creativity, when shared with others—music, arts, barn-‐raising, dances—builds bonds between people. Creativity increases when all this is brought to mind through inner tracking. ROCP has a devoted section to inner tracking as well. Here’s a more detailed description of a suggested process you could use for the renewal of your creative path, and that of your family. The Renewal Process & Protocol The process is divided up into separate steps that can be done separately or together depending on how much time you have and what you feel called to do. Each year you may find that it is good to set aside many consecutive days around the Solstice and into the New Year for this process. The Copyright © 2012, Jon Young, OWLink Media / 8 Shields
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The Renewal of Creative Path (ROCP)
suggestion—again—is to work first alone as individuals, and then as couples (married or seriously committed, or good friend if single), then with greater family (as long as they are open to this), then in circles of close friends / colleagues, co-‐workers, extended communities and finally as a nation— wherever this fits into the fabric of our relationships. Create a sacred container for yourselves while you are doing this sharing. You may want to have one sharing event after dinner one night; then, another the next morning; or on consecutive nights and days. What works for you? Remember that you are drawing up and out of yourselves some very precious memories and energies. Treat this time with respect and love. Care for your needs physically, mentally and emotionally during this time. In other words, make this a special ceremonial time for you and those you are sharing with. You will probably want to think about protocol: take care of biological needs first (rest, food, water and comfort), space needs (smudging, beautifying, adding symbolic things, lighting a candle or a sacred fire), bringing the minds together (gratitude and intentions), checking in (how are we doing? Brief but complete), forgiveness & release (self and others), some agreed upon process, goal and agenda for the time set aside (which parts are we doing? Who goes when? What if we don’t complete the whole process this time, when to continue and how?), sharing (take turns, take breaks, keep it fun!), gathering points of unity, a unified message and greetings to the next circles to be shared with, and concluding with proper closure. Step 1: Review of Good Medicine, What Brings on the Attributes of Connection? Brainstorm a list of the activities, places, things and processes that connect us to nature. Do the same to create a list for those that connect us to people. Then repeat for what connects us to our self. People find it helpful to think specifically about the attributes as a guideline and reflection tool; • East: Happiness of a Child (innocent and prone to smiling, giggling and laughing) • Southeast: Abundance of Electricity (vitality, reflexes peaked and plenty of energy to move) • South: Commitment to Mentoring (helping others get these same attributes!) • Southwest: Connection & Empathy with Nature (and people of course) • West: Being Truly Helpful (finding our gift and using our awareness to take initiative) • Northwest: Being Fully Alive (losing loved ones helps us remember to be in life fully) • North: Compassion & Love for People (forgiveness in our hearts, even for those who challenge us) • Northeast: Quiet Mind (inner peace, comes from deep sensory engagement with our surroundings) Identify times from our lives when we have felt very connected to nature. What were the circumstances? How old were we? Where were we at the time? Who was with us? How was this honored, remembered or received? What were the factors of these times that contributed to the connections we were feeling with nature? Tell the story of these things to someone you love, to a Sacred Fire or to your own personal journal. Take turns sharing stories of Good Medicine. What do all these events have in common? What are the things we take away from these experiences in terms of values, of commitments in our lives, or ways we can add to the quality of our personal, family and community processes? What would you like to see more of in your life going forward? Connection-‐supporting (“Sacred”)* Questions: What is happening here with connection and good medicine?
Copyright © 2012, Jon Young, OWLink Media / 8 Shields
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The Renewal of Creative Path (ROCP)
What patterns am I / we learning from this? What is it teaching me? How is it helping me? How is it helping me to help others? [*Note from JY: In several indigenous languages I have found the translation of the word “sacred” to be colored by missionary translators. The word can get confusing if it is thought of in the “religious” context. If you think of the word “sacred” as “that which helps foster connection” the concept of “sacred question” makes a lot more sense!] Step 2: Back-‐tracking the Stepping Stones of our Visions & Gifts Now we look for our soul’s purpose. Consider this little story from my life. Over thirty years ago, Tom Brown said to me, (Jon Young), “There are times in your life when you feel like events taking place are like a stepping stone on the path of your vision. When you stand on one of these stones, you can see the other events from the past that are also stepping-‐stones. Look back on your life, the stones of your vision light up in a path all the way to your birth, and beyond. When you look forward in your life you can see these stones leading beyond your life into the future.” These are moments of elevated consciousness where we have seen the eternal, the truly sacred things about our lives. We are connected in these moments to our ancestors and to the unborn generations, at the very least, seven back and seven forward. This is about our vision and mission in this world—yet there is rarely a tangible “instruction” from these moments. It is more of a feeling or creative force moving through us. The first time you take the time to do this, you may not feel you have any such memories. That’s fine. Sometimes you have to review this process a few times before things come to the surface for us to see. All of us have this internal sense of our path—we are born with it. It is part of what it means to be a human being. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you have these memories or not. Just think of things that form a pattern in your life. If you do, make note of them. Connection-‐supporting (“Sacred”) Questions: What is happening here with my / our re-‐experiencing of elevated moments and vision? What patterns am I / we learning from this? What is it teaching me? How is it helping me? How is it helping me to help others? Step 3: Tracking Patterns of Synchronicity & the Help of Nature When have you experienced synchronicity in your life? What dream patterns (recurring dreams, vivid dreams, dreams that have later come true in waking life, etc.) have you had in your life? What connections to animals have you had again and again? What are the stories from the family that talk about this over generations? What patterns are forming from this? Again, share these stories with one another, or with a Sacred Fire or your journal. Who in your family or friend circle have you shared these stories with before? How were they received? Connection-‐supporting (“Sacred”) Questions: What is happening here with synchronicity? What patterns am I / we learning from this? What is it teaching me? How is it helping me? How is it helping me to help others? Copyright © 2012, Jon Young, OWLink Media / 8 Shields
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The Renewal of Creative Path (ROCP)
Step 4: Inventory of Gifts Analysis What have people always told you about your own personal gifts, talents and creative powers? Your aunt, or grandma, or uncle or neighbor, or co-‐worker, or friend or love, and / or other people in your life may have noticed patterns in you, your work, your conduct and other forms of expression that you remember. Many relate that we are often unaware of our gifts—we need others to tell us what they are. We may not even like the gifts we have, but we do them because it helps our families, friends and communities. There are probably patterns to this. Reflect on this with your journal, or with a friend or loved one or two or three. Connection-‐supporting (“Sacred”) Questions: What is happening here with my / our gifts and strengths? What patterns am I / we learning from this? What is it teaching me? How is it helping me? How is it helping me to help others? Step 5: Journaling Obstacles on the Journey Now that we have looked at ways in which the connecting and sacred aspects of our lives have moved through us on our journeys that have brought so much goodness we need to look at what has not. Ask yourselves, “What in the past has created obstacles to fully living, experiencing, remembering, honoring, recognizing, remembering or otherwise celebrating these moments and the teachings within them?” Grief blocks us. Examine what else blocks us. Ask yourselves, “What disconnects us from ourselves, nature, ancestors and others?” Some of these obstacles may be self-‐limiting patterns of our own minds, habits and emotions—and, these can be both conscious and unconscious. The most influential patterns are often unconscious. Some of these may be wounds. Some may simply be lack of understanding of this process. Some times we tell ourselves that a process like this cannot even exist—even though it can and does. We might tell ourselves that we don’t deserve this, when we really do. It could be that others put you down (intentionally or unintentionally) for expressing yourself about the things that connect you. Maybe you lived in a place that had no access to nature at times when you felt you needed this, or maybe your life commitments prevented this kind of quality time to occur. Whatever the reason, track these patterns and ask how are they in your life now? Are these forces still acting on you? How can you design the future to bring you beyond, around or through these obstacles in a way that is good and balanced? Connection-‐supporting (“Sacred”) Questions: What is happening here with respect to blocks to my / our connections to self, nature and others? What patterns am I / we learning from this? What is it teaching me? How is it helping me? How is it helping me to help others? Step 6: Releasing Expectations & Offering Forgiveness What expectations do we have from family? From friends? From intimate partners around these aspects of our lives? Sometimes these expectations can disappoint us. For instance, we may want everyone we know and love to see, honor and celebrate the things of our own personal creative Copyright © 2012, Jon Young, OWLink Media / 8 Shields
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The Renewal of Creative Path (ROCP)
paths; maybe our family and friends cannot see this, or don’t know this about us. We may be sad, disappointed and even mad at people for not sharing these things with us. As we learn of things that disappoint us, or help us to realize our expectations were not met, or we are sad, or mad, about how relationships are in our lives, it is time again for forgiveness. Others are not aware of these thoughts we have, not even the feelings, unless we share. When sharing these things with others, it is really good to ask them first if it is okay to share these things, and if they say, “not now”, or even, “no”, we must respect their choice. We must grieve the results of this. The energy needs to be released in a way that doesn’t bring harm, or negative rumors about others. It is important to forgive others for not knowing what is true for our spiritual or creative journeys. These are very particular to each of us as individuals, and we will do well to let go of expectations of others. Usually what is true is that we, each as individuals, need to feel heard, and to feel we are normal for having deep connections to nature. As young children in the modern world, this need has often gone unmet. For many generations this need has gone unmet for people. We are now healing this. It is important to grant forgiveness to those in our families and among our friends, and lovers and peers and greater community networks so we don’t carry this burden into the future. We must start the healing with ourselves on this one. It is a blessing that we can even have this conversation now with those of us who are in this conversation. For many years many of us had no one to share personal connection stories with. This was very hard for many, and has contributed to a lot of unrest. That was and is hard for friends and family, too. Here are some words that could help: “Now I ask for your forgiveness if there is anything I have done to offend you in any way. I forgive myself, and those in my lives who could not meet my needs when I had them. I commit to being there for those who reach out to me when it is possible for me to do so in a good way. I wish the same for you. I dedicate myself to the service of the future generations for the healing of the world.” Or whatever works for you. Connection-‐supporting (“Sacred”) Questions: What is happening here with releasing and forgiveness? What patterns am I / we learning from this? What is it teaching me? How is it helping me? How is it helping me to help others? Step 7: Weaving the Ideal Scene From all of the above processes, what have we identified as patterns we want to bring into our lives more effectively and completely in the coming year, decade and the rest of our lives? Paint a picture as if you can do anything. Really identify what is your ideal dream life. Describe where you want to live—the environment, the kind of ecosystems, the plants and animals, the people in your lives, the village or larger community patterns you wish to experience and / or participate in. Describe your ideal day or days in a week, a month, and the four seasons—what activities are you involved in for work, fun, renewal, love, family, friends and community? What are you doing when you are at your best and happiest? Just paint a picture! Connection-‐supporting (“Sacred”) Questions: What is happening here with your / our ideal scene development, especially as it relates to all the other learning that has come with this process? What patterns am I / we learning from this? Copyright © 2012, Jon Young, OWLink Media / 8 Shields
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The Renewal of Creative Path (ROCP)
What is it teaching me? How is it helping me? How is it helping me to help others? Step 8: Join Up With Other Circles From here you want to bring the medicine you have gained for yourself from your own stories to share with your most intimate relationships. Next reach out to the folks who you share space and home with. Then reach out to the world! What will you do? Overall: What has gone well in this process for you? What has been challenging? What are your goals for this next year and years to come? What have you learned from this? We will weave this together for the rest of the year. This is a great design process!
Copyright © 2012, Jon Young, OWLink Media / 8 Shields
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