Back then, I was living my life rather in a ‘glass bubble’  looking out at the sea of life around me, rather insulated from the social decay issues that I could see but did not feel.

Today, I realize that the way we deal with ‘justice’  is probably the most significant problem we have locally and in America – in business, in politics, in our families, everywhere.  The problems that stem from our attitudes around this have become insidious in our lives…they are a no-seeum that leads to plausible deniability…but that doesn’t mean it disappears.

I believe we, the people of America, are on a collision course with the self-destructive structural patterns we have unwittingly set up to dominate and abuse us – all of us.  It is time for a change.  Here is an article that I just submitted to the Bellingham Herald Letters to the Editor.  I believe that this problem is sucking vitality right out of our community…and until we have the courage to have this conversation transparently, all the other political issues will pale in comparable impact.

The good news is that there are many solutions...all we have to do is know that we need them…and then take appropriate action.

My Letter To The Editor:

A few months ago, when talking to county officials, I realized the size of the mess we’re all in. As a businesswoman and Mom it would be irresponsible for me to spend 70% of my budget continually locking my family in boxes, then levying financial penalties on them when they have no money.  Adding restrictions and locking them up again when they fail doesn’t work.  It’s illogical and unsustainable.

Yet, this is effectively what we’re doing in our County. Currently 70% of your tax dollars go directly to pay for law and justice.  Yet the victims are not healed.  Plus, 80% of the people in our jail are essentially non-functional citizens – they are illiterate, homeless, mentally ill or dealing with addictions.

To me its systemic failure: Our tax dollars promote addiction, co-dependency and systemized abuse patterns; the ripple effect has our middle class in economic bondage.

It’s a no-win. (Sidenote:  It doesn’t have to be that way.) How to break the cycle?  Intentionally change course. Build a better vision and a diversified community business model that works.  Innovate. Support job reskilling, restorative justice, cooperation, recovery, functional literacy, sustainability, and economic revitalization.

You are invited to come talk about this with us at the ReEntry Coalition’s public forums:

• Thursday, August 25, and Thursday, Sept 22nd – at 7 PM  at St. Luke’s Community Center, 3333 Squalicum Parkway, Bellingham.

Then, YES! Magazine and my company, UnitingCreatives.com are co-sponsoring an event to raise awareness and money for the Whatcom County ReEntry Coalition.  The founders vision of building a ReStoreALife Center to inspire social change in a highly functional way I think is laudable.  I am doing everything in my power to support it.

I would invite all people from the community who are solution oriented and focussed on life-enhancing actions to please join us:

Community Opportunities Mastermind

and Concert Celebration of Community

(with Shawn Gallaway and Conscious Music!)

October 1, 2011 at the Bellingham High School.

We are inviting endorsements, Exhibitors and Sponsorships as well as philanthropic donations.  The Coalition is a 501C3 organization and does alot of prevention and functional literacy training and support work for the community.

In my opinion, the real question of leadership is that it is time to create Intentional Change:

• It is the time in history is to notice the self-destructive nature of the duality and drama  game.  What’s the replacement?
• It is time to start looking 100 years down the road to see the legacy and the state of the world we all are collectively leaving our children.  What’s our highest hope?
• It is time for Americans (and all of us in our communities) to make an intentional choice to accept the challenge of figuring out how we can each help change the course of human history.  What can we do individually and as part of a collective?
• It is time to notice that our self-destructive habits of game, blame, shame, and overconsumption are just habits.  Whether we are part of the media, the political process, the bureaucracy, the prison cycle, the religious positioning, the entertainment, consumerism and economic games – we can change our habits of emotional and physical domination and waste. What can we do to flip consumption into revitalization?
• It is time to notice that regardless of all the perceived roles we play,  we are simply humans who depend on our earth for our very life.  We love, we care, we want to take pride in who we are, what we have to give.  We want to be appreciated for doing the best we know how to do. We want the best for our families.  How can we get that without harming others?

We have never before been here at this time in history.  We have a great deal of challenges ahead – both manmade and physical.  What we do today really does make a difference.

I believe it is time to intentionally decide to reinvent all the infrastructures that don’t work.  We must redesign unsustainable business, political and social practices.  We must learn how to forgive ourselves (and each other) for all the ‘stupid’ things we may have done over the years. Often, we did not know, or did not stop to think through the consequences.

Today, we know the damage we are causing.  At this point it is time to break the cycles.

I have learned that the greatest question I can ask is:  ”How can we, as a collective group of people, unite creatively?”

• Why not share our wisdom and knowledge across sectors, and help us all figure out how to regenerate and rebuild our human world to be more life-enhancing?
• Why not invent new ways of social discourse so that we can help us all learn how to restore honor, dignity and vitality to each person so each of us is able to contribute our greatest gift to the community?
• Why not stop pretending that we are separate from, better than or less than the world around us?  Let’s appreciate that our very cells are made up of the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the minerals we consume in our food supply.  We are recycled elements of this earth connected through life force energy.
• Why not begin to appreciate that we each truly are part of a living, systemically interconnected organism.  We each can ‘feel in our bones’  the harm that we are doing to this earth.  We can change.

It is time we behaved as life-enhancing, honorable organisms who love deeply.   It is time for our inner leadership skills to be born.  We can do it.  The resources and tools are here.  Let’s use them.

I have done my best to bring forth a platform to help each one of you bring your skills and gifts to the table.  You are invited to join me and other trailblazers and pioneers at UnitingCreatives.com to start blogging for change.  You can help us form the future of the website.  It isn’t perfect…but it is what I have been able to do so far.

I am right now asking for other honorable entrepreneurs to consider stepping up to the plate with me to call for a ‘Free Enterprise Council of Honor’ to help us all make things right in this world. Exactly what that means yet, I do not know…but I will know shortly. I think it is time that we stepped up to do business on behalf of our earth…which we depend upon for our very life. I will be asking for funding, for commitments, for action. I will make it a key part of our movement for conscious change at UnitingCreatives.com.

The red flag that crystallized it for me? A (CNN) headline article: “Despite Gulf Oil Spill, Rig Owner Executives get Big Bonuses”.

The article starts off with: Declaring 2010 “the best year in safety performance in our company’s history,” Transocean Ltd., owner of the Gulf of Mexico oil rig that exploded, killing 11 workers, has awarded its top executives hefty bonuses and raises, according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

That includes a $200,000 salary increase for Transocean president and chief executive officer Steven L. Newman, whose base salary will increase from $900,000 to $1.1 million, according to the SEC report. Newman’s bonus was $374,062, the report states.

Newman also has a $5.4 million long-term compensation package the company awarded him upon his appointment as CEO in March 2010, according to the SEC filing.

The latest cash awards are based in part on the company’s “performance under safety,” the Transocean filing states.
“Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate,” the SEC statement reads. “As measured by these standards, we recorded the best year in safety performance in our Company’s history.”

This is simply nuts. It defies logic and common sense. Why is the money going to these Executives when it could be going into healing the wounds, the waters, the people and the animals of the Gulf? There was a major injury that happened in the gulf, and rewarding the executives of the company with money like this is simply out of bounds. If it technically isn’t, it certainly should be. And if I am out of bounds in my thinking, please feel free to speak up.

It is time for all of us to start thinking about conscious change and honoring our earth first. We depend on her for our very life.

What terrific work, and a blessing to anyone who wants to change their life for good…and doesn’t want to spend thousands of hours crying about all the miseries of it.

It has been a source of deep research for me over the years, as I have watched people get stuck in a rut they don’t want to be in, yet they cannot seem to change no matter how hard they try. Something happens, the pressure builds, and they cave in, and revert to old patterns. Why? This book answers a lot of the questions for me…and I think it should be required reading for anyone committed to honest transformation. It will save you hours and hours of therapy.

In this time of great confusion and fear mongering, it is essential to learn to think for yourself. Think Fresh. Think First. My reply to him was this:

On the surface this sounds good, and I invite you to think much deeper, my friend.

1) There is no war that was not created in the first place by a committee. And…on top of that, what do all the generals and officers do but meet and do things by committee in their strategy sessions? The head dude simply declares it so…and then, and only then does everyone else get killed.

2) Every war is lost when it starts, and then we all lose, regardless of who wins. The ‘committee’ part is a red herring. There is truly no win to war, ever. Lives of precious children, parents, and relatives are lost. This scars families – which impacts others lives multi-fold over many generations into the future. Land is destroyed, entire eco-systems are damaged for potentially thousands of years, lifetimes of work that has been achieved can be lost.

Committee or not…we all lose.

Yes, if what you mean is that indecision can cost you the goal, then you are correct. It you mean that an inability to take action costs, I agree. If you mean that wasting time running around in circles over the same ground aimlessly can cause you to lose the game, then yes.

And, as a leader sometimes you must hesitate and decide to not yet make a decision. That is a decision. Sometimes it is necessary to reconnoiter the territory and get new intel. Sometimes we must regurgitate and re-examine the same material to ensure we did not miss something. Sometimes we must reevaluate and change course. It is necessary to take in others opinions to gather perspectives.

In war, as in life, there are no absolutes. The only people who know are those who are there dealing in that space and time. And then, they can only do the best they can with the information they have. Typically the committee decides…and the leader gives the final orders.

And, I will take it another step. That committee of one who makes a decision and thinks they are doing it on their own? Think again. They typically do it with other input having come in from the spirit world, the news world, or from their internal committee of billions of bacteria and cells giving them input.

So…now you know how I think first thing in the morning. Hope all is well for you!

The truth is that compassion, generosity and love are infectious, and they ripple out to affects hundreds of people around us every day. What better way to change the future? My desire is to align my relationships with honor, respect and desire to do well by them. That changes the focus from me getting from them, to me giving the best I have to give and then letting go of it with honor and respect. Of course, in the course of things, we make messes, deal with conflicts, contrasts and differences. It is the game of life. How we experience the separation depends on the lens we wear when the relationship comes apart.

In the game of life, I have found out that it is not the score that matters. What matters is how I feel as I play the game. What matters is that I am in the game, not benched on the sidelines. I have learned that life is a stretch…that is the point of it. We grow…or not…and in the process I can get a little bloody (some of us bleed more than others). And sometimes I score and it is a beautiful thing. Sometimes its a bit not so pretty, but it is a score. Sometimes I’ve gotten hammered. Sometimes I foul, sometimes they do.

I’ve learned that it is best to cry foul, get the ball back in play and measure the score at the end as to whether or not you enjoyed the experience of playing the game itself. You know you have done well, when your competitor, says, with a smile on his face…”I loved the game, you are an awesome player and a great sport!” When you agree, ahhhh, pride in achievement. We were both enriched…and revitalized. And inevitably everyone else we encounter that day will be enriched. This is the real ‘pay-it-forward relationship’. It is life in action.

Another version of the article was written by Cynthia for Biznik.com.  It reads like this:

Bizniker Joy Gilfilen uses a creative promotions strategy to launch UnitingCreatives.com and change the world

In this article I tell you about the concert and film shoot featuring Shawn Gallaway that fellow Biznik entrepreneur Joy Gilfilen and collaborators organized to promote her new venture UnitingCreatives.com.

Singer songwriter Shawn Gallaway was in Bellingham, Washington this past week to celebrate the launch of Joy Glfilen’s start-up company UnitingCreatives. He sang a concert of 15 songs in front of a small and enthusiastic crowd of supporters at The Conway Muse, an old barn turned eclectic performing and visual arts center/ meeting place in Conway, WA. Local film company AnchorLight Productions filmed the show that will be featured on Gilfilen’s UnitingCreatives.com website.

Gallaway is well known for his inspired song “I Choose Love” from his album of the same name. The song is both artistic expression and tool Gallaway uses to rally his audiences to the message that we can use personal intent to move from a state of fear to a state of collective love. He believes that changing your thinking to focus on positive emotions like love and joy brings love and joy into your life and the world. You can download a free MP3 file of I Choose Love from Gallaway’s website (see link below.)

Gallaway sang 14 other songs in an order that told his story of personal spiritual awakening. Between songs he told the crowd how “going deep” into himself through spiritual practice freed his artistic potential and helped him discover his purpose in life as a man and an artist. He bravely exposed his inner life and journey to view and earned the hearts of the audience in return. He sang The Calling, When I Let Go, Choice Point, The Wind is Always and ended his set with the title song from his soon to be released album Living Love Tonight. If The Wind is Always is on the album, I’ll buy it. It’s a simple and poetic folk song that I definitely want to hear again.

The audience was invited to sing along often and the overall experience was an unusual cross between a folk music concert, monastic chanting, a ceremonial rite of passage, edutainment for change agents and a celebration for volunteers for a job well done; I smiled through most of the event.

Gilfilen’s UnitingCreatives.com is an idea coming to fruition after a long gestation period during which she has been solidifying her systems approach and philosophy about how personal and social change happens. Gilfilen has been writing and produced a DVD called Flipping the Joy Switch in which she introduces her audience to simple tools for building emotional intelligence, a type of intelligence that enables people to manage instead of be managed by emotions.

Joy is an advocate for using joyful intent as a means for protecting and preserving the earth for future generations; she and Gallaway and a large and growing number of change agents around the world share this quantum physics inspired approach to social change. A self-proclaimed hippy who was there at the beginning of the New Age movement Gilfilen has been working steadily to teach the world how to achieve peace and joy; with her new company she intends to take her message to another level by empowering others to find and support each other and do more together than they can do alone.

The Uniting Creatives website is being designed and built by local artist and entrepreneur Tenzing Kernan and company at TKWeb. The on-line service targets “people creating communities, projects and events that change the world.” The purpose of the site is to support a social change community of artist/entrepreneurs by providing an on-iine forum for sharing projects and events and finding collaborators and supporters. The site will feature an e-commerce engine to facilitate sale of products and services to generate life preserving revenue so that artists and other creative types can do their humanitarian work and take care of their families too.

You can sign up for free to experiment with the “alpha” site at http://www.unitingcreatives.com. The web team is hard at work getting design revisions and user experiences fixes in place and the refreshed site will go live soon. I look forward to using the site myself and can’t wait to see the finished design. Watch for more to come from the collaborations that will be empowered by UnitingCreatives.com as creatives unite.

Links:
JoyGilfilen.com
ShawnGallaway.com
UnitingCreatives.com
AnchorLightProductions.com
TKWeb.com

I think Joy did an excellent job of honoring her collaborators and volunteers and making the most out of her marketing and promotions dollars.  Win-Win-Win is written all over this particular event and the message she is putting out to the world is one that can’t hurt anyone and just may help in a big way.

Cynthia DuVal - DuVal Ethnographic Research Center & Change Agency

And then to be able to see how our reactions and “pre-judgements” affects how we are reactive and responsive in life.  Then, to notice how the conflicts we create inside ourselves ripples out to affect our friends, families and business relationships!  Learning to release resistance and to work with our changing natures made for a superb seminar!

A keynote speech  by Marcia Johnson, set us up for listening in an all new way.  Co-Founder of PeaceinourLifetime.org, Marcia talked about the size and scope of social media as a phenomenon that is making our world very small.  We taped the whole thing…so parts of it will start to show up on UnitingCreatives.com in our live event stream video blog.  Check it out and watch some snippets!

Oct 23 – “Why you NEED Social Media” all day conference in Bellingham, WA at Whatcom Community College,  David Syre Auditorium.

• 9 AM -5 PM – Panels and group discussions will shed light on the challenges and opportunities with social media.  Doing a group project online will demonstrate, in real time, the power of working in teams and in a “collaborative community” to gather resources, create change, make a difference!   You will hear from businessowners, political strategiests, healers, artists, and others about how they use it to help them grow, change, expand…and even market themselves.

Oct 29 – Shawn Gallaway Live in Concert at The Conway Muse in Conway, WA! Shawn Gallaway is a visual artist, singer songwriter, author, ceremonial healer, energy worker and Certified Lifeline Practitioner. He has traveled throughout the world sharing his healing message of peace through the arts and has recently shared the stage with the Dali Lama, Transformational authors Gregg Braden, Bruce Lipton, and Robert Holden. You can see his artwork and his most recent albums, such as “I Choose Love” and “Love will Overcome” at ShawnGallaway.com.

You can check out the details at UnitingCreatives.com Events!