The future will require creative integrity from those of us who aspire to move ever more towards comprehensive consideration of the natural design of Universe.
We are in between worlds. The death of the old and the birth of the new. In this place of great change and upheaval there also exists the crucible of creativity.
Positive Deviants know this is occurring. They can feel it. They are perfectly primed to handle the cross currents, and to hold their nerve during the maelstrom. They know they must access their own creative integrity in ways they have not accessed before.
One of the models that is being uprooted and turned on its head is the model of value, and of how value is measured. Many people have written about this, from Hazel Henderson and Rianne Eisler, to Bernard Lietaer, James Qulligan and David Martin.
Our old model of value is the accumulation of surplus of money, stocks, real estate and stuff. For a great video clip on the story of stuff, follow this link.
In the new world we have the opportunity to value different things. Like the Kingdom of Bhutan, we might find ourselves with a happiness index, or a health index. (If the USA had a performance indicator on health, their score today would be pretty dismal.)
Just imagine if we did put front of mind the measures of such values as..
happiness
health
families and community
quality education for all
quality nutrition for all
clean air
clean oceans…..
And if we counted in our productivity such things as the work of mothers to care for children and keep house, the work of volunteers to contribute to community, the care of land, animals…
… and if we considered school teachers and carers of human beings as being one of the most valued members of our society instead of the lowest paid?
How different would we be in a world that values things that we all know, when we get down to it, matters more than anything?
A big bank account full of cash cannot save anyone from the terminal disease they have…they might be able to pay for the best treatment, but they cannot pay for the terminal disease to go away, and at this point most people would give all their cash, all their stuff… for health. Its value is only ever considered, tragically, by most people when they are on the edge of the abyss and it is too, too late.
The question that is causing many Positive Deviants I know stress right now as we move from the old world of value to the new world of value…is how do we manage to bridge both worlds? The old world requires we earn a living. Yet the work of the new world doesn’t always pay, or if it does, the pay is low. This is where we need creative integrity.
I go to my mentor Bucky Fuller who demonstrated creative integrity. He did this using an extreme example. He literally decided that if he committed his life to only doing what was spontaneously arousable within him, for the highest good for the highest number of people, and if he did this with impeccable creative integrity, by not working for money as the prime motivator, not marketing himself, or selling his soul, then precessionally the Universe would take care of him. That in nature, bee’s don’t have to earn a living, they simply get on with the task of doing bee things, and in the process, nature cares for them. (Most of the time, and if human beings don’t interfere!) Bucky had exquisite trust that his experiment would work and that if he did this, nature would provide. And it did. Often only ever in the nick of time. He would emerge through emergency. Nature always operated in the most efficient manner, he would say, and hence, would provide, only in the nick if of time.
This model of creative integrity is not for the faint hearted. In order for you to be able to stay breathing and moving you need to trust and stay in your own highest integrity within this model. I suspect it is the model Mother Theresa worked by.
In my own journey with working with creative integrity, I have learned so very much. It has not been an easy path. It has certainly been the path less traveled. Considering in my 20’s I was hanging out with Robert Kiyosaki, of “Rich Dad” fame, who incidentally, was the one who introduced me to the work of Bucky, for which I will be forever grateful. I have no doubt that Bucky is as humoured by the mysterious precession of me working with Robert to pursue wealth, only to be diverted to the pursuit of creative integrity and to be one of those people who have to learn to travel this road to support the navigation of others who will be, or are now, traveling along it.
To date, this is what I have learned about creative integrity as a model for a life’s work;
* I no longer want stuff. Stuff just needs managing, and I do not want to spend my time either managing stuff, or managing people to manage my stuff.
*That when I truly follow my intuitive guidance, and trust, I live with miracles daily.
*I have learned how to surrender. I still have to work on this one, as sometimes fear gets to me and I contract, which means I shut out the flow and connection with the source of all creation.
*I really appreciate true value. When someone does work of quality, no matter what it is..from cleaning toilets to serving me in a cafe, I am grateful. Work done with great love and care blesses me and the world.
*I feel a sense of gratitude almost all day long. For the sun on my face, the wind in my hair, the birds singing, my wonderful clients, my partners in business, my family, my health, the path I have taken, the path set for me…there is no part of my life that I do not feel gratitude for…even the bits I am still working on changing, or the places where I still feel pain and constriction.
*I have learned about money, the global economy, the global casino, the illusion of wealth, the deception, lies and ignorance….
*I have moved from paralysis to creativity. I have a deep sense that people who have creative resilience in the way they emerge through emergency will be the people in the future that others look towards for support and leadership.
*I have learned that I would rather play the game of service and giving value than any other game in town.
*I have learned that getting comes from giving. And that the more I give, with gratitude and joy, in acknowledgment of infinite abundance, the more I receive. Not necessarily as money, but certainly as joy, love, adventure, happiness and relationships with incredible people.
*I have learned to give-and that giving is not defined by the form–giving can be our love, our kindness, our care, our compassion, our energy, our gratitude, our smile, our laughter, our warmth, our excess stuff….and that I have so very much to give every day, and that when I give with joy and knowing my source is limitless, the Universe gives back in multitudes.
That even if I do not have much stuff, I have so much to give and in the giving is joy unlimited.
I have a deep intuitive sense that in the near future people are going to walk the path Bucky laid down, and do work for the value of the work, rather than to work for money. Many have already set upon this path. People are learning, like me, to make this path provide for them in the most elegant of ways.
The path of creative integrity doesn’t mean “poverty” in the measure of the old world. It may not mean you have lots and lots of stuff. But I am learning that the truer you stay to this path, the more real wealth you have.
And yes…. the more you are able to live in creative integrity with the Universe, from moment to moment… It is a journey I would not trade for all the stuff in the world.
