Finding Allies and Building Bridges

I have been trying to seek out other voices that would support Agudat Havav, The Society of the Vav. There is a universal wisdom each of us is hearing and the honoring of these paths to the same goal of healing the world helps me feel less alone and more supported in my truth.

I am always reminding myself that life is improvisational so why not pull from 'improv' wisdom. The 'yes and' exercise Avish Parashas writes about is to support the universal truth that life is fluid and dynamic and always changing and always connected to the next, previous and simultaneous moment.

Susan Scott in Fierce Conversations and Marshal Goldsmith and What Got You Here Won't Get You There each write about the and versus the but. And how the power of the words we use indicate our intention. But has the power to make one right and another wrong, to negate anything that comes before it. Where and connotes an acceptance of multiple realities where all is real and cannot be rationalized away.

In mediation and when people are coming together to create something that did not exist before Stephen Colbert reminds us that it is imperative that each voice be valid. And or yes and would allow the flow of thought without a 'one upping' of each other. My voice then would be valid no matter the ego of another.

Scion's marketing department has created a powerful video advertisement for their varied models. It begins by showing various models of cars coming together in the dessert. The tag line is What makes us different brings us together: United by Individuality. How far I often feel from that moment.

The Sages tell us that when the Hebrews gathered around Mt. Sinai to hear the Ten Sayings and see the sound and hear the light each person was placed at a particular spot so each could hear their piece of truth that each has a responsibility to fulfill each lifetime. We are also taught not to covet for each of us has a path and must stay true to it no matter the distractions that we may run into. And I know my coveting thoughts especially when I am off the path. So I notice when I want to be or do what someone else is doing and use it as a red flag to come back to center, be tender and then begin again staying true to me.

Falling asleep is so easy. Settling is staying in line and living an vanilla life. I want more: Frida Kahlo is my hero as is Cher who is constantly reinventing herself. I can live without the surgery even though sometimes when I look in the mirror I wonder how I got those wrinkles when I am feeling so young and alive! Another paradoxical moment of AND.

Blessings of the Vav: And the beat goes on and on and on and on....