TGIF and Gangnam Style Fun

OK - I must be the last person in the universe to be aware of the PSY "Gangnam Style" video.  Watched it for the first time last week and sharing it with you today.  The Guinness World Record folks call PSY's video the most watched in You Tube History, surpassing LMFAO's 'Party Rock Anthem' (1,574,963 likes), Justin's Bieber's 'Baby' (1,327,147 likes) and Adele's 'Rolling in the Deep' (1,245,641 likes).

But wait - there is more!  You got to love the parodies of the video.  They just keep coming as people from around the globe find ways to recreate PSY's video.  The CBC Your Community Blog has listed their top 10 parodies and I am sure you'll find one or two you consider tops as well. 

But I have to admit, I love the parody that has the son and his 60 year old mom dancing away to this song.  Just makes me want to shout out "You GO GIRL." 

 

 

And the last video is PSY's Gangnam Video taking over New York City - and I swear, that's my SON standing in an early shot of the subway car, watching the guy dance.  I'll call him up later this weekend and find out if it's him or not.  Wild.

 

Toronto is not far behind the curve.  Walking back to work yesterday, on the corner of Queen West and Spadina, there was a young lady with a PSY look alike dancing on the sidewalk.  I'm not fast with my phone's video, but I did grab a few pictures. 





CSI Celebrates Regent Park and Plans NYC Space

The Centre for Social Innovation recently invited friends, supporters, neighborhood people and the general public to the launch of their beautiful new space in the Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre at 585 Dundas Street East, Toronto.  Natasha Stevens, manager of the space enthusiastically welcomed everyone while Executive Director, Tonya Surman thanked the many people in the room who had a role in making Regent Park happen.  There was no doubt that each attendee believed a more just and sustainable society was in the stars for Regent Park through the new socio-economic structure of social entrepreneurship.   

Now CSI turns towards opening a fourth space in the Starrett-Lehigh Building, located in lower mid-town Chelsea, in the greatest place for personal and cultural reinvention - New York City.  CSI arrives at a time when 21% of all New Yorkers live below the US poverty line.  Let's crunch some numbers:  for a family of four, living in the Bronx their total income for 2012 would be less than $23,050.  This family lives in the Bronx and not Manhattan for a reason:  affordable housing.  They'll struggle to make ends meet by going to a food pantry twice a month, maybe a soup kitchen before payday for a meal and receiving food stamps for basic staples.  This family joins 1.8 million other New Yorkers who rely on food stamps to keep hunger away.  The Bronx is known for the Yankees, the birth of hip-hop and rap and also struggles with an unemployment rate of over 13% for it's 1.1 million residents. 

High Line in Early Spring 2012

Manhattan is no stranger to hunger or the need to make ends meet - but on a different scale.  The top fifth income earners bring in over $371,000 a year while the bottom fifth earns $9,845.  The Starrett-Lehigh Building is located right around the corner from the High Line, a 1 mile (1.6 km) park recently reclaimed from an old section of the long gone New York Central Rail Line.  Popping up like daises around this urban park are condominiums that few in the Bronx could afford over the course of their entire lives.  Similar to Toronto's Regent Park, there is a public housing project in the same Chelsea neighborhood as Starrett-Lehigh, whose residents have reason to feel ignored by the current area's redevelopment.  The Apple store stands on the corner of 14th and 9th Avenue where Western Beef, an affordable supermarket once was.  Apple doesn't sell fresh fruit or vegetables along with I-Pods and I-Phones. 

Social innovators associated with the success of CSI have much to offer all New Yorkers who are struggling to maintain a family and their dreams in the Big Apple.  The challenge remains on welcoming the bottom fifth to CSI Starrett-Lehigh while encouraging the top-fifth to support and participate in the creation of a more just and sustainable lifestyle for the entire city.  CSI's Board of Directors, Tonya and other supporters have shown what is possible in Regent Park, downtown Toronto.  Enjoy your beginning bite of the Big Apple.  Did anyone tell you it is a tart McIntosh with a worm or two to contend with? 

Joanne arrived in NYC in the autumn of 1981 and moved to Toronto in the summer of 2009.  Over the years, she worked in nonprofit organizations while raising two kids in the Bronx.  Both kids, now adults remain proud New Yorkers.  With one living in Brooklyn and the other in Queens, they each earn enough in Manhattan jobs to live above the poverty line, somewhere in the shrinking middle.  Joanne loves living in Toronto and is excited to be a new Community Animator at the CSI Spadina space.  She retains though, a fondness for the tart flavor of the Big Apple. 

The Keltiad Stories of Patricia Kennealy

Patricia Kennealy is the author of a beloved sci-fi book series centered on The Keltiad - Celtic star voyagers led by St. Brendan, who left earth when the christian St. Patrick cast out the "snakes" from Ireland.  These pagan people resettled in the Keltia star system, building a technologically advanced culture whose stories echo the Celtic mythology of old.  Three of the series are about Queen Aeron and are far and above my most cherished favorites:  The Copper Crown, The Throne of Scone and The Silver Branch.  Three others reframe the King Arthur myths while the final two Celtic tales stand alone.

Who knows why a particular story arouses such pleasure when read?  Is it the strong central female character of Aeron that draws me so close?  Published in the 1980's, I've read and re-read Aeron's story through the passing years.  She draws me into a tale that tells of an entire universe's transition through war and magic.  Aeron begins as a young Queen scarred by the personal use of magic to avenge the deaths of her family and ends the series as Empress of more than just the Keltiads.  She is a well developed soul surrounded by other richly drawn characters that both derive and surpass Celtic lore. 

There is one passage that resonates within my life`s journey.  In The Throne of Scone, Aeron visits the planet Kholco, home to the Salamandri lizard like folk.  To achieve an inheritance of lost gifts from the long dead Celtic King Arthur, she must walk upon a molten stream of lava.  She does so with the blessing of the Great Mother, and is renewed of spirit when the task is complete.  I imagine her in a stately procession walking unharmed over the lava, in communion with a greater entity.  Aeron`s soul arises from the heat and flames anew and ready for the next turn in the journey. 

The streets of New York City sometimes reflect similar conditions to that of molten lava and I`ve walked my fair share of them.  Transformed by the experience, the city has provided gifts hard won, such as family, friends, career and love.  Books are often more than the paper they are printed on or the digital screen they glow from.  They grown into friends and become part of a reader`s very matrix.  Used copies of Kennealy`s series are not impossible to find.  Good journey to you, if the Keltiad series entices you to settle in for a read. 

Autumn Equinox - Nature Catches It's Breathe

The Autumn Equinox arrived on Saturday, September 22nd this year poised in balance between day and night.  It is as if nature held it's breath for one brief moment before turning the year's wheel towards the end of the harvest and winter's arrival.  Toronto grows crisp and chilly with a cutting wind that seems to fly across Lake Ontario before whooshing by pedestrians going home in the early dusk of the longer evenings.  St. Lawrence Market groans with pumpkins, squash and other late harvest vegetables while butchers prepare turkeys and hams for Thanksgiving Day feasts.  Mums, zinnias and sunflowers are embraced by the busy shoppers going home with their harvest treasures.  Leaves begin to turn toasty brown, orange and deep red, falling one by one to the ground.  Children wearing knitted hat and gloves push the leaves into piles, then jumping with peals of laughter into them.   Dogs don sweaters, squirrels bury acorns and Halloween is just around the corner.  Autumn has arrived in Toronto, version 2012.  

Embodiment with Self and Community

Got a body?   Checked in with it recently?  Is it integrated with your intellect and spirit?  Have you taken this sense of embodiment out into the larger community? 

Ken Wilber along with Rob McNamara discuss a concept called mature integral consciousness that I'm going to attempt to share with you today.  My level of embodiment has grown over the years, but is far from perfect.  I struggle with these concepts on a daily basis.  Here we go. 

The three circles above symbolize the three processes of Embodiment.  To embrace requires outward movement:  arms stretched out and around or a mind extended outward encompassing complimentary and contradicting polarities of experience.  To inhabit demands being inside:  inside your body, not outside looking in.  It is an intimate, multidimensional experience of inner you.  The last process is movement.  It is a dynamic process of ebb and flow within human form.  It is a creative cycle that underlies your most intense sense of what it means to be alive. 

Lets take this theoretical baby for a walk.  Homeless man approaches me while I stand on an empty subway platform, waiting for a train home.  He lunges forward to grab my bag off my shoulder.  In that exact moment of extreme stress I'm outside mentally looking at the situation and not inhabited within.  Nothing about the interaction feels real or authentic.  Separation has occurred and is part of my mechanism to combat the many conflicting polarities of thought involved.  Later, maybe I'll replay the scene and inhabit and integrate the experience.  Or maybe I'll choose to ignore that piece of the three pronged embodiment experience. 

Over time, choosing not to inhabit the body in stressful situations becomes habitual, destructive, unproductive.   Disengagement occurs not only within the self but in the larger community. 

Theoretical baby takes another walk in the park.  Same homeless man, same subway platform, same lunge forward to grab the bag.   I recognize and inhabit within myself in that split second all of the conflicting sensations and thoughts, embrace the possibility of mental and physical contact with the homeless man as well as move my body and mental options around for a win, win outcome.  Is he hungry?  Compassion kicks in and I offer him the left over sandwich from lunch while moving away both from the tracks and the guy.  He takes the sandwich, my train comes and I'm embodied in the moment as I head on home. 

What fascinates me about this embodiment model is the act of integration into balanced and mature consciousness.  Also the recognition that embodiment is community oriented.  When I'm embodied I don't stand in a mental, physical or spiritual vacuum.  I stand integrated with the community as well. 








 

Life Before Dog - Life After Dog

Merlyn was adopted from the Toronto Humane Society last December Solstice, 2011.  He could be considered a rescue dog - but in truth Merlyn has rescued me!

 

Life BD (Before Dog) was not particularly exciting.  There were some days when the most conversation I had with anyone was when I ordered dim sum at Rol San in Chinatown.  I tried knitting circles, astrology meetings, yoga classes and journal writing.  I enjoyed all the "me" time, but you can only eat so much dim sum alone, knit so many scarves and rediscover yourself over the course of a few years. 

 

Life AD (After Dog) has been a blast.  Those first few weeks of winter weather were tough, as Merlyn learned that all business must be done outside, regardless.  I would carry him in my arms, his long legs dangling while we raced a very long apartment hallway to the elevator and down to the back door. 

 

Merlyn failed every puppy pre-school class until I finally figured out that he needed physical and mental stimulation throughout the entire day.  Out we went for long off leash walks complete with intense play.  Suddenly, he understood sit, stay and other basic commands. 

 

Cherry Beach, Scarborough Bluffs, Humbar Bay Park and downtown ravines are our turf.  Sun, rain, wind or cold - away Merlyn and I go.  Every time he breaks into his graceful run my heart leaps and I'm with him in spirit.  Other Toronto dog owners have become the best  human company.  Many a morning is spent sharing stories and trading tips.  They are my special community of dog owning friends.

 

Lastly, Merlyn gives me unconditional, doggy love.  He turns those big brown eyes on me, stretches up on those incredibly long legs and licks my face.  I melt.  Every time. 

 

AD life is sweet.  Merlyn visits the Spadina Community of Social Innovation a few afternoons during the week.  Sometimes he is a perfect gentleman, other times a cranky soul.  Best to ignore him for now.  My hope is he gets used to the routine of the place and becomes part of the CSI community.   Then you too can experience Merlyn at his doggy best. 

 http://www.torontohumanesociety.com/adopt.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Creating Change, Creating a Legacy

2012 - no better time to begin.

Legacy - a gift or bequest to future generations.

Project - a planned undertaking.

Is it hubris to think about a legacy career and lifestyle at 53?  I'm not rich, famous, connected or particularly gifted.  I am willing to embrace change.  Transformational paradigms require old habits and structures to be broken apart and rebirthed into new patterns of thought, behavior and creativity. 

In my not so distant career past, centered in health care and education service delivery systems, most of the goals and quality assurance of the job were created top down.  Creative ways of solving problems were almost subversive and daring in application, due to the rigid nuts and bolts of the different job description.

My lifestyle was also overly structured and stale.  Living 30 years in The Big Apple - New York City, will do that to you.  The constant stress of the daily commute, climbing up the career ladder and squeezing in family time left little for spiritual renewal or creative play. 

Today, this very minute, I embrace the act of change.  I'm in revolution - standing up and turning myself around and embracing the dance within the larger community of Toronto.