Where are you going to go deeper this year, where can you be brave enough to bring forth even more of yourself — to infuse your work, creativity and business with that which is uniquely YOU, thus inspiring others to do more of the same? What could that look like in 2017 for you?

Kristen Noel

Slacktivism

Thanks to Stan Stewart for the phrase “The End of Slacktivism.” What he meant as he used it with me is that there is a new movement afoot in the current political environment. During the Obama years, well intentioned, progressive, heart-centred and privileged people rested on the efforts of others to expand justice, liberty, and compassion to all. And it felt like the world was moving in the direction of their dreams, so we rested in the easier work – speaking out in communities of people who mostly agree with us, signing online petitions, spreading thought-provoking articles on Facebook, and patting ourselves on the back for being part of the solution.

But the past year has given voice to a level of fear-based hatred that many of us had hidden ourselves from, or told ourselves was a thing of the past.

Now, we find that we must stop slacking off and get more active. Each of us is digging into ourselves, identifying our values, and determining what we must do in this environment to fight the good fight, speak truth to power, and build the world we want to live in.

For me, the timing of this social movement parallels my personal journey into health and wholeness. I spent most of the past 4 years putting on my own oxygen mask. This fall, I started breathing fully enough to be able to reach back out to the world from a place of strength. The timing is a perfect example of synchronicity, coincidences that seem to be meaningfully related.

Activism

There are so many problems in the world. No one person can carry them all. We must choose our foci and claim allegiance with and support those who choose other arenas.

At the dinner table last night, my children and I were discussing kindness and compassion as part of the Unitarian Universalist holiday of Chalica. We talked about charitable giving and the kinds of organizations that we should support. Each of them chose an organization that will receive part of our annual charitable giving, and we talked about the organizations I generally support. I was thrilled when they pointed out to me all the ways they have witnessed me supporting similar organizations. And we talked about how we must choose where to allocate our resources.

The kids decided to give money to an animal shelter, a literacy program, and two programs that help sick kids and their families. I added a donation to an LGBTQ support organization and an anti-racism project.

These are where our deepest values line up with the world’s needs.

This is not all the help the world needs by any means, but it is what happens when we start with who we are and what we bring to the work of healing the world.

What About in my Work?

In my work, I have been holding back, doing the easy stuff, avoiding the controversial material I dream of sharing. But each time I lean into what I am avoiding, my work feels more meaningful to me.

In my private life and professional development circles, I have been pushing toward helping people have hard conversations and create more intimacy in their lives. I deeply believe that human beings crave intimacy – sharing experiences of witnessing each other in our full, humanity, including the soft spots and vulnerabilities at our cores. I despair when I see how completely our culture has decided intimacy is too much to ask for and has restricted intimacy to the world of sexual partnership.

Gender Troubles

In particular, I have had conversation after conversation about how looking at the world through gendered lenses stops us from seeing people as people. My experience as a stereotypical masculine psyche in a distinctly female body has given me first hand witness of and deep scars from the injuries gender norms inflict on people. And I have observed how the culture is damaging my children despite my best efforts to counter that programming.

This year, I have moved from being constantly triggered by gendering to being able to be in deep conversation with people about how the rigidity of gender norms has injured me and them. At the same time, I have resisted the calling to go public with that as my core message to the world because I have been scared.

I have been sneaking the anti-gender programming into all my work. All of my clients are at some level working to undo assumptions about what they need to do to be good and successful that are coloured by gender programming from their childhoods. I don’t always name it, but it is always there. It is time for me to put that work front and centre.

Love? Spirit?…God?

Even more frighteningly, I must find a way to bring the transcendent parts of me to my work. For at least 35 years, I have explored how I can meet my “spiritual” needs while maintaining my commitment to reality as it exists. I cannot in good conscience accept contra-rational metaphysics or supernatural theologies. I need a way to discuss awe, wonder, transcendence, faith, hope, love, charity, hospitality, and stewardship in ways that honour the concrete reality of the human condition.

I know many people whose theology rejects the supernatural, who have redefined God, soul, spirit and salvation to be completely in line with evidence-based, rational, skeptical understandings of the world and human nature. I do not reject God-language per se. I need to become public about why and how I am comfortable with elements of faith and religious practice that many of my fellow skeptics and atheists have rejected.

Too many people I know have thrown out the baby with the bathwater as far as religion goes. I live a middle path and it feels to me like the world could use a middle path right now.

Stay Tuned…

What is uniquely me?

An ability to make fine distinctions between things people often conflate (fine tuned through legal training and practice)
Deep reverence for what is and awe in the presence of nature’s glory.
Theological training (lay leadership in Unitarian Universalist congregations and 2 years of study at Starr King School for the Ministry)
Aesthetic sensibility
Creativity and performance training
Deep compassion
My queer identity: agender and bisexual. My romantic and sexual attractions are not limited by sex or gender. I love beyond boundaries.

I have been slowly bringing more and more of myself into the world of my work, but my queer spirituality has been left out. It is time to bring those parts of my forward.

Now to determine what that might look like.

Stay tuned…

More to come.

 

This is part of Quest 2017, a 12-prompt process for annual planning. The prompt was provided by Kristen Noel, Editor-In-Chief of BEST SELF Magazine.

The post Meaningful Work and The End of Slacktivism appeared first on Cracks In The World.