Welcome to this little newsletter and blog post from David Skibbins. In the United States we have received a mandate from a majority of our citizens that all this social justice and climate change stuff is not to their liking. That should make the next for years interesting, as in that Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” What it means for me is that there is no time like the present to do the personal; and spiritual work to become a co-creative leader in the way Lao Tsu laid it out. I like it when he wrote: Number 39 The good old days
We imagine a Golden Age
The air was pure
The earth was our solid foundation
Our spirit was strong calm and focused
The land was fertile and radiant with life
Living things lived in ecological health
And we could trust the ones who govern us
Today that balance is lost
The sky is polluted
Climate change has turned dangerous
The earth is contaminated with chemicals and radiation
Our spirit is broken and the social fabric rent apart with division
Agriculture for profit is eliminated necessary ecological diversity
Entire species become extinct on a daily basis
And no one trusts their government
The solution lies in a return to simplicity and openness
Our leaders can no longer rule while being cut off from the needs of
the Earth the Sky the Land the Plants the Animals the Ecology and the People
that they govern
They must rule from oneness, not from the lust for more power
They must let themselves feel the suffering
of the orphaned, the widowed, the helpless
And they must seek to serve the everything
Not exactly what we got this election. But perhaps this four year journey into greed, hatred and delusion is just what this nation needs to wake up and reorient itself. And it certainly is an opportunity for you to practice this form of servant-leadership in your life and with those you touch.
As a special bonus in this newsletter I am enclosing a link to an hour-long chat I had with Lucille Greeff in which we explore what deeper levels of maturity can look like and I get to chat about the Tao of saving the world.
Here it is:
https://youtu.be/g0kAQAKjNEo?si=P4VR1BybXwwoSFd-