When radical innovation is about bringing back ancestral practices

When I signed up for Paolo and Hidde's #earthWISDOMDIALOGUE online event, organized by @atmanway, I had no idea what I was walking into. By the time I finally tore myself away from zoom almost 12h later, I felt full and happy, connected to the whole world and to the planet in a deep, peaceful way. I had experienced wisdom. Everything seemed possible.  

It started at 6 am CET on friday morning. Oh my! Will have to miss out on the first speakers. I quickly looked through all the information trying to find out who was speaking when, but was unable to get my hands on a program. 

Yoga on the terrace under a sky full of swallows. No order. No structure. Just space.

So I plugged in using my phone to listen while I did my morning yoga on the terrace, beneath swarms of swallows who loan their spectacle to us in Madrid during the summer months. I listened on while I prepared breakfast. Indigenous elders from different countries spoke as ideas and thoughts came to each one of them. Paolo and Hidde held a space where there was no predefined order or structure. 

Every few hours there was a "listening circle" designed to bring attendants into the conversation through activities and sharing in small groups. I found my way through links and options into a room where we were asked to write a poem.  

What??? How is me writing a poem going to change anything important? What is the purpose of all this? Where exactly are these people taking me? And WHY do I keep going?

But I played along. Followed instructions. Wrote my poem. When I finished it my heart thudded strong, slow, full of emotion. Somehow that poem summarized perfectly what I was feeling that morning: 

“I am light. I am shadow. I am the dance between the two.

The dance is so intense sometimes I fear I will break.

And every time I let myself break I find new light. I become a star!”

 I felt gratitude. I felt connected to all these strangers from every corner of the world. Most importantly, I felt held and guided to a place within myself where wisdom could happen. 

A new panel of indigenous elders began. Thoughts and ideas about light and darkness, good and evil. A wise man in traditional attire voiced the same concerns I had asked myself about a little while earlier. What was the purpose of this event, he asked. There are so many problems in the world, there is so much evil. There is so much we need to do. We need to get moving! 

Nobody addressed him directly or called him out on his “party-pooper” attitude. Each speaker intervened as he or she felt they could share something useful to the circle. The rest of us wrote our comments on the chat. I remembered two beautiful quotes by Rumi: “The Wound is where the light comes in”, and “There is a field beyond all ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing. I will wait for you there”.

 “There is a field beyond all ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing. I will wait for you there”.

Magically, in a way nobody could have planned or controlled, this man’s face changed after a while. His voice, his words, his focus shifted. Clouds had lifted, shadows had dispersed somehow. I was magnetized by what was happening in this space. It wasn’t so much the ideas, or the comments, or the stories. It was the energy shared in the group. It was wisdom.

In our complicated, modern world of rational thinking we’ve come to believe that wisdom is about ideas. Knowing what needs to be done because the science and all the data supports it and everybody agrees. Tada!!! That must be why we can’t fix anything!

 Wisdom is something you feel.

Because wisdom is not something you understand or agree with. Wisdom is something you feel. Somehow you know without knowing. Your gut, your heart, your womb or your hara, or your entire body propels you towards a choice or an action. All you can do is watch yourself in wonder at the ease and fluidity of a movement you thought you would never be able to accomplish or maybe even want to make.

In my case I was sitting in my sweaty yoga gear without a shower or a teeth wash or any activation of my day routine two hours later. What I was feeling as I listened and wrote my reactions on the chat was doing something important to me. Something I can’t put into words.

Something we can’t put into words. Don't need to.

 A call from a client brought me back to tangible business matters and pulled me away to get on with my day, but I kept connected to the circle every opportunity I got. Earthly and household chores ensued as my phone brought the zoom circle to my ears and tickled my heart. I listened in to the silence from the noisiness of the pool where I did my swimming. Walked my dogs while I did another lovely exercise which allowed me to express where I am at in my life right now.

A man called Four Arows shared a story I found fascinating. He told us how, when his ancestors were forced to leave the lands they loved and march towards reservations, they couldn’t bear the grief. So the women sang a lullaby in their own language. The lullaby pointed to all the beautiful animals and sights they encountered along the way. He sang the words to us.

Feminine models of leadership

I thought that was an excellent image of true leadership. In a situation that broke those womens’ hearts as much as anybody elses’, they kept their own grounding and sang to bring every tribe member back to grounding, to hold their pain, to help them keep walking despite everything.  

Many wonderful stories and ideas were shared. The warm energy of peace and understanding flowed from computer to computer across the world. Admiration, compassion, gratitude and generosity hung in the airwaves. And the silence. The purposeless silence of people surrendering to a movement bigger than themselves.  

The purposeless silence of people surrendering to a movement bigger than themselves.  

Madrid is hosting the NATO congress this week. If only a bit of what we did last friday made its way to talks and discussions in this world-impacting forum.

And then a ceremony broadcast from a sacred hill in Tanzania with Massai tribal men and women in their colorful outfits. The sun setting behind them as they offered their most valuable possessions – grass and milk! – in a glorious fire. A stick full of flowers to carry our wishes and fears through the fire and straight to the spirit world.

Songs full of words I couldn’t understand. But didn’t need to. Another African woman singing back a new song with excitement and joyful, contagious recognition. And then we were all sharing songs we loved from different countries, each bringing our own cultural connection to the land, to our roots, to our spiritual guides. Feeling wonder and emotional recognition in the common human values and themes behind each song.

Technology enabling a global space of peace and humanity

I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing. Tears fell down my cheeks. Slow tears of gratitude and wonder at the mysterious paths of our reality and how they bring us to the places we need to be exactly at the moment we are ready to be there.

 This circle of wisdom that Paolo Morley-Fletcher and his team created that Friday was a true innovation. A total revolution in reality. In a world where everybody is rushing to fix things, waiting for other people to finish talking in order to push their own agenda, and using activism and big ideals as an excuse to attack other peoples’ way of life … silence, wisdom and counsels of elders are a new process we haven’t really tried. Even though indigenous tribes relied on circles like these for their survival and growth for thousand of years in every corner of our planet.  

I am sure this Earth Wisdom Dialogue Day will be the first of many more to come. And I hope the world catches on to this model and nurtures it across fields, professions, languages and spiritual beliefs.  

More than ever, it is time to come together and truly listen to each other with respect and an open mind. Until our minds surrender to the wisdom of our bodies and the silent, overwhelmingly beautiful call of our Great Mother Earth.

Thank You Paolo. Thank You Hidde. Thank You to everybody who participated. You were a blessing and a flame of wisdom to me on my life journey. https://WisdomDialogueDay.Org