Friends, coworkers, heck the whole world now, is obsessed with arcing content into fame online. Blog fever and social media are partially to blame. True, we get most of our news, glam tips, and health research from the Web. So in this digital reality, shouldn’t we also expect to publish anecdotes of our own that could change lives, perhaps some person’s we’ve never even met?

Looking to the classics, elements of story closely align with life, death and the struggle to exist. Oral tradition forged meaning within communities through old fashioned conversation and mythic education. The Odyssey, an epic Greek poem written in dactylic hexameter, was first read aloud or sung. Many Native American and Aboriginal stories, also shared out loud, are snapshots of a tribe’s morality, ethics, and right behavior.

Though it’s tempting to deify the past, I suspect ego entered their social fabric, too. How well a story is told probably earned points and political leverage. Some things absolutely stay the same. But the difference now seems to be that we’ve aggravated the arc – and the joy – of simple story telling.

Perhaps “joy story” void is due in part to an over-saturated marketplace. With content playing king to marketing campaigns, it’s no surprise that some content serves to titillate rather than truly engage our deeper sense of social inter-connectedness, pain, and hunger for meaning. While story is as alluring now as it has always been, today it’s more fractal fast-food fodder and less mind-altering, soul-stirring message. Sociologists, what’s up with that?

For actual, lasting Joy of Story, we need a seat in the circle. First, we need a circle. With iPhones aside, let’s chant into dream space together and re-enact the myth of slaying a dragon or staving off famine. In this story, the beast might be our failure to find joy in pixels and famine the utter isolation of empty texting.

I talk about wisdom keepers a lot. I like how The Moth, Ignite and Ted keep the art of storytelling and wisdom sharing alive. This is digital content democracy – good stuff and new communities unite. Blogs also give us a way to keep the art of story thriving. As we blog, we become wisdom keepers, too.

After much search and research… and reading and weighing… the first Causes for Healing winner has been chosen! The winner is… Stand With Haiti.

This medically oriented non-profit has an over 20-year history of being on the ground in Haiti, through Parnters in Health, delivering crucial health care and medical supplies. Stand With Haiti is Boston-based Partners in Health’s most recent campaign that specifically supports Haitian survivors of January’s massive earthquake.

Stand for Haiti’s Web site is a dedicated page of blog-style feeds with instant updates from staff. Here supporters can find out what’s happening right now and, most importantly, learn about critical needs–such as surgical supplies, medications, blankets, satellite phones, and surgical teams.

To build support and awareness about their relief efforts, Stand for Haiti teamed with MTV and a few other influential aid organizations to produce Hope for Haiti Now concert airing Friday, January 22, 2010.

The global telethon will feature performances by Wyclef Jean, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira, and Sting in New York City; Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift and a group performance by Keith Urban, Kid Rock, and Sheryl Crow in Los Angeles; and Coldplay, and a group performance by Bono, The Edge, Jay-Z, and Rihanna in a newly added London location. Money raised from the event will be split evenly among various relief, recovery, and development organizations—including PIH (for SWH), the Red Cross, Yele Haiti, and others.

Today, amid the outpouring of aid to Haitian earthquake survivors, the power of healing and helping those in need crystallized in a heartbeat. Generous acts are incredible ‘hapi heart’ inducers — and that’s because they are chock-full of meaning.

In fact, one of the most satisfying and joyful experiences us humans have is giving to those in need — or to anyone, really. Just the act of being generous unleashes a geyser of feel-good serotonin in our brain, which translates to a sense of heart-pumping purpose. While we don’t wish calamity on any fellow human, being able to help someone out who is truly unable to help him/herself,  is good for the soul.

There may be no big revelations here, but an epiphany nonetheless came barreling through: with the hundreds, if not thousands (probably more) of causes around the globe conspiring to heal and protect, why not commence a project that takes a close look at some of those organizations and the people who bring them to life?

So… I officially announce the launch of Hapiheart’s ‘Causes for Healing Project.’ What will take place over the next year is a survey of social, sustainability, humanitarian, disaster relief and healing related projects, movements and initiatives that span our planet. I’ll try to focus on one a week, commenting on what they do, how they do it and what makes them effective at healing the world, its people, and our biggest social, environmental and spiritual challenges.

Last year’s economic downturn brought dark times to many of us. Let’s concentrate on hope this year, and how we can all work together to build a happy and healthy vibration on this tender earth.

Funny how much time we spend awaiting the next good thing. We add up hours planning trips to Hawaii, preparing fancy dinners, and trimming Christmas trees just so. These moments of prepping futures are like raindrops in the wind. They are lush and wet, vital with energy, yet as soon as destiny arrives, they flail and fall into the great mystery of timelessness.

There is a lot of talk these days about happiness. What does it look like. Where does it live. Who’s got it and how can I get some more. Scientific research now graphs a clear line between quality of life, health and happiness. It turns out that enjoying good, positive, even challenging relationships boosts our capacity for pleasure. In his book, Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert combines science and case studies to show how a healthy social life can equal a healthy inner and outer one, too. The book’s a best seller, of course. Not only that, it was recently turned into a documentary and featured on PBS’ This Emotional Life.

Top that with popular blog and book The Happiness Project and the now classic tour de force Eat, Pray, Love, and our collective hunger for awakening rears its head. These books are externalizations of a shared internal quest for joy and meaning. We all have the Joy — deep down or riding the surface — but somewhere along the way, for many of us, it slips between our fingers.

Popular psychology and spiritual thought are full of step-by-step ways to get happy. In all things, we want a recipe for joy and contentment. While not ‘desiring’ per se, anything in particular, except perhaps the pleasure of not desiring anything at all, Buddhism offers a path called the Middle Way. In his book, The Art of Happiness, the Dalai Lama answers questions that remind us Westerners that the way to all good things is within us. It is the Source. It’s not about traveling the world to find it — although some find it this way. It is about going deep and cultivating connection with our divine essence.

Over sixty years ago, Viktor Frankl portrayed happiness as the art of survival amid terror. His historic book, Man’s Search for Meaning, models the undaunted power of the human spirit, and how, by changing our thinking, we can change our reality. Frankl may have been waiting for something good to happen — his freedom and the end of war. But he was waiting by taking each moment as a breath of new life and finding magic and beauty in the ugliest of places.

Walking through misty fog this morning, an eerie sight struck me. There was no one in the park. It was 8am and normally such walks deliver a smattering of walkers, joggers, dog runners, and strollers out for fresh air. Today, first of December, the weather was actually quite refreshing, but the leisurely people were conspicuously missing. Admittedly, it had been several weeks since I ventured out at this hour… but something felt different.

Perhaps it’s the holidays — people are too busy for ambles now. Shopping, working early, leaving early, shopping again, planning, writing greetings cards, editing holiday video cards, organizing parties, buying Christmas blend beans and sipping pumpkin spiced lattes. These must dos take time and time is money.

Elephants

And we can’t forget our friendly elephant. Obviously, we’re still in a recession. Layoffs still burn headlines and fill the ears of tight urban circles. Just last week, a friend’s employer let go of three bigwigs with decades of ’seniority’. Like that. Apparently there was a need for restructuring and dismantling of redundant operations. I picture the board seething and lashing out ultimatums, in sadomasochistic fashion — either you cut staff or we cut you — up. This is war and the weak shall perish. This is survival, and people are dying everywhere of fear and hunger and the bad flu. No one denies that.

Autumn Leaves

Autumn urges blend dying with rebirth every second. Until two days ago, decaying leaves carpeted my front yard. Some kind of guilty impulse pricked me outside to rake and scoop up the fallen miracles. I budgeted 20 minutes (with a total allowance for 30 minutes) to enact the messy task. Ninety minutes later I stumbled indoors, gushing at the warm embrace of home.

You may know this, but the weight of wet leaves is awesome. It’s like a hurricane of heaviness. It bestows glacial powers on these fibrous blueprints to suck other organic matter  — like cat poo and slugs — into their fray. I also uncovered a rotting cat food tin and a bouncy ball. The tin I understand was used as a slug tavern, likely by my neighbor, to capture and drown the pests in a soup of yeasty beer. I guess it didn’t work. Some creatures survive at any cost.

Curious Intentions and Bloggers

“Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” says the unofficial U.S. postal credo. I love this. It seems apropos here — failure is not an option. Sometimes, this sentiment wins the hearts of fans, but on a bad day it could fuel the antagonism of nations. Either way it’s an echo to our past when solidarity and right action united people into the ‘good’ camp of heroes, angels, and athletes.

Today as 20th Century infrastructure collapses around us, I’m seeing that being heroic is less about being tough and more about being human. Big companies are seeing that, too. Corporate goliaths, bullies to the little guy, can get hammered by bloggers and low comment ratings in a heartbeat. Today anyone can be a hero just by forging a meaningful relationship with those they’ve never met and adding value online. Our heroes now are tweeters, texters, youtubers, and sharers and they drive the latest technology to do their bidding. Hello Rotten Tomatoes.  Thank you Google, TechCrunch and Wikipedia.

Google Roots

I first heard the word “Google” in 1999 at my first job in the Internet field. I was a junior copywriter and I was walking from a meeting with senior colleagues who were lobbing opinion about this new search tool — Google — and how it compared to Ask Jeeves, the hot search du jour. I was enchanted — that name, my god, that name was killer! And I never forgot it. This is the power of branding in the perfect storm — the super-hyped Web kingdom was about to tumble, and Google, in all its simplicity and geeky brilliance, was perfectly poised to scale new worlds.

I like to think of Google as the progenitor of a democratic Web. Its simple, human approach to search and making sense of info paved inroads for wikis and other self-directed adventures. Today, I am posting a WordPress blog entry because Google enamored billions to the power of search and finding one’s own way. That makes me smile. Perhaps at Google right now some new wave of insight is enticing a green entrepreneur to publish her first blog. New ideas, new freedom. The choices are astounding.

Finding a Flip

So my next hurdle is researching, comparing and buying the right Flip camcorder. I’m going to use Google to do this. Then straight to CNET, Amazon, and Wired. Then on to commenters and bloggers for their opinion. The need to self direct my journey is strong — but not without frustration and fatigue. This notion of putting everything at everyone’s fingertips is as empowering as it is isolating.

Store clerks no longer have the answers — these hourly earners with no time to do real product research can only be relied on to pitch sales jumbo to the unenlightened and ring up a “no shipping costs” purchase.

So I’m left to fend for myself. That’s when I turn to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Somebody I know who knows someone I have befriended surely will lead me from the fog to my destiny. Although the path is narrow and the future uncertain, it is the way nature intended.

When you’ve got multiple balls in the air, not to mention clouds of economic gloom to contend with, staying positive can be a real challenge.

I know this struggle first hand. As an artist, Reiki healer, writer, event planner, consultant and volunteer, I often feel torn between getting it all done and stopping to smell the roses.  And I am not alone.  Read more >

I’ll admit to it. In reading my new book, ‘The Hearts of Horses,’ by Molly Gloss, her language is inspiring me just a young frost’s nib. I am reminded of a dozen years ago when language and me were conspiring together like soul mates do, rather than the little conquests that preen my portfolio of late.

Gloss’s book, and the other I just finished, ‘People of the Book,’ by Aussie expat Geraldine Brooks, rekindles a lost poetry for words. I guess art has a way of surfacing when our breathing slows and our presence situates itself in the earth’s fertile vastness and hears, after years of missing it, the nautical beat of our ephemeral pulse.

So now I burn to touch a horse’s snout. From the distant, open expanse of the West, a freedom song beams my way, like a fire dance echoing in the mind. I am there, as quickly as I close my eyes and dream. My horse, shall we call her Ellie, bends down and nudges my shoulder, asking for sweet talk. I answer with a stroke and pat along her broad, strong neck. Soon, we’ll head out together and chase the sun.

This simple act of communing with animals is part of what makes us human. We are like chameleons of nature, seeing through to the souls of creatures with whom we coexist–if we’re looking with ancestor wisdom. Horses may not comprehend our inner struggle, but when we make eye contact with them, a relationship is born. Perhaps it’s empathy that makes it so.

As for horses, part of the wonder for me is their sheer power–a strength and fortitude that elevates them to something magical, beyond this world. Mix with that a grace of movement, personalities on par with dogs and people, intrepid speed and daring and you’ve got an archetype that easily makes history.

At any time, horse captivates the imagination. Especially now, during a period some are naming the ‘Great Recession,’ horse beckons to us. Call on the horse to inspire your natural power and return to wild freedom. Remember, the horse, as all animals, does not judge. She simply acts how her spirit and nature impel her to, moving ever-forward. As we bond with her essence, rather than ‘break’ her bronco side, we discover that together we channel our dreams into little miracles and the world is richer for it.

An overabundance of anything can drain us. Try this on: constant news saturated by doomsday forecasts and anything that will spin your eyes in fear… lasting for, say, a couple years straight? Thus spoke national media. Exhausted?

I don’t normally write in expletives. Many pin me with the label ‘optimist.’ Still, enough is enough. So here goes.

Stop the fucking negativo, media jerks! End this self-absorbed, self-interested, self-obsessed, greed-inured, jerking off rants about how the bottom of our tidy little paradise is falling out. Get over it. Move on. Do not click ’send.’

Then make way for happy. Heard of her? She everyone’s alter ego, even yours. No, she is not deluded. She is clued in — so clued in she knows that being happy is where it’s at. Joy is all the rage for the enlightened, she would say. She is ready for fun, playful, hip and creative forays into life’s deeper essence. She’s no dimwit. And, make no mistake: she’s not your new sex toy (although she certainly is a mischievous cat).

She is, simply, happy. She is the ‘new sexy’ replacing that other vampy, plastic, drug vixen parading as a good time. When she smiles, the world watches. Her aura is contagious: others (even you, you’ll find yourself) want what she’s got and will walk miles in pursuit of it. She’s for real, square on the money, and no pushover. Try cheating at cards with this hip chick and you’ll be on your tail-ista and out the door-ista in two shakes flat.

With Happy, value has meaning. She no longer uses credit because ‘it’s delusional,’ I can hear her saying. As for stocks, investing in real human relationships, hard work, earth greenery, beautification of our waters, and community thoroughfares are her wise alternative. If stocks support such ideals, she’s all for ‘em, as long as the girl or guy running the shop can look her in the eye and go two rounds at badminton.

Mind this world: it’s time to embrace your own Happy. Time’s a-wasting. There is one less tomorrow than there was yesterday. Enjoy what you’ve got and cultivate what you love. Make way for joy. Be joyful you’re here. There are so many people who care about you. Don’t let them down. If you could do one thing today that feels right, what is it? Now, go ahead and do it.

Laughing Buddha nature - relish it

When your head is full of greenish yellow funk, the world just looks different. The concept, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” has a whole new meaning. You’ve been there, I know.

I heard about this “notorious head cold” but, honestly, I felt untouchable. This was a naive, in denial, head-in-clouds oversight, I now admit. Just a few days previous to contracting the crud, I was thinking how oddly, refreshingly, effortlessly lucky I had been in totally avoiding the rumored nastiness. In fact, I felt great! Energetic, ready for spring (who isn’t!), making new business connections, smiling a lot, installing some art, even working on a new series of paintings. Wow. Things were rolling.

Then, literally, within 2 hours, I could feel a creeping up the back of my neck. After about 3 hours, I began to lose my voice. The next TWO DAYS I had NO VOICE at all. A week later, this pernicious beast had transformed 2 or 3 times and now attacks my eyes. Yellow crusties film my eyelashes. I know, gross. My nose runneth, My throat and glands swell like wet rags.

Yes, the world looks different when your body stops you in your tracks. Okay, it kind of sucks. Yet something else emerges when I pay attention. There is a sense that I’ve actually been awarded something very special, almost sacred, a state of being in which time, slowness, and shadow gazing take over. Think: Slumdog Millionaire wins worst cold ever. It’s magical thinking.

I move more slowly today because if I tread at normal velocity my head spins and phlegm surges. This is an excellent motivator to halt, assess and dive in deep. I find myself carving out buried treasures stuck, perhaps for decades, in the far reaches of my psyche. It’s like excavating missing pieces of myself. Such “tasks” don’t normally make my “to do” list. It’s kind of dizzying in a calming sort of way. Digging out layers of your soul requires altered consciousness. Are you following me?

I realize I have a choice here. I could curse the world for this massive inconvenience called ‘The Crud.’ And I could opt for sympathy gathering. But instead, I am searching for beauty.

This brings up an interesting metaphor. The world, in the form or our economy is suffering perhaps it’s worst head cold in 80 years. Many industries face near collapse. Mom and pops on “Main Street” are going under if their niche isn’t recession-proof. Print papers, like the Rocky Mountain News, stop the presses after 150 years. The fallout is historic and full of nastiness.

One silver lining, akin to said inner journey via flu onslaught, is the birth of a new social humility. Co-ops, community building, barter and trade, and new ways of imagining economic health surface in nostalgic wonderment. I personally attest to this. Instead charging a client for one of my services, which is how I, a student of our established (and now crumbling) socio-economic system, typically conduct business exchange… I offered to do a trade: my marketing services for his home contracting services. It’s working like butter. He gets a marketing booster shot and my spare room gets a cosmetic facelift — just what the doctor ordered.

But I am not alone in reviving the beauty of the barter in these rough times. Recently, the Wall Street Journal’s article about the trend to utilize trade transactions, instead of money, is a real wake-up call. Not only are small-to-medium companies turning to barter at higher frequency, experts specializing in setting up bartering relationships are growing in popularity. Check ‘em out: NuBarter.com, FloridaBarter.com, TrashBank.com, PeopleTradingServices.com, CareToTrade.com, and BarterQuest.com — are just a FEW (there are tons) barter and trade folks out there.

This remarkably simple way of sharing resources and co-creating success through barter is an ancient practice. Indigenous people, of which we were all once members, traded as a way of life. This idea seems new to some us today because we’ve existed with money and credit for so long, but it’s as natural as seasons changing.

A somewhat unique, though not entirely innovative (as they invoke time-tested intentional community methodologies) collective that “banks time” as a way of swapping services is the Echo Park Time Bank. Their premise: “For every hour you help another member, you earn a Time Dollar. Then you can use that Time Dollar to have a neighbor help you.” Is this the future, again returned to us from the past? Either way, this form of co-existing, and engendering cooperation and sweat equity, is on the rise. Sign me up.

Futuristic visionaries might describe our societal fate as Western hubris imploding on itself. As our armor of self-importance thins, we get back to basics: being human without building empires. So we’re learning to share again.

When I worked as a Web Marketing Specialist for Oregon Health & Science University, my supervisor (who I viewed as more a mentor than a boss), warned me about “empire builders.” I wasn’t exactly sure then what he meant, but years later, and a few bruises withstood, I get it. Here’s one way I would define empire builders: Anyone narrowly interested in their own gain and in furthering their ego and desire for personal power without regard for others.

Are ‘empire builders’ the culprits that sunk us down the eco drain in the first place? Let’s face it, we all wouldn’t mind having a couple of million and a beemer in the drive. Perhaps this is why the virus hitting us today is so severe: we’re being challenged to gaze beyond stuff and discover meaning in new ways. We’re seeing empires crumble and some of them are our own.

And then there’s Bettie Page. The notorious Bettie Page. On the surface she was pin-up queen, most natural soft porn seductress of all time. Yet, her fame was a product of illusion. Hungry eyes feasted on her glossy images, but behind the veil she was as innocent as Tennessee. Wearing sassy costumes (or going nude) was simple play-acting. She didn’t even drink alcohol. As she approached middle age, she disappeared from public eye and her legend grew. Seems her notoriety worked wonders.

This brings up perspective again. How and what we see makes our reality. Some saw Bettie Page, the illustrious sex symbol. Perhaps others knew a girl-next-door in search of herself. Maybe she got “the head cold from hell” one day and realized that pursuing religion was her next calling. Either way, she changed direction.

Today, it feels like the whole world is changing direction. Maybe this is a good thing. Whether it is or not, it’s happening. The wheels are in motion. Meaning is shifting and we’re returning to a fresh way of seeing. The million dollar house next door has solar panels and feeds its plants recycled water. Change is here. My head cold is waning. My eyes clear to a new day.

Sounds of Silence

Sometimes thoughts hammer and rush in my head, like the sound of a neighbor’s never-ending house renovation. Or the persistent scratch of a wind-swept branch tickling the window. Then I think of the ocean, my kind of ocean for such days — calm, still, placid, luminous — and the words melt into their sea of silence.

Today’s world is full of distractions… and pain… and misunderstandings. Many of us use words as a defense against the ‘gap’, the space between illusion and what’s real. For many of us, words are a welcome respite to an even less comfortable reality: quiet. Words, words, words are here on this screen, on the radio, on TV, in books, magazines, databases, and in ancient tomes. Sometimes, no words will do just fine.

Since I equate ‘peace’ with a healthy mix of quiet and action, I like to introduce calm on a regular basis. It’s how I re-calibrate the inner and outer sanctums — otherwise society’s insatiable want of dissonance will cast its disharmony. Harmonizing when you feel disturbed, out of balance, stressed, vapid, or just amped out… is essential to staying healthy.

Take action by stopping

When the news and email buzz won’t stop… when you feel like one more word from the ghetto wire will blow your mortal fusebox — just stop. Listen to nothingness. Meditate. Get a massage. Visit the spa. Drive to the beach. Lie on the chaise and dream. Make some art. Swim in someone’s arms. Dance the holy dharma funk. Be.

As you are ‘being,’ you may feel more fully yourself after awhile. You may find that all the space you created in your own heart has also created more room for others. You may find that you feel happier and that connecting with those closest to you feels even better.

Here’s a simple song, in case you ever lose track of your own silence… from the classic duo, Simon & Garfunkel. Enjoy.