In the world of be whole now, the mantra is splashed across the top of the Home page every single day:
Journey Deep
Listen Well
Make Peace
Evolve
As well as a personal checklist for your own movement in the direction of a more integrated – and ultimately, more productive, empowered, and joyously satisfying existence – these four key points might be an effective rubric against which to observe and evaluate our current crop of U.S. political aspirants.
Why not apply the be whole now test to our potential leaders as well as ourselves?
Journey Deep
To Journey Deep suggests an ability to look at a larger picture. To put even the smallest actions in the context of an expansive worldview. Journeying Deep means diving below the surface; viewing value over cost; going beyond the personal to the universal. When one journeys deep, one is aware of timeless human archetypes, and one embraces the realization that larger forces are always at work, shaping individual lives and the communities we create through connections at interpersonal, interstate, international, and yes, eventually, intergalactic levels. The deep journey includes a recognition and honoring of the past and a clear, potent vision for the future, even as one stands firmly grounded in the present.
Are you seeking and supporting leaders who possess the capacity and the desire to Journey Deep?
Listen Well
Listening well entails more than simply hearing words spoken by others. It includes listening to the topside conversation while also listening intently to (and consequently, acting upon) your own intuition and the inner guidance that wells up from within. One who listens well seeks out the knowledge and wisdom that can be found only in the silent spaces between words. The art of listening well is honed through a lifetime of having both the freedom and respect to speak and be heard, as well as the self-awareness to hold forth your ideas in a manner that invites others to listen. To Listen Well, one must be awake – or at least aware that one is beginning to awaken. At the very least, one must hold dear a desire or an intention to awaken to an understanding that a universal conversation is going on in every moment – if we would but stop and breathe and listen.
Are you seeking out and supporting leaders who possess the ability and the desire to Listen Well?
Make Peace
Out of the journeying and the listening comes a heightened capacity to Make Peace. First, of course, with oneself, one’s history, one’s destiny, one’s calling. To reach a state of contentment surrounding the questions, “Who am I? What am I here for? What is the nature of the Life I choose to create?” Peace begins as personal ease within one’s own physical/psychological/emotional skin, and then ripples out to a relative state of comfort in personal, professional, and other relationships. When one has made peace within, one steps into service in making peace without. Peace is kind, loving, and unquestionably fertile: the act of Making Peace will effortlessly create a groundswell that touches and transforms untold hearts and minds.
Are you seeking out and supporting leaders who carry the seed designed to Make Peace?
Evolve
Evolution happens, whether we are conscious of it or not. We expand, we grow, we refine and become beings of greater complexity and adaptability, focused on co-creating a sustainable society in which everyone has a place on the circle. Evolving beings work assiduously toward personal sovereignty in the context of authentic and mutually beneficial interconnection. An evolving culture assists in lifting up the vulnerable without chastisement. An evolving planet moves past contrived boundaries of nation, state, or continent in an effort to elevate truth, integrity, prosperity, justice and freedom for all. To evolve is to recognize that tomorrow can be different than today, if we have learned well, taken personal responsibility for, and embraced without judgment the lessons of yesterday.
Are you seeking out and supporting leaders who share your knowing that we are here to Evolve?
Journey Deep. Listen Well. Make Peace. Evolve. Could this be the litmus test for the 2008 U.S. presidential election? Your vote counts.
See my two previous posts regarding Barack Obama:
words divinely wrought 
Beautifully expressed, Matt. In response to the last question you pose, I would say that “They are Us,” and if “We” are not quite yet ready to take on our mantles of leadership, we can at least take steps in the right direction.
Being POTUS doesn’t seem a very attractive notion right now; it could be that a huge overhaul is needed — one that relies less on any one “perfect” individual, and more on a shared and highly co-operative, co-creative model. I feel confident that Barack Obama has the wherewithal to attract fuller participation by the very kinds of men and women you describe. What’s more, I feel that he possesses the character, integrity, and temperament to do so.
For instance, I have a short stint under my belt as a public elected official in a small town. Though it has been 15 years since, I admit that the prospect of an Obama White House inspires me to think whether I might want to step back into that realm. If others are inspired to think similarly, well, that’s a good thing in my book.
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Interesting perspective Rachael. I like the criteria you hold up to view these presidential candidates against. I have been watching the debates and other public speeches by Obama and McCain through eyes that search beyond the surface. Which is a good thing, because if I only listen to the words, I would shut the TV off.
I personally am not happy with either of these two top runners. I am actually currently looking into the independents. I wish I shared a similar view of Obama that you do, but I just don’t. I want more. I want leadership that is well grounded in accountability and integrity. I want leadership that is backed by a passion for our future, that empowers individuals to reach for their best, that reminds each of us of our own personal responsibility we have for our lives. I want leadership that relentlessly seeks the truth of a situation by summoning the wisdom of a broad range of qualified individuals (unlike they did in the bail out), and then takes action instead of re-acting. I want an open, honest, giving, loving, wise, intelligent, peaceful leader who is not afraid to use force when needed, yet is willing to lay down his/her sword so that other possibilities can reveal themselves.
I want a man or woman to lead this country from a whole place, yes. A balanced place. One where they can sit at their inner round table with their Lover, Warrior, Magician and King and make sound choices based on all the input.
Is this possible? Does this exist in anyone? Perhaps not perfectly, but I believe there are many men and women who walk this land today that could fill my criteria and therefore be a much better choice than McCain or Obama as our next leader. My question is, where the hell are they?
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