Take Your Lid Off!!!

It is election night and I am sitting in the back of the room of the Prop 37 party with my very patient and agreeable family. They are munching on organic snacks and I am thinking about whether or not I should say something when the leader asks if anyone wants to share. The leader, Paula is a vibrant red head with energy that lights up the room. She first shares that she has only been a part of the movement for a few months and I am shocked. She acts like she has been around for years. She is confident, related to everyone in the room, and owning the event like a true champion for human beings. She is a champion. She is a leader and it occurs to me that my role in the whole movement has been minimal at best. I realize that I have been playing small. Yes, I have been doing more than the average person, passing out flyers and sharing with leaders in my community, but I have not been the leader I could be. Paula is inspiring. I could totally be more of a leader. I could take the lid off my leadership.

So I do. I ask myself if I could do anything what would I do?
I would want to gather people nationally...nationally but locally at the same time and raise awareness in a huge way. I would want to do that in a way that works for Moms and families so they don't have to travel. I would want to do it on a day that is memorable and preferably at an event that already has the media present. Because some of the media is backed by major chemical companies, they often ignore the GMO Free USA movement and do not send press to protests or cover them on TV. We would need to infiltrate a media covered event.
Oh! I came up with and awesome idea that the local group of supporters agrees will make a difference. When a national leader said, "What you guys are doing In CA is incredible."I emailed back, "The Dalia Lama said, "Western women will change the world."That's us." I feel it in my bones. I am one of us.
I won't share the idea yet, because it's still brewing, and our coalition of GMO Free supporters will focus on the best idea to cause education and change.. but any local and nationwide event will require me to be a leader for many many more than I would normally even consider. It's frightening and freeing at the same time.

Most would not consider taking on being a part of a nationwide movement freeing. I would argue it is. See, who you have to be, to be a leader, is freeing. All your concerns about looking good or bad, you need to set those aside. That's freeing. All those fears about messing it up, you need to set those aside. That's freeing. All the resistance of responsibility that has you hesitate, you set those aside and take actions anyway. The connection, love and generosity that you find in the world from empowering others, that is FREEING!

I am clear that whether I lead this particular event isn't the point. I am not attached to my idea. (Although it rocks:) The victory for me is that I have set aside my concerns and I am willing and up for leadership at any level. I have taken the lid off my leadership and anything is possible. I don't remember ever feeling so free and so sure of who I am in my life.

So here's an invitation to look at, where do you have a lid on your life? On what you are capable of? On love? On Leadership?
If you are a parent, how does that impact your children? Your style of parenting? Your partnership with your spouse?

What would happen if you took that lid off? What could you consider?
What kind of parent/lover/friend/spouse/co worker would you be if you have no limits?
Coming from an empowering context, anything might show up and we might create new actions to take that light up and inspire the world.
Here's to a bright future we create together!!!

Zen Honeycutt

Being a Family of Agtivists

Approaching strangers with something to give them has got to be one of the most confronting things a person could do. Making eye contact for that brief second then looking down at your out streached hand with the flyer in it, willing them with your gaze to look and reach out and accept. When they do, that connection, that moment of acceptance creates an internal sigh of relief and a boom of joy in your heart. You get bolder and look them in the eye again and say "Thank you". Your gratitude tells them, "This means so much, because our world means so much, because you mean so much." We may not know each other but for that brief second we are connected and they matter to a complete stranger, not just because of their vote, but because they create the world we all live in.

My children and I loaded up on Prop 37 flyers and went to the Irvine Global Village Festival yesterday. It was so hot that my three year old's bangs glued to his forehead with sweat and he threw down his hat in protest. Before we approached I rallied the troops and we sorted out what we were going to say.
"Can I give this to you about Prop 37?"
"Do you know about GMO's?"
"Please vote Yes on Prop 37..."
"Mom, say another one..." Bodee requested. He needed to find one that was easy for him to roll off his tongue. One that he related to. He settled on " Will you help label GMO's?"
Ben chose "Please vote YES to label GMO's."
Bronson just said, "Here."

Each had their own way, all was okay. With unity in our hesitation but armed with determination, we walked through the throngs of thousands of families, shoppers, teens and diverse groups of people and began passing out flyers.
The kids lost their words at first, and then found them again. When the first person accepted their bodies sighed and they gained confidence that had them stand taller. Some Persian ladies even stopped and asked for their flyers. These kind people have no idea, or maybe they do....of the contribution they made to my sons in accepting what they had to offer. My sons made a difference, but only because people let them.

We walked through the festival passing out flyers. Sometimes it was confronting, people shook their heads NO before we could even get two words out. Sometimes their hands were full so we didn't bother to approach them. Other times they reached gratefully for what we had, trusting, accepting, and sometimes they stopped and we sensed we had a moment to share more about the issue. They listened, looked over the material, shared a story of their own and we look into each other's eyes with joy in finding a kindred soul who learns, cares and shares about the same thing. Our world felt safer, connected and stronger because someone else out there cares and shares just as much.

We made our way to the children's section and there, practically dragging and dripping with sweat, I heard my sons to the shady craft table and take their flyers from them. They earned shady craft time. Their father finds us after parking and stands in the sliver of slight coolness with them while I venture out again. He supports my passion and I love every bit of his patience.

I never used to be this person, the one with the flyer, the one who got in the face of strangers about a political issue. The one who would get over her fears of looking like a loon and do it anyway. It's so freeing to share. I feel so fulfilled when my two stacks of flyers run out and my bag is much lighter. I have shared with maybe a hundred or two people in an hour and all I want to do is share longer.
I can't wait to go to another gathering or just to stand on the street. I know now why people become activist, or in this case Agtivists, because connecting with other people and sharing about something that matters to us, is, an act of setting aside the fear and fulfilling on who we really are...beings who make a difference in other people's lives. We are all in this life together.
There are people who don't want to know and then there are people who want to know.
They may not know what it is, but they are willing, open and that openness doesn't just allow them to be contributed to, they actually contribute to others.
To those people who accepted a contribution from my sons and I yesterday, thank you for your generosity and graciousness.
You create the world in which I am proud to have my sons grow up.

Zen Honeycutt

Heartbroken

I express my existence through writing. I connect with what is miraculous through seeing the moments of magic and creating them in reality. I also swim in the depths of my sorrow and flail in my fits of rage...through words.
This week, I allowed my self expression to be stifled. Something happened and I let it stagnant my flow of creation. I experienced being heartbroken.

"When you are really committed to making a difference in something, prepare to be heartbroken. Because you will be."

These words came from my dear friend's seminar leader, Curt Hill at Landmark.
I have been passionately learning, sharing and standing for a future where we know what is in our food, for a future where our food is real and whole and healthy. I have been writing and speaking to complete strangers for a future where our children can have children someday, and they can live long healthy lives. I believe everyone wants that. In my heart of hearts I believe everyone will do almost anything for that future.
I felt crushed when I was faced with a no.

My dear friend shared the quotation about being "prepared to be heartbroken" this week when I shared with her my frustration and sorrow about my request to speak to my children's school PTA about GMO's and healthy food, and was turned down. Even my nine year old son was denied in his request to speak in front of the whole school about being Happy Healthy Students and eating food that supports them feeling good in school. A NINE year old wants to get in front of his whole school, voluntarily, for five minutes and share something GOOD that matters to him, and he is told NO. My heart breaks and I weep.
I shared this with him, after I composed myself, and he is confused. He is sure the Principal just doesn't understand what his report is about. He is determined to share it with him and ask again.

When I initially got the news from the Principal, I completely got his concern to not "overwhelm" the parents with issues and inundate the PTA with a political causes.... I get it still, I do.
I get that the issue of food being unsafe, especially the food the school system feeds their kids, is unsavory. No one wants to know that what their kids eat, under their supervision, is not good for them. No one wants to hear something that will require them to change their ways, to be inconvenienced. It's soooooo much easier to believe that everything is okay. And no one appreciates the messenger telling them to change their ways. Annoying. Weird. Looney.
People want to label people with passion for a cause as loons. Then they don't have to give the issue validity and actually take some responsibility. That's human.

I understand our Principal's resistance to having information shared about GMO food and the possibility of questions being raised about the food served at "his" school. One, theoretically, could connect a source of blame to him. But that blame is not exactly accurate. The Principal is not the source of the source of the food. The federal government is.
The Principal is however, the source of the source of the information shared at PTA meetings and school meetings. In protecting the parents and children from a "cause", another perspective is that he is actually blockading them from an education in ways to be healthy and learn and make a difference in the world. An educator. I find this ironic and sad. I wept after our meeting. Not just because I was denied the opportunity to share and make a difference with the PTA and my son was denied his self expression, I wept for the status of the human race....the resignation, the doubt, the fear that permeates our lives and our decisions. I wept for the barriers we create for ourselves "It's too overwhelming", "It's too hard," "I don't know how that's going to go so we are not going to try that." The source of the fears is "I fear I won't look good, so I am not going to do that." I wept for the stagnant status quo that we stew in.

It's human, however, to have the very thing we want to accomplish actually be the thing that becomes the barrier to what we want to accomplish. I get his commitment to the education he has created at the school,the way he knows it. It's a great education, it's a wonderful school, it's a thing to be proud of...not protect. Protecting a group of people is actually seeing them as "small", as people who cannot decide for themselves, who cannot intake any more.
I see our community as big. I see "issues" as opportunity. Even heartbreak.
There is an opportunity for full blown self expression, for connection, for making the earth move beneath our feet because many small voices have spoken up, stood up and are storming the status quo.

Zen Honeycutt

If you are reading this, Dear Principal, I love your stand for our school. Your commitment to our community is unquestionable. I ask you just to ask yourself,what else is possible?
And be prepared for a knock on your door from a nine year old.

That Weird GMO Lady

I used to be angry with the hippie types outside the grocery stores, eagerly confronting me with a clip board and huge smile about a bunch of Props I was never going to remember. I would get terse and resentful. I have things to do...can't you see my three kids squawking about the grocery cart and who gets to choose the cereal? Geez. Some people....
I would brush them off and make sure not to make eye contact again on the way out. I would feel guilty and upset for many more minutes than warranted...but for good reason. Ignoring the people who were trying to better the world was crappy. I could at least give them 30 seconds of my time. But I didn't, I wrote them off as weirdos who didn't have enough to do in life, probably people who lived alone with too many cats, OCD types who got obsessed with saving the whales or where the money should go in city coffers....who has the time for these things?
I've got important things to do for God's sake. I have to get toilet paper and frozen blueberries.

I am one of "those people" now. I make time. Today was the first of many days that I will stand in the sun and wear bright buttons and talk to complete strangers about how they should vote. I am THAT person. I don't care what you look like or how fast you are walking or how many squawking kids you have (I will in fact persue you more with a gracious smile) because this Prop 37, a California bill to Label GMO's, is something that affects every single one of us, and that we can all make time for. We may not want to know about it, but if we do, we can literally be a major cause of whether or not we have great grandchildren (studies have shown that rats that eat GMO food, their third generation is sterile). We can cause that we don't get cancer (there are studies that link to cancer and allergies, weight gain and digestive diseases, read "The Unhealthy Truth" or "Seeds of Deception") or suffer from allergies for the rest of our life. If we get Prop 37 passed in California, being the 8th largest economy in the world, it will alter the future of the human race. Food manufacturers will need to change the ingredients of their food and actually make healthy food.

I am PASSIONATE about this issue. So much so that all fear, weirdness, or reasons about being busy dissapear and I find myself eye to eye with a woman who has cancer and who never heard of GMO's and promises to put a bumper sticker on her car and let thousands of people a day know about Prop 37 and saying YES to label GMO's. That moment of recognition, of her sadness and pain, of her confusion over why this is happening to her, has me ready to stand in the sun for another hour.
And when my three year old, who is sitting in his stroller playing with a monkey in the shade points out that I missed a man, I see that he wants to be a part of this connecting I am doing with people. He will "tell me about all the people" ( be my helper) and my heart fills with joy. I get that he gets to see his Mom go up to complete strangers, talk with them and leave them smiling or at least aware of something in a new way. Some may be terse, but I don't give up and sit down. I keep at it, and someday he will get that it takes tenacity and relatedness to connect with people about issues that are important.
It will be much easier for me to teach my kids to be leaders if I am a leader. It will be much easier to teach them to be polite, gracious and related if I do that. It will be much more rewarding for me and for them to be people who make a difference in the world.
I can't choose for them, I can only choose for me.

Each person I see is connected to thousands of people. Each person is very important to many people. Our health, our body is really all we have to be in the world, taking care of it by feeding it real healthy food, will impact our lives and our children's lives for generations.

Every single vote matters because every single person matters.
If that makes me weird, than bring it on!
If you want to be weird...related, connected and make a difference too, check out
http://www.carighttoknow.org/

Zen Honeycutt

STOPPED

I cheer as we drive by a telephone pole plastered with KONY 2012 posters. My kids wonder why I am cheering and I tell them,"There is a very sick man who captures children in Africa and makes them go to war. The posters I just saw were put up last night by people who want him to stop. They want the government to know it's not okay. Children should be taken care of. Mommy put up posters last night too."
Ben smiled a very fulfilled looking smile. "Thank you Mom."

"Mom, I can get the bad guy, " Bronson declared. "I can."

"That's great Bronson. That's the point of these posters, if one of us does something, and then one more...we can stop him."

"I can stop him because I am good at fighting," he added with gusto. A three year old. What imagination.
I am inspired by how brave and confident he is. He can stop him.

It occured to me then, that a lot of people at one point, that week that the KONY video was circulated, A LOT of people believed we could stop him. We were all inspired. We were passionate, ready to take action, and sharing with everyone. April 20 seemed so far away to wait to take action. We wanted him stopped now! 100 million people around the world saw and shared the video. The most viral video ever.

Then the news hit of the founder of Invisible Children having a breakdown, running naked in the streets. It was devastating to the movement. It was devastating to me. There was an unspoken embarrassment for so fervently promoting anything related to a man who can't keep his clothes on. People found all kinds of reasons to make him bad, immoral and wrong. I even debated heatedly with a Facebook friend. It deeply disturbed me how wrong this person made Jason Russell and how it all seemed a cop out for actually participating in causing a global movement. I was sad for days. Not just for the children, but for humanity.

I got today that the great disappointment many of us felt, the betrayal of the founder action's, the fizzling of the movement, was actually a breakdown in our commitment to have leaders with integrity.
What we want, as a people, is leaders with integrity. That is great. That is inspiring! That is a good thing to be committed to. Sometimes there will be breakdowns. President's will have affairs, congressman will lie, activists will get drunk and act out. So what?

The question is, will that stop US from taking action on the areas of our society that we are committed to?
What I realized, last night as I went out with posters in hand, by myself, was that I wasn't promoting Jason Russell. I was taking a stand for children.
Children being cared for, fed and safe is a commitment that is universal. No matter what you think about Invisible Children, what KONY is doing is worth doing something about stopping him. Every single person in the world that heard about KONY, deep inside, wanted to do something last night.
Some did. Some didn't. Some were stopped. So what?

Whatever you did, and it doesn't have to be putting up posters, how can you expressed what you are committed to?
How can you let the government know that children deserve, no matter where they are born, to be cared for?


Zen Honeycutt