Here’s the question:
How in the holy hell do we stay focused on business in the midst of all of … this… <gestures vaguely out into the world>
My country is in the middle of an attempted authoritarian take-over, which is succeeding in places and failing in others. It’s struggling because hundreds of thousands of people, millions of people, are resisting on a daily basis. The urgency is real, and the need for people to resist is real.
So does that mean abandon your business?
This question is a little problematic, because it makes some real assumptions.
One assumption, that our business, our work in the moment, isn’t somehow intricately a part of a generative, living, love-filled response to this world.
But it is! It is! Love, mutuality, deep care, are medicine needing to counteract capitalism that has given birth to all of this.
Another assumption is that when things are urgent, we need to become HEROES. The Hollywood version of this is ditching your every day life at a moment’s notice, changing into a sparkly outfit, and dashing off to save the day.
While I like the sparkly outfit idea, the reality is that none of us individually is a hero on our own, at least not in that cinematic savior style that our culture wants us to believe in.
It’s imperative that we do NOT abandon our daily lives, because the rootedness of our daily lives is part of what supports, enlivens and nourishes us.
Your heart-centered business based in love and care is part of your daily life.
We need to be rooted in the every day. A creative project like a heart-centered business helps us stay focused in service, in care, and in something other than emergency response.
Showing up for activism, for all the things we do to help care for the vulnerable- if we do that 24/7, without tending to our own creativity and livelihood… how do we continue? How do we stay engaged?
Grieve. Act. Rest. Cuddle.
And don’t leave your heart-centered business out of the deep care we all need now.
with love,
Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.
p.s. If you’re also needing spiritual nourishment in the face of disruptive world events, I’ve started the Sufi Zawiya.
It’s a spiritual container so more of us can show up in the world anchored in the Divine, based in the teachings of the Sufi lineage I was trained in, where the focus is helping us all find the Divine qualities of Peace, Mercy, Love, Justice, and Freedom in each heart, and to take action from there.
It is not business focused at all, there’s a no-cost version, and there’s an extremely low-cost version.
