In an authentic encounter with your BIG IMPOSSIBLE GOAL you will find yourself in the FIRE.

WE ARE IN THE FIRE whenever we challenge ourselves to have agency around our need to he heard, to change, to be appreciated, to connect and be safe.  In the FIRE is where we encounter shame, anger, rage and the nagging sense that we do not belong. It is in the FIRE that we evolve new capacities to hold with grace and compassion the dilemmas of being human.

The following elemental Journey is offered to support us, as we take BOLD MOVES that align with our B.I.G. Note that it is offered as a practice, so it can be repeated. It uses BLOOM’s P.L.A.Y.Y. framework to guide us, as we encounter the FIRE.

THE INTENTION

As you move through this process do so with the following intention

 “Today may I hold my life with grace, even as I am being held.”

THE JOURNEY

First….

IDENTIFY A PLACE IN YOUR LIFE WHERE YOU WOULD SAY YOU ARE IN THE FIRE. ALTERNATIVELY MAKE A BOLD MOVE IN THE DIRECTION OF Y...

At the BLOOM Institute each week is dedicated to the following elements of creation – MINERAL, NATURE, FIRE, WATER and EARTH. Each week we look at our lives and the human condition through the metaphor that the element provides, This week is FIRE WEEK. FIRE is a metaphor for our ability to be VISIBLE and create VALUE in  the world. For more about the work of the Institut visit: www.bloomeducation.institute

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This summer the heat in New York City has become a character with which I must contend. Before not so much. As a Jamaican I looked forward to summer, to days in the park, by the water and walking more slowly. I still do, but the heat is now too often unbearable. 

I know I am not alone in this. By all accounts our experience of the energy of FIRE is out of control. 

At BLOOM we hold that the energy of  FIRE is what allows us to see the world and be seen. It  is the energy that fuses together our sense of who we are and what our world is. It is the element of creati...

 At the BLOOM Institute each week is dedicated to an element of creation – MINERAL, NATURE, FIRE, WATER and EARTH. This week is a NATURE WEEK.

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Last Sunday, I ventured out to the "Soul Summit" in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn. The event was alive with great house music and a diverse crowd, each person in their own unique state of being. I found myself among wonderful new friends and encountered some old acquaintances I’d rather forget. The experience felt like a paradoxical blend of hopes, dreams, disappointments, sadness, happiness, and hope. It was a wild walk filled with exhilaration and terror, much like life itself.

I trust you can relate. 

Life mirrors this wild dance, reflecting our encounters with each other across borders and differences, amidst the challenges of a warming planet, political uncertainty, and conflict; even as massive leaps in technology are connecting us in ways we’re only beginning to understand.

This all calls for a playful encounter...

Dear One,

As the next Cycle of the BLOOM Intensive approaches, you might be wondering "where do I want to focus my attention." The intention of this post is to help us to each identify our next level of challenge, becoming and accomplishment as our B.I.G.s expand.

It is an exploration of the five stages of engagement with a BIG IMPOSSIBLE GOAL.

Let me know what rings true for you.

Olubode

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A B.I.G. evolves through 5 stages that mirror the evolution of the human mind. 

What level are you one? You might me in a few places at this time? 

Where are you finding yourself? What is your next level?

LEVEL I:  MINERAL ~ THE RATIONAL MIND

ALIGN

This first mind that aligns us with purpose has to be honored.  At this stage one uses the rational mind to figure things out, to piece together an understanding of why, when, who, what and where one is.  For us at BLOOM The FINDING YOUR B.I.G. Journey is the first step. It is a honoring of the rational mind—the mineral mind th...

  As we approach the winter solstice —the longest night and a time when the new Light begins to enter the world—I am reminded I too am being renewed.

A human life is a soulful dilemma.  It invites the ego’s undoing at the crossroads of grief, celebration and renewal.

These are spaces fraught with the dilemma of being human, and the choices we make.

These are the spaces of soulful transformations. 

This past year I have journeyed through such spaces. The following are my reflections on each space and the choices I have made. 

Perhaps you might recognize yourself in them. 

SPACE 1 - MINERAL

I am constantly forgetting. Yesterday’s knowledge is never complete. 

In each moment I am  being taken apart and re-membered — put back together and reminded of why, when, who, what and where I am. 

A question is answered. 

A page is turned. 

I feel confused.  

A new mystery unfolds.

I  begin again.

I choose to be quiet. 

I choose to forget. 

I choose to allow myself to be re-member...

This is the third in a series of posts intended to support members who have come out as B.I.G. PEOPLE by declaring a B.I.G. 

These posts are at Level 2 practices and above. 

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In my last post I invited you to think of PLANNING as PLAYY. You were invited to do so regularly and consistently – employing your ability to remember, to be curious, to imagine, to take new perspectives and exercise your intuition.  

In this post, I will deepen this invitation by sharing with you a tool that helps you to MAP your B.I.G. or any project as it unfolds. It's a tool that you can use to increase your awareness of where things with your project stand now. 

It’s a simple checklist that you might use to answer the question, “How is your B.I.G. coming along.”

This can easily be done by asking yourself a series of questions.

Imagine that what we call a project is not really a moving projection. That  we are like a projector or a camera, that there is an image, a reality that is moving throug...

 If anyone needs to see what a BIG IM’POSSIBLE GOAL is, RUN and go see Beyoncé’s movie “Renaissance.”

She is the Muhammad Ali of our time. 

Yet she is all of us.

Beyoncé is a study in authentic POWER owned in Black skin. Throughout this movie she tells us clearly: “MY POWER YOU WILL  NEVER TAKE.”

Power is a word that we have a poor relationship with. Because much of what we call power is not authentic power. It is the ego trying to survive. 

True POWER cannot be given, taken or destroyed. And Beyoncé knows this. This is the kind of POWER that the Queen has stepped into, not just for herself but for us all.

To hear her tell it, it has been a journey. And in this movie she has opened HER bible and read the script out loud in a way that only a few artists, business people, and leaders have done. 

Here are some of my take-aways.

REINVENTION

Her talk  about her reinventing herself, touched me deeply. It caused me to reflect on where I am coming from as a young Jamaican boy child...

PLANNING AS PLAY ~ The Practice of Presence

This is the second in a series of posts intended to support members who have come out as B.I.G. PEOPLE by declaring a B.I.G. 

These posts are at Level 2 practices and above. 

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THE DILEMMA

Now that you have a B.I.G. is it necessary to have a plan? Isn't a B.I.G. a “self-fulfilling goal,” so why do I have to make a plan? Furthermore, to what extent do I need a plan, if things never go according to plan?

These are some of the questions I have asked myself as I have engaged my B.I.G.

Perhaps you have too?

Here are some observations I have made…

YOUR B.I.G. IS PROJECT THAT’S HAPPENING NOW

Essentially your B.I.G. is a project. Imagine that it is a PROJECTION – that is coming through you NOW. 

A B.I.G. is born of the desire to experience the essences our goals symbolize NOW, not just tomorrow.  Essences like JOY, SUFFICIENCY ORDER, FLOW, VITALITY, ALIVENESS… It is the tendency of these desires to manifest now. They know not...

   This is the first in a series of posts intended to support members who have come out as B.I.G., by declaring a B.I.G. These posts are at Level 2 and above.

THE DIGNITY OF ASPIRATIONS

First I want you to know that it is okay to aspire. One dictionary defines aspires as “…to direct one’s hope and ambitions to achieving (experiencing) something.”

Too often we are shamed by others out of our aspirations. You aspirations can be threatening to others, who see you as they see themselves—with self-imposed limits. 

I have come to see that to aspire is to be human, and it is also very divine. 

So when we pause to align our human aspirations with our memory of who we really are as unique expressions of ONE Spiritual being, the result is what we at BLOOM call at B.I.G. 

In the realm of our human experience B.I.G. can be thought to mean: “Big Impossible Goal”—a goal that breaches or threatens our human reality.

However in the realm of our divinity, a B.I.G.  can be thought of as a Big ...

How have you been organizing your day? 

This week I have been organizing myself around three focusing questions that capture my imagination. I am noticing that as I attempt to answer them, they help me to organize my day and get to things on my “to do list” with less effort. 

Each thing I do is crafted as an answer to the question that’s on my mind. My answers come in the form of content — a blog post or IG reel, as an action that organizes a project, as a communication with a collaborator. 

It seems we are fueled by questions.

Here is what two thinkers have said about questions:

“The power to question is the basis of all human progress.” 

~ Indira Gandhi.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

~ Albert Einstein,

What questions are you curious about? 

What do you want to remember or know? 

What naturally causes you to dream? 

What question immediately opens your heart? 

What mystery are you feeling your way into?