In this blog post, BLOOM founder Olubode introduces five questions we can ask each other that are meant to inspire awareness of our natural powers-- to center, inspire and celebrate them.

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Recently, in a group that I am part of, one of the members asked, “How do we hold each other lovingly accountable?” I have seldom heard the questions asked so purely. Accountability is something that we tend to approach with horror – a sense that somehow we will be embarrassed and shamed in the process. But this question was asked in a small group of men who really love each other, so it sat differently, and took me into a space of wondering.

This is my thoughtful response.

There is already known ways to help to hold each other accountable for the goals and intentions that we have spoken. 

They include:

— Reminding each other of what we said, 

— Asking how the progress is going? 

— Inquiring into what has been accomplished and what has not

— Asking what is being fel...

We’ve all watched really good dancers,  from breakers to ballerinas, morph into fluid, awe-inspiring silhouettes that delight and amaze us. We’ve also marveled as dancers, immersed in the moment, suddenly pivot— changing direction on the spot.  

In the dance of life we are often called on to pivot. Stagnation, boredom and mind-numbing sameness can cause us to change direction and move toward who we really are—toward our passions, toward creating something new and valuable, toward feeling more refreshed and grounded.

Life is unrelenting in its invitation for us to pivot. We dance to rhythms that are ever changing – an unexpected illness,  the loss of a job or a broken relationship. All these life events serve as invitations to pivot toward what is big and bold within us. 

Pivoting is an art— an art that takes a lifetime to master. Pivoting is the art of reinvention. 

At BLOOM, we believe there is a foolproof formula for pivoting and finding new rhythms when faced with obstacles a...

Dear Friends,

Based on the world view of the Dagara of Northern Ghana and Burkina who see each year as influenced by one of the five elements of creation, 2023 is a NATURE year. 

(This was taught this world-view by my teacher Dr Malidoma Some, now an ancestor. He was an initiated elder of the Dagara from the village of Dano in Burkina Faso. To Malidoma and his people, I owe an eternal debt of gratitude. Their elemental world view has been the foundation of much of my work and writing.)

Other years are influenced by FIRE, WATER, EARTH and MINERAL. This year, 2022 was a FIRE YEAR. It has been a year when a lot of things got burned up and burned out— things exploded and imploded, and yet a new Light was found, as many of us decided to step out of our shadows and into our own Light.

What does it mean that 2023 is a “NATURE” year?

In 2023 you can expect to journey through even deeper change and transformation. This year is an opportunity to embrace your limitless nature and to change...

It was written out pretty clearly on the promotional copy Sitsofe the BLOOMFEST tour coordinator sent out inviting the community to join us on a hike to the peak of “the highest mountain in Ghana.”

 I read it, but somehow it did not register. After all, I am one of the producers with a zillion things on my mind and climbing 2904 feet up a hill was not one of them.

Cut to this…

….to my horror at the mid-way sign, I realized  I might not be able to make it to the top. 

“So much for taking on the ``IMPOSSIBLE,” I thought to myself as I panted for air, during a pause at the halfway point.

Mind you, I exercise regularly, I think I am a fairly fit 60 something man. But there I was trying to keep pace with people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. 

Shame saps your energy.

Chantal one of the BLOOM Guides thankfully had the good sense to call for a group pause to re-center when we realized this was not what it seemed.

The climb started off at a fair pace in a light drizzle that the group seem...

 Dear Friends,

I can only hope that you are taking advantage of this global moment at the crossroads.

For me I have been using this moment to grow a bigger awareness of who I am— as someone who is big enough to navigate the roller coaster of abundance, excitement, love, fear, insecurities and vulnerabilities, chosen and triggered by this moment in our human evolution.

BECOMING BIGGER—this is the opportunity of this global moment, especially when we each authentically engage with life as a Big Impossible Goal. 

We each have one.

Whatever your impossibilities are, HOLD ON to that which feeds you and nourishes you—deep feelings of love and your vision of a better world, and LET GO of that which does not. Things like — old narratives, about yourself, about people, places and things. 

What we have before us human beings is an impossible challenge, and it starts with each of us, becoming new.  

This is how we bloom.

While I am moved and inspired by the constantly emerging bounty of c...

Dear Friends

Currently I am in a Social Media Co-Lab for BLOOMFEST – a new festival for creatives here in Ghana. 

In this co-lab we have been sharing our social media skills with each other.  Today’s task is for me to re-introduce myself in a new way to my friends, readers and followers by telling you about my craft.

This is my re-introduction to you.

MY NAME IS OLUBODE. 

I am A CREATIVE and the FOUNDER OF BLOOM. 

But, most important…  I’M POSSIBLE. 

Why do I want you to know that I’M POSSIBLE?

Because the circumstances of my life often feel impossible. 

And that’s okay.  

What I now know is that possibility and the experience of impossibility go hand in hand. So, I am learning to live well with life’s “impossibilities.”

Let me explain.

There is a poem by the writer Alice Walker (The Color Purple) that I try to remember at times when my well being and livelihood are uncertain. In it she imagines herself as a flower with a purpose. 

It begins with this line, “the purpose ...

Dear Friends,

 The last time I wrote to you, I spoke about the need for VISION. What I might not have said clearly enough, is that once your vision is remembered and given attention, it becomes a present experience.

A VISION is not a far of experience. 

What brings it to life is DESIRE. 

DESIRE is an energy that is  alive in you. 

DESIRE is the fuel of life.

Before breath, there was DESIRE. 

DESIRE aligns the world you can’t make sense of now, to your life’s VISION — your memory of the “land you come from.”

DESIRE does this by connecting your needs and your wants with what you have. It knits together your interior and exterior worlds, to give you an experience of contentment, balance… simplicity and abundance.

DESIRE is often expressed as the things and experiences you want AND need. 

DESIRE feels like sexual energy. This is why it is often shrouded in shame..

When you are sexually aroused your needs and wants are one —you are ever present, yet arriving.

When we allow ourse...

Friends,

Today, I caught myself reading about the war in Ukraine and weeping…

I wept not just about this war. I wept for all our wars– born of misunderstandings and mis-communication.  I wept from the hopelessness and sadness I feel about this particular time in our human evolution. 

I am okay with feeling these feelings. 

Feeling hopeless does not negate the possibility of change.  For me hopelessness is the product of the memory of my desire for change–for something new. 

It is my desire, being born.

These days I have a careful vigilance around my emotional life. We are in an environment of mis-information, where the need for money, to be right and have power over others too often shapes one’s truth away from what we know is possible. 

The wars we wage with each other and ourselves, are rooted in our instinct to survive, at any cost. 

I know survival well.  

When I turned 60, 3 years ago it seemed as though all hell broke loose. Significant friendships ended, my relationship...

Dear One,

It would seem, if the news is to be believed, we are “running out of options.”  Among them are the options to make peace, to work together towards equity and justice, to save the planet, and to create new cultural narratives that free us all. 

Too often we have been painted into a worldview, where life seems to be shrinking rather than expanding. Too often, we hear about what’s failing rather than what is succeeding. 

Today’s RISE is about what we at BLOOM call “BOLD MOVES.” Simply said, these are moves that align with who you are, what you can do, and what you have. 

Making a BOLD MOVE, runs counter to the dystopian narrative that sees things as falling apart. 

To keep moving forward, towards that which you deeply desire is a revolutionary act.  To do so subscribes to the realization that desire is stronger than fear; that fear is the product of our desires coming into being… that fear is not the opposite of love, rather it is the activity of love coming into being as y...

Have you ever wondered, given the current state of things, how will we work in the future, and what are we learning now?

At BLOOM our focus on the future of work presages the current crisis of work, diagnosed in a recent New York Times Magazine article on The Future of Work,  as “The Age of Anti-Ambition.”

There is argued that current chaos in the workplace has roots that predate the dislocation of the working environment caused by the COVID Pandemic. 

We believe that at the heart of this upheaval are important questions, now being asked with greater urgency. 

• How do I find / create purposeful and rewarding work?
• How do I keep myself well, as I work and balance the other areas of my life? 
• How are we to all work together more productively and equitably? 

Whether you are a creative, executive or an entrepreneur these questions are at the heart of our journey through the land of work.

And rightly so.

How we work matters to our sense of wellbeing. 

These questions  out-pictu...